Publication Policies

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

As evidence of transparency, all authors must disclose all relationships or interests that could inappropriately influence or bias their work.

A summary statement in a section “Conflicts of Interest” should be included. The statement should acknowledge all collected potential conflict of interest disclosures.

This should include sources of institutional, private and corporate funding, or financial support, and suppliers of materials included in the work.

Human and animal rights

The Annual Clinical Journal of Dental Health and Dental Health do not publish studies funded by the tobacco industry.

The Annual Clinical Journal of Dental Health and Dental Health do not publish experimental studies on animals.

Authors should include a statement that studies have been approved by the appropriate institutional and/or national medical research ethics committee and have been performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments, or comparable ethical standards.

If a study was granted exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript. Authors must include the name of the ethics committee and the reference number where appropriate.

Authors must be aware that for retrospective studies where formal consent may not be needed, or is difficult to obtain, ethical approval may be required. Authors should check with their institution if in any doubt.

The Editor reserves the right to reject papers if there are doubts as to whether appropriate procedures have been followed.

Informed consent

Dental Health and The Annual Clinical Journal of Dental Health will not publish photographs of individuals that will in any way allow them to be identified, unless that individual has given their express consent.

All participants must have given their informed consent in writing prior to inclusion in the study.

Any individual, or group of individuals, pictured in a digital image or photograph who can be identified must have given written permission for their image to be published in Dental Health or The Annual Clinical Journal of Dental Health.

It is the author’s responsibility to acquire the patient’s written permission authorising publication of their image in the journal. On submission of their work the author must attest that they have the patient’s permission otherwise the image or photo must be altered such that the individual cannot be identified (black bars over eyes, tattoos, scars, etc.).

The peer review process

The Editor will keep confidential all details of the editorial and peer review process on submitted manuscripts.

The peer review process is confidential and papers are reviewed anonymously; the reviewers have no access to the identities of the authors pre-publication.

Reviewers are required to maintain confidentiality of manuscripts. If a reviewer wishes to seek advice from colleagues while assessing a manuscript, the reviewer must consult with the Editor and should ensure that confidentiality is maintained and that the names of any such colleagues are provided to the journal with the final report.

Reviewers must not retain the manuscript for their personal use and should destroy paper copies of manuscripts and delete electronic copies after submitting their reviews.

The Editor and peer reviewers must disclose all conflicts of interest, and relationships that may be potential conflicts of interest, while fulfilling their roles.

ECO Statement

Protecting the environment is one of core ethos of Crossprint. The Annual Clinical Journal of Dental Health is printed on carbon balanced papers using vegetable-based inks and non-alcoholic fount solutions. This is a commitment that has been in place for over ten years at Crossprint.

Crossprint is also committed to investing in new technology and machinery to minimise the impact on the environment through less use of power and wastage. Our platemaking system is less than a year old and now requires no chemistry to process plates, a further environmental saving. Together with generating 90% of our own power needs from the installation of solar panels on the building roof gives us an energy rating of ‘A’ adding to our energy efficient credentials.

We offer recycled and acid free paper from sustainable sources which means for every tree used to produce paper three more are planted in their place and all our papers are recognised by the world Land Trust.

Complaints Procedure

In the first instance Authors should direct any complaint to the Editor via post to:

British Society of Dental Hygiene & Therapy, ‘Swallow”, Bragborough Hall Business Centre, Welton Rd, Braunston, Northamptonshire NN11 7JG

Alternatively, you may send your complaint to us by email: editor@bsdht.org.uk.

What to do if you have a complaint?

Details of the complaint should be directed to the Editor. You should state:

  • The nature of the complaint
  • Specify the member(s) of the editorial team involved
  • What action / remedy you would expect to see as an outcome

What will happen when your complaint is received?

You will receive an acknowledgement within five working days advising you who is dealing with your complaint and when you may expect a more detailed report.

The person responsible will investigate all aspects of your complaint, allowing others who may be directly involved to make their contribution. This may mean further information or evidence is sought from you.

A reply, together with details of any action taken or recommendations for further action, will be sent to you within 14 working days of receipt of the original letter reaching our office. If it is not possible to provide a full report within this timescale, you will be notified and an interim reply shall be posted to you giving details of any action still to be taken.
Complaints will be monitored and information from this will be incorporated within the planning process as appropriate.

Please note that responsibility of data security during transfer rests with the sender and not with the receiver. We cannot guarantee unencrypted email transmissions are secure or error free and accept no liability for interception and misuse.

Data Management Policy

Introduction

The British Society of Dental Hygiene and Therapy (BSDHT) needs to gather and use certain information about individuals.

These can include members, authors, customers, suppliers, business contacts, employees and other people the organisation has a relationship with or may need to contact.

This policy describes how this personal data must be collected, handled and stored to meet the company’s data protection standards – and to comply with the law.

Why this policy exists:

This data management policy ensures BSDHT:

  • Complies with data protection law and follows good practice
  • Protects the rights of members, customers, staff and partners
  • Is transparent about how it stores and processes individuals’ data
  • Protects itself from the risks of a data breach

1. Data protection law

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies in the UK and across the EU from May 2018. It requires personal data shall be:

  1. Processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to individuals;
  2. Collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes; further processing for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research or statistical purposes shall not be considered to be incompatible with the initial purposes;
  3. Adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed;
  4. Accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date; every reasonable step must be taken to ensure that personal data that are inaccurate, having regard to the purposes for which they are processed, are erased or rectified without delay;
  5. Kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed; personal data may be stored for longer periods in-so-far as the personal data will be processed solely for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes subject to implementation of the appropriate technical and organisational measures required by GDPR in order to safeguard the rights and freedoms of individuals;
  6. Processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of personal data, including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures.
  7. The controller shall be responsible for, and be able to demonstrate, compliance with the principles.

2. People and responsibilities

Everyone in the BSDHT Editorial Team contributes to and has a responsibility to comply with GDPR. These responsibilities include (but are not necessarily limited to):

  • Keeping BSDHT Publications and Editorial Team Members updated about data protection issues, risks and responsibilities
  • Documenting, maintaining and developing the organisation’s data protection policy and related procedures, in line with agreed schedule
  • Embedding ongoing privacy measures into corporate policies and day-to-day activities, throughout the organisation and within each business unit that processes personal data. The policies themselves will stand as proof of compliance.
  • Dissemination of policy across the organisation, and arranging training and advice for staff
  • Dealing with subject access requests, deletion requests and queries from clients, stakeholders and data subjects about data protection related matters
  • Checking and approving contracts or agreements with third parties that may handle the company’s sensitive data
  • Ensuring all systems, services and equipment used for storing data meet acceptable security standards
  • Performing regular checks and scans to ensure security hardware and software is functioning properly
  • Evaluating any third party services the organisation is considering using to store or process data, to ensure their compliance with obligations under the regulations
  • Developing privacy notices to reflect lawful basis for fair processing, ensuring that intended uses are clearly articulated, and that data subjects understand how they can give or withdraw consent, or else otherwise exercise their rights in relation to the companies use of their data

Data Protection Officer (DPO)

The person responsible for fulfilling the tasks of the DPO in respect of BSDHT is Sharon Broom, Director of Operations.

The DPO will

  • inform and advise the organisation and its employees about their obligations to comply with the GDPR and other data protection laws
  • monitor compliance with the GDPR and other data protection laws, including managing internal data protection activities, advise on data protection impact assessments; train staff and conduct internal audits
  • be the first point of contact for supervisory authorities and for individuals whose data is processed

3. Scope of personal information to be processed

The organisation will, at time to time, process the following data:

  • postal addresses of individuals
  • email addresses
  • telephone numbers
  • online identifiers
  • any other information relating to individuals