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International Arab Journal of Dentistry

Editorial Policies

The International Arab Journal of Dentistry (IAJD) adheres to the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and follows the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) for the conduct, reporting, editing, and publication of scholarly work in medical journals. The journal also aligns with Good Publication Practice (GPP3) guidelines and complies with recognized standards of open access publishing.

By submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors confirm that they have read and approved the final version of their work and that it complies with the journal’s ethical, editorial, and open access policies.

Access, Copyright, and Licensing

Who Can Submit?

Submissions must be made by authors who hold the copyright to their work or have obtained all necessary permissions from relevant rights holders. By submitting a manuscript, authors confirm that the work is original, has not been previously published, and is not under consideration elsewhere.

Open Access Policy

The International Arab Journal of Dentistry (IAJD) is an open-access journal. All published articles are made freely and permanently available online without subscription or access barriers.

Copyright Statement

Authors retain full copyright ownership of their work. As a condition of publication, authors grant the journal a non-exclusive right to publish, reproduce, and distribute the article in all formats and media, and to identify itself as the original publisher.

Licensing

All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This license permits users to read, download, copy, distribute, transmit, adapt, and build upon the work, including for commercial purposes, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original authors and the journal, and a link to the license is included.

By submitting a manuscript, authors confirm that they have the right to grant the journal a non-exclusive license to publish the work and agree to its distribution under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Authors may deposit the final published version of their article in institutional or subject-based repositories, provided that proper attribution is given and a link to the journal’s version is included.

Use of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies

Authors’ use of AI in manuscript preparation

Authors may use generative AI or AI-assisted tools to support language editing, such as improving grammar, clarity, and readability. However, these tools must not replace essential scholarly tasks, including generating original research ideas, interpreting results, performing data analysis, or drawing scientific conclusions.

All AI-assisted content must remain under the full supervision and control of the authors. Authors are responsible for ensuring that the manuscript is accurate, original, appropriately edited, and free of errors or bias. Authors retain full responsibility and accountability for the content of the submitted and published work.

AI tools may not be listed as authors or co-authors and cannot take responsibility for the work.

Disclosure requirement

Authors must disclose any use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies in the preparation of the manuscript. The disclosure should specify the tool name (and version, if available), the purpose of use, and the extent of use. This information will be included in the published article.

The use of standard tools for spelling, grammar, or reference management that do not generate substantive content does not require disclosure.

Use of AI in figures, images, and data

Generative AI must not be used to create, alter, enhance, or manipulate images, figures, or graphical data in a way that could misrepresent the underlying findings. If AI tools are used as part of the research methodology (e.g., in image analysis), this must be clearly described in the manuscript, including the tool used and how it was applied.

Responsibility and privacy

Authors are responsible for ensuring that the use of AI tools complies with data protection, confidentiality, and copyright requirements. Confidential, sensitive, or unpublished material must not be uploaded to AI tools unless appropriate permissions have been obtained and adequate safeguards are in place.

Use of AI in peer review

To protect the confidentiality and integrity of the peer-review process, reviewers must not use generative AI or AI-assisted tools to generate, summarize, or rewrite review reports, or to analyze manuscript content outside the standard editorial workflow. Manuscripts under review must not be uploaded, in whole or in part, to external AI tools.

Peer review is an intellectual process that requires human judgment, and reviewers remain fully responsible and accountable for the content of their evaluations.

Use of AI by editors

Editors must not use generative AI or external AI-assisted tools to make editorial decisions or assessments on submitted manuscripts. Editors must not upload confidential manuscript content to such tools. All editorial decisions must be based on independent human judgment and in accordance with the journal’s editorial policies.

Ongoing policy development

The journal will continue to monitor developments in AI technologies and may update this policy as needed to ensure compliance with evolving ethical standards, confidentiality requirements, and best practices in scholarly publishing.

Advertisements

The journal does not accept adverts from third parties.

Affiliations

Authors must provide all relevant affiliations to accurately reflect where the research was approved, supported, and/or conducted.

For non-research articles, authors should indicate their current institutional affiliation. If no current relevant institutional affiliation exists, authors should state their independent status.

If an author has changed institution prior to publication:

• • The affiliation where the work was originally conducted must be listed.
• • The author’s current affiliation and contact details may be included in the Acknowledgments section.

A change in affiliation does not justify removing an author from a publication, provided that the individual meets the established authorship criteria.

Misrepresentation of an author’s affiliation constitutes academic misconduct. The journal may address such cases by contacting the relevant institutions to support an appropriate investigation.

Appeals and Complaints

The journal is committed to handling all complaints, concerns, and appeals in a fair, transparent, and timely manner. Issues related to authorship or the peer-review process, including those raised after publication, should be addressed to the Editors-in-Chief.

All claims will be investigated in accordance with established academic ethical principles, particularly those outlined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

The Editors-in-Chief will:

• • Request and review information from all parties involved;
• • Evaluate the case objectively;
• • Propose an appropriate course of action based on ethical guidelines.

During the investigation, the manuscript may be temporarily suspended from the review or publication process until the issue is fully resolved.

In cases where the Editors-in-Chief are directly involved in the complaint, the investigation will be conducted by members of the Editorial Board, led by the most senior member, who will independently assess the situation and determine the appropriate course of action.

The journal also welcomes genuine appeals against editorial decisions. However, appeals must be supported by substantial evidence, new data, or a clear response to reviewers’ and editors’ comments. Appeals are typically considered for research-based articles (e.g., original studies or reviews) that rely on verifiable scientific data.

Authors should note that appeals are infrequent and rarely lead to reversal of the original decision. In cases of rejection, authors are generally encouraged to consider submission to another journal. However, if a valid and well-supported appeal exists, it will be carefully reviewed in accordance with the procedures outlined above.

Acknowledgments

Authors should acknowledge individuals who contributed to the development of the manuscript but do not meet the criteria for authorship (as defined by ICMJE), such as those providing technical assistance, general support, or valuable feedback. Organizations, research laboratories, or institutions that provided non-financial support, resources, or other forms of assistance may also be acknowledged.

Financial support, including grants, sponsorship, or provision of materials (e.g., study products supplied by a company), must not be included in the Acknowledgment section and must be disclosed separately in the Funding Statement section of the manuscript.

All acknowledgments must be truthful, specific, and accurately reflect the contributions or support received. Misrepresentation of contributions or support is considered unethical and may lead to corrective actions, including correction or retraction, in accordance with the journal’s ethical standards.

Authorship

Authorship credit must be based on all of the following criteria:

• 1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data;
• 2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
• 3. Final approval of the version to be published;
• 4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

All individuals who meet these criteria should be listed as authors. Participation limited to funding acquisition, data collection, or general supervision does not justify authorship. Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet these criteria should be acknowledged appropriately.

The journal does not impose a fixed limit on the number of authors. However, the number of authors should be proportionate to the nature and scope of the work. For article types with a limited scope (e.g., case reports or letters), a limited number of authors is generally expected, and any unusually large authorship should be clearly justified.

Authors must choose among them a corresponding author, who is responsible for ensuring that all listed authors meet the authorship criteria, managing communication with the journal, and ensuring that all administrative requirements are completed accurately.

The order of authors should reflect the relative contributions of each author and must be agreed upon by all co-authors prior to submission. Any changes to authorship (addition, removal, or rearrangement) must be approved by all authors and must be justified. Changes after acceptance are permitted only in exceptional cases with appropriate justification.

In cases of disagreement, the journal may request documentation and refer the matter to the relevant institutions for investigation, in accordance with COPE guidelines.

Author Contributions

All manuscripts submitted to the International Arab Journal of Dentistry (IAJD) must include a detailed Author Contributions statement. Submission will not be considered complete without this information.

Each author must clearly and accurately indicate their individual contributions to the work during the submission process, using standardized contributor roles based on the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy), including:

• • Conceptualization
• • Data curation
• • Formal analysis
• • Funding acquisition
• • Investigation
• • Methodology
• • Project administration
• • Resources
• • Software
• • Supervision
• • Validation
• • Visualization
• • Writing – original draft
• • Writing – review and editing
• • Other (to be specified where necessary)

The Author Contributions statement will be published with the article to ensure transparency and accountability.

In accordance with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations, only individuals who meet the authorship criteria should be listed as authors, and all listed authors must have made substantial, identifiable contributions to the work and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Failure to provide a complete and accurate Author Contributions statement may result in delays in the editorial process.

Citation and Referencing Policy

Authors are expected to support all statements and claims with relevant, reliable, and up-to-date references, preferably drawn from peer-reviewed sources where appropriate. This applies to both research and non-research submissions.

Authors must ensure that references are:

• • Directly relevant to the topic;
• • Representative of the current state of knowledge;
• • Balanced and not disproportionately favoring a specific author, institution, or journal;
• • Up to date where appropriate.

Authors must not engage in excessive self-citation or coordinated citation practices intended to artificially increase citation counts. Such practices are considered unethical and may constitute citation manipulation, in accordance with the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

The journal encourages a fair, objective, and comprehensive representation of the literature to maintain scientific integrity and transparency.

If there is any uncertainty regarding the appropriateness of a reference, authors are encouraged to contact the editorial office for guidance prior to submission.

Conflicts of Interest and Transparency Policy

The International Arab Journal of Dentistry (IAJD) is committed to ensuring transparency and integrity in the publication process. All authors must disclose any potential conflicts of interest that could influence, or be perceived to influence, their work at the time of submission.

A conflict of interest (also referred to as a competing interest) exists when personal, financial, or professional relationships may affect the objectivity, interpretation, or presentation of research findings. These may involve the authors themselves, their institutions, sponsors, or close associates.

Conflicts of interest may include, but are not limited to:

• • Financial relationships (e.g., funding, consultancy fees, patents, stock ownership, or royalties);
• • Non-financial interests (e.g., academic competition, personal relationships, institutional affiliations, or ideological positions).

All authors must state clearly their conflict of interest in the “conflict of interest statement” at the end of the manuscript. If no competing interests exist, authors must state: “The authors declare no conflicts of interest.”

Failure to disclose relevant conflicts may be considered misconduct and may result in corrective actions, including manuscript rejection or post-publication corrections.

Authors involved in industry-sponsored research, including clinical trials, must clearly disclose these relationships and are expected to follow established ethical standards such as Good Publication Practice (GPP3) guidelines.

Editors and reviewers are also required to declare any conflicts of interest and must withdraw from the evaluation process if a conflict exists.

The journal adheres to the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) to ensure ethical and responsible publishing practices.

If authors are uncertain whether a relationship constitutes a conflict of interest, they are encouraged to disclose it or seek guidance from the editorial office prior to submission.

Post-Publication Updates: Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions

The International Arab Journal of Dentistry (IAJD) is committed to maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the scientific record. When necessary, post-publication updates will be issued and clearly linked to the original article to ensure transparency.

All post-publication updates are handled in accordance with the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

The journal may issue the following types of notices:

• • Correction (Corrigendum or Erratum): Issued when an error or omission affects the clarity or interpretation of the article but does not compromise its overall scientific validity. A corrigendum typically addresses author errors, while an erratum relates to publisher errors.
• • Expression of Concern: Issued when serious concerns have been raised about an article, but the outcome of an investigation is pending or inconclusive.
• • Retraction: Issued when major errors or misconduct (e.g., research misconduct, data fabrication, plagiarism, or duplicate publication) invalidate the findings. Retractions are clearly identified, linked to the original article, and accompanied by a transparent explanation. Retraction decisions follow COPE Retraction Guidelines.
• • Removal (in exceptional cases): Applied only in rare situations involving legal or ethical constraints (e.g., defamation, court orders, or serious legal risks) where the content cannot remain online.

For significant corrections, both the original and corrected versions may be made available and clearly linked, along with an explanation of the changes. Minor corrections may be incorporated directly into the article where appropriate.

Authors, editors, and institutions may request post-publication updates when justified. Concerns regarding published articles should be reported to the editorial office for review.

The journal encourages post-publication discussion and scholarly dialogue. Readers may submit comments, critiques, or concerns regarding published articles to the editorial office. All such communications will be reviewed, and appropriate editorial actions will be considered in accordance with the journal’s policies and COPE guidelines.

Confidentiality

The International Arab Journal of Dentistry (IAJD) is committed to maintaining the confidentiality and integrity of the peer review and editorial decision-making process, in accordance with applicable data protection regulations (e.g., GDPR).

All manuscripts under review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shared, distributed, or used for personal or professional purposes outside the editorial process.

Reviewers are required to disclose any conflicts of interest prior to accepting a review assignment. Reviewers must not involve colleagues or co-reviewers without prior approval from the editorial office. Where co-reviewers are permitted, their names, affiliations, and any potential conflicts of interest must be disclosed to the editor.

The journal ensures strict confidentiality for all individuals involved in ethical investigations, including authors, reviewers, editors, and whistleblowers. Information may be shared with relevant institutions or ethics bodies when necessary to conduct investigations, in accordance with COPE guidelines.

All parties involved in the editorial and review process are expected to handle information responsibly and maintain confidentiality at all times.

Data Sharing Policy

The International Arab Journal of Dentistry encourages responsible data sharing in order to promote transparency, reproducibility, and scientific integrity.

Where appropriate, authors are encouraged to make the data supporting their findings publicly available through a recognized repository or other accessible platform. Authors are also encouraged to cite datasets appropriately and use persistent identifiers where available.

All research articles must include a Data Availability Statement indicating whether the data supporting the findings of the study are publicly available, available upon reasonable request, or not available.

Examples of acceptable Data Availability Statements include:

A. Data available in a public repository

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available in the [NAME] repository: [PERSISTENT LINK TO DATASETS].

B. Data available on request

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

C. No data available

No datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.

Funding

All sources of funding and financial support must be disclosed in a dedicated Funding Statement within the manuscript. This includes grants, sponsorship, and any other financial or material support relevant to the work.

Authors must clearly state the role of the funder(s) or sponsor(s) in any stage of the research and publication process, including study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, and submission. If the funder(s) had no such involvement, this should be explicitly stated.

A Funding Statement is required for all manuscripts, including those for which no external funding was received.

All funding information must be accurate and comply with applicable funder requirements.

Images and Figures

Authors should include only images and figures that are directly relevant to the work and contribute meaningfully to its scientific understanding.

• • Relevance: Decorative or non-essential illustrative content should not be included.
• • Third-party material: Authors are responsible for obtaining any necessary written permission to reproduce material owned or copyrighted by a third party, including illustrations, tables, datasets, screenshots, audio, video, and supplementary content.
• • Patient privacy and consent: Any photograph, video, audio recording, or image that could potentially identify a patient or research participant may be published only with appropriate written consent for publication. For deceased individuals, consent must be obtained from the next of kin or legal representative. For minors or vulnerable individuals, consent must be provided by a parent or legal guardian.
• • Image integrity: Scientific images must accurately represent the original data. Any modification or enhancement must be minor, applied uniformly where appropriate, and must not distort the scientific meaning of the image.
• • Disclosure of processing: Relevant image processing should be disclosed in the manuscript or figure legend where necessary.
• • Original files: Authors must be prepared to provide the editorial office, upon request, with the original, uncropped, unannotated, and unprocessed versions of images.
• • Reuse of published material: Previously published images or figures may be reused only in accordance with the applicable copyright or license terms. Where required, authors must obtain permission from the copyright holder. The original source must always be properly cited, and any required permission or attribution statement should be included in the figure legend.
• • Ethical and cultural considerations: Authors should be mindful of ethical and cultural considerations when selecting visual material for publication.

Research and Publication Misconduct

The International Arab Journal of Dentistry takes all forms of research and publication misconduct seriously. In accordance with the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the journal will take appropriate steps to investigate concerns and protect the integrity of the scholarly record.

Research and publication misconduct includes, but is not limited to:

• • Plagiarism: Using another person’s words, ideas, data, or work without proper attribution.
• • Text recycling / self-plagiarism: Reusing substantial portions of one’s own previously published or submitted work without clear citation and explanation of the novel contribution.
• • Duplicate submission or duplicate publication: Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time, or publishing substantially the same work more than once, including in another language, without proper disclosure and permission.
• • Redundant publication (“salami slicing”): Inappropriately dividing the results of one study into multiple papers in a way that distorts the scientific record.
• • Data fabrication or falsification: Inventing, altering, selectively omitting, or misrepresenting data, results, or research records. Falsifying or fabricating data is a serious form of misconduct. Authors must ensure that all data are accurate and retain their raw data. If original data cannot be provided upon request, the manuscript may be rejected or the published paper retracted.
• • Image manipulation: Altering, enhancing, obscuring, moving, removing, or introducing features in an image in a misleading way. Routine adjustments to brightness, contrast, or color balance are acceptable only if applied appropriately and if they do not distort the scientific meaning of the image.
• • Citation manipulation: Adding citations primarily to increase the citation count of a particular author, article, or journal rather than to support the scientific content.
• • Authorship misconduct: Listing individuals as authors who did not make a genuine scholarly contribution, omitting individuals who made a qualifying contribution, or misrepresenting author roles or affiliations.
• • Undisclosed competing interests: Failing to disclose relevant financial, personal, institutional, or academic conflicts of interest.
• • Peer review interference: Manipulating or attempting to manipulate the peer review or editorial process.
• • Unethical research conduct: Conducting research that does not comply with applicable ethical standards, approvals, or consent requirements, including practices such as ethics dumping.
• • Unauthorized use of third-party material: Using copyrighted or third-party material without proper permission or attribution.

For manuscripts that build on previously published or currently submitted work by the same authors, the prior work must be clearly cited, and the submitted manuscript must transparently explain its new and original contribution.

Authors must be prepared to provide supporting materials upon request, including raw data, ethical approval documents, authorship justifications, permissions, and original unprocessed images. If authors are unable to provide satisfactory documentation, the journal may reject the manuscript or, where relevant, take post-publication action.

Handling Allegations of Misconduct

Allegations of misconduct may be raised before or after publication by editors, reviewers, readers, institutions, or other parties. All concerns will be assessed carefully and confidentially in accordance with COPE guidance.

Where necessary, the journal may:

• • request explanations or supporting documentation from the authors;
• • contact the authors’ institution(s), ethics committee(s), or other relevant bodies;
• • suspend editorial handling while the matter is under review;
• • reject the manuscript;
• • publish a correction, expression of concern, or retraction;
• • impose editorial restrictions on future submissions where appropriate.

The journal does not make final institutional findings of misconduct, but it reserves the right to take editorial action whenever there is sufficient concern regarding the reliability, integrity, legality, or ethical acceptability of a submission or publication.

Publication Ethics

The International Arab Journal of Dentistry (IAJD) and its editorial board are committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics, research integrity, and editorial fairness throughout the publication process. The journal follows the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Duties of Editors

• • Publication decisions: The editorial board has final responsibility for publication decisions. Manuscripts are evaluated on scientific merit, originality, relevance to the journal, and ethical acceptability. Editorial decisions must be made impartially and without discrimination based on personal identity, institutional affiliation, geographic origin, or professional relationships.
• • Confidentiality, disclosure, and conflicts of interest: Editors must treat all submitted manuscripts as confidential documents. Unpublished data, findings, or ideas disclosed in a submission must not be used in the editors’ own work without the author’s explicit written permission. Editors must also ensure that relevant conflicts of interest and funding disclosures are appropriately declared.
• • Author relations: The editorial board is committed to fair, objective, and timely handling of all submissions. Manuscripts submitted by editors, board members, or their close associates must be managed through an independent and unbiased process. The journal also provides guidance on authorship and contributions to promote transparency and prevent misallocation of credit.
• • Reviewer relations: Editors should select qualified reviewers and encourage them to identify potential ethical concerns such as plagiarism, redundant publication, data manipulation, or other forms of misconduct. Reviewer comments may be shared with authors where appropriate, provided they remain professional and constructive. The journal may discontinue collaboration with reviewers who repeatedly provide poor-quality, delayed, or unprofessional reports.
• • Quality assurance: The editorial team is responsible for maintaining the scientific and ethical quality of published content. This includes ensuring that studies involving humans or animals include appropriate ethics approval, and that copyright, legal, and publication standards are respected. Where necessary, the journal will issue corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions.

Duties of Reviewers

• • Contribution to editorial decisions: Reviewers assist editors by providing objective, evidence-based, and constructive assessments of manuscripts. Reviews should be clear, professional, and focused on the scientific and clinical quality of the work. Personal criticism is not acceptable.
• • Qualification of reviewers: Reviewers should accept assignments only if they have the necessary expertise and can complete the review within the requested timeframe. If not, they should promptly inform the editor and decline the invitation.
• • Conflicts of interest: Reviewers must recuse themselves from evaluating any manuscript in which they have a competing interest, including collaborative, competitive, institutional, financial, or close personal relationships with the authors or related parties.
• • Confidentiality: Manuscripts under review must be treated as confidential. Reviewers must not share, discuss, or use any part of the manuscript or its data for personal or professional advantage.
• • Acknowledgment of sources: Reviewers should identify relevant published work not cited by the authors and alert the editor to substantial similarity, overlap, redundancy, or possible duplicate publication.

Duties of Authors

• • Reporting standards: Authors must provide an accurate, transparent, and objective account of their work, including sufficient methodological detail and an honest presentation of the findings. Fabricated, falsified, or knowingly misleading statements are unacceptable.
• • Data retention: Authors should retain raw data and supporting materials for a reasonable period after publication and provide them for editorial review if requested.
• • Originality, plagiarism, and concurrent publication: Authors must ensure that their work is original and that all sources, text, ideas, figures, and data derived from other works are appropriately cited. Plagiarism, duplicate submission, and concurrent submission of substantially similar manuscripts are strictly prohibited.
• • Disclosure and conflicts of interest: Authors must disclose all financial and non-financial interests that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the work, including funding, grants, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership, patents, or relevant institutional or professional affiliations.
• • Authorship of the paper: Authorship should be limited to individuals who made substantial contributions to the work. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all eligible contributors are listed as authors, that no inappropriate names are included, and that all co-authors have approved the final manuscript and agreed to its submission. Contributors who do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged appropriately.
• • Fundamental errors in published works: If an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in a published article, they must promptly inform the Editor-in-Chief and cooperate with the journal in issuing a correction, expression of concern, or retraction where necessary.

Peer Review Policy

The International Arab Journal of Dentistry (IAJD) employs a rigorous double-blind peer-review process to ensure that all published research meets high standards of scientific quality, originality, relevance, and ethical integrity. Following initial editorial screening, manuscripts are evaluated by independent experts in the relevant field. To preserve impartiality, the identities of authors and reviewers remain anonymous to one another throughout the review process.

The Editorial Board retains final authority over all publication decisions, taking into account reviewer recommendations, editorial judgment, and the manuscript’s alignment with the journal’s aims, scope, and ethical standards.

For submissions involving complex ethical, methodological, or societal issues, the journal reserves the right to seek additional expert advice where necessary.

Type of Peer Review

IAJD uses a double-blind peer-review system. In this model, reviewers do not know the identity of the authors, and authors do not know the identity of the reviewers.

Reviewer identities remain confidential during and after the review process. Review comments are shared only with the authors and the editorial team. Reviewers are expected to declare any conflicts of interest and to decline the review assignment where such conflicts may affect their objectivity.

Workflow and Stages

• • Initial screening: Upon submission, the Editorial Board or the Scientific Committee conducts an initial assessment to determine whether the manuscript falls within the journal’s scope and meets the journal’s basic standards for structure, scientific quality, originality, and ethical compliance. Manuscripts that do not meet these criteria may be rejected without external peer review.
• • Assignment of reviewers: Manuscripts that pass the initial screening are sent to independent reviewers with relevant expertise. The editorial team selects reviewers on the basis of subject knowledge, suitability, and absence of conflicts of interest.
• • Peer review: Reviewers are asked to evaluate the manuscript’s originality, scientific merit, methodological soundness, clarity, ethical acceptability, and contribution to the field. Reviewers are expected to provide constructive and professional comments that support editorial decision-making and help authors improve their work.
• • Reviewer recommendations: Reviewers may recommend one of the following:
• o Accept as submitted
• o Accept with minor revisions
• o Reconsider after major revisions
• o Reject
• • Author revisions: Where revisions are invited, authors are expected to submit a revised manuscript together with a clear, point-by-point response to reviewer comments. Revised manuscripts may be returned to the original reviewers or assessed further by the editorial team, depending on the nature of the revisions.
• • Final evaluation: The final decision is made by the Editor-in-Chief and/or the designated handling editor on the basis of the reviewer reports, the authors’ responses, and the journal’s editorial standards. Additional expert consultation may be sought if needed.



Editorial Decisions

Editorial decisions may include:

• • Accept: The manuscript is accepted for publication without further substantive changes.
• • Minor revisions: The manuscript is potentially acceptable, subject to small corrections or clarifications.
• • Major revisions: The manuscript has potential merit but requires substantial revision before further consideration.
• • Reject: The manuscript is not suitable for publication in the journal based on scope, quality, originality, scientific rigor, or ethical concerns.

Desk Rejection Policy

The journal reserves the right to reject a manuscript without sending it for external peer review (desk rejection) if one or more of the following conditions are met:

• 1. Scope mismatch: The topic or subject matter is not sufficiently relevant to the aims and scope of the journal.
• 2. Ethical concerns: The manuscript raises concerns related to publication ethics, plagiarism, duplicate publication, unacceptable text overlap, or non-compliance with recognized ethical standards.
• 3. Insufficient originality or contribution: The study does not provide sufficient originality, relevance, or meaningful contribution to the field.
• 4. Flawed study design or methodology: The research design, methods, or analysis contain fundamental weaknesses that compromise the validity or interpretability of the findings.
• 5. Unclear objective or poor scientific framing: The aim, rationale, or research question is not clearly stated.
• 6. Incomplete or problematic organization: The manuscript is inadequately structured or lacks essential components required for evaluation.
• 7. Serious language or presentation problems: The writing quality is insufficient for proper editorial assessment or peer review.
• 8. Non-compliance with submission requirements: The manuscript does not follow the journal’s submission guidelines or required policies.

Desk rejection decisions are made by the Editors-in-Chief and/or the editorial team in accordance with the journal’s editorial standards.

Supplementary Materials

Authors may submit supplementary materials alongside the manuscript, including datasets, images, multimedia files, or additional supporting documents. These materials may be made available to reviewers where relevant to the evaluation of the work. Authors remain responsible for the accuracy, completeness, and appropriateness of all supplementary content.

Editorial Oversight

The peer-review and editorial decision-making process is overseen by the Editor-in-Chief and the editorial team. The journal is committed to ensuring that all submissions are handled fairly, consistently, confidentially, and in accordance with ethical publishing standards.

Submissions by Editors or Editorial Board Members

Editors and editorial board members may submit manuscripts to the journal. To preserve fairness and avoid conflicts of interest, any editor or board member who is an author or co-author of a submission must have no involvement in its editorial handling, reviewer selection, or decision-making.

Such manuscripts must be assigned to an independent editor or another appropriate member of the editorial team who has no conflict of interest. The submission will be first screened by the Scientific Committee for a first evaluation, then will undergo the same peer-review standards and editorial procedures applied to all other manuscripts.

Conflicts of Interest of Editors and Reviewers

Editors and reviewers must disclose any conflicts of interest that could affect their ability to assess a manuscript objectively. This includes personal, professional, academic, institutional, or financial relationships with the authors, institutions, funders, or subject matter of the submission.

Where a conflict of interest exists, the editor or reviewer must recuse themselves from handling or evaluating the manuscript. In such cases, editorial or review responsibilities must be reassigned to another qualified individual without such a conflict.

Editors and reviewers must not use unpublished information obtained through the submission or peer-review process for personal or professional advantage. All editorial assessments and reviewer reports must be based solely on the scientific merit, relevance, and ethical acceptability of the manuscript.

Plagiarism

IAJD does not accept plagiarism in any form. This includes the unattributed use of another person’s ideas, data, images, or text, whether reproduced directly or in adapted form, and regardless of the original source, language, or medium, including grey literature such as theses and technical reports.

All manuscripts may be screened using iThenticate or similar similarity-detection software. Manuscripts showing plagiarism, unacceptable text overlap, redundant publication, or undisclosed text recycling may be rejected or subject to further editorial action in accordance with COPE guidance. Similarity reports are used as a screening tool and are interpreted in the context of editorial judgment.

Properly declared preprints are not considered duplicate publication. However, any reuse of the authors’ own previously disseminated work must be clearly cited and transparently described.

Repository and Self-Archiving Policy

IAJD supports the widest possible dissemination of scholarly work. In line with the journal’s copyright and licensing framework and recognized best practices in open access publishing, authors are permitted to deposit all versions of their manuscripts in repositories of their choice without embargo. This policy is consistent with the journal’s CC BY 4.0 open access model and supports institutional and funder archiving requirements.

Permitted Versions

Authors may deposit the following versions of their work in institutional, disciplinary, funder, or personal repositories, as well as on personal or departmental websites:

• • Preprint (submitted version prior to peer review)
• • Author’s Accepted Manuscript (AAM) (post-peer review, before journal formatting)
• • Published Article / Version of Record (VoR) (final published version as it appears on the journal website)

Conditions of Deposit

Preprints

• • Authors may deposit preprints at any time.
• • Preprints should be clearly labeled as “Preprint” and should indicate that they have not undergone peer review.
• • Preprints must not include journal formatting, branding, logos, or layout that may misrepresent them as the published version.
• • At the time of journal submission, authors must disclose that a preprint version is publicly available.
• • Once the article is published, authors are encouraged to update the preprint record with full attribution to the Version of Record, including citation details and DOI.

Author’s Accepted Manuscript (AAM)

• • Authors may deposit the accepted manuscript without embargo.
• • The deposited version should be clearly labeled as the “Accepted Manuscript” or “Post-peer-review version.”
• • The AAM must not include journal formatting, branding, logos, or layout.
• • The repository record should include attribution to the authors and to the journal.
• • Once the article is formally published, the record should be updated with full citation details and the DOI of the Version of Record.

Version of Record (VoR)

• • Authors may deposit the final published version of the article without embargo.
• • The deposited version must clearly identify itself as the Version of Record.
• • Full attribution to the published article in the International Arab Journal of Dentistry, including citation details and DOI, must be provided.

Attribution

For all deposited versions, authors should ensure that the published article is properly cited once available so that readers can identify and refer to the Version of Record correctly.

Research Ethics and Consent

Research Involving Humans

All research involving human participants must be conducted in accordance with internationally accepted ethical standards, including the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki. Manuscripts must comply with the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Authors must obtain formal ethical approval from an appropriate Institutional Review Board (IRB) or ethics committee prior to the start of the study. Retrospective approval is not accepted. Manuscripts must include the name of the approving institution, the review board, and the approval or permit number(s).

Research involving protected datasets, biological collections, or non-public sites must document formal access permissions and ethical compliance in the same manner.

All participants must provide informed consent for participation. Manuscripts must include a clear statement confirming that informed consent was obtained from all participants (or their legal representatives). The privacy rights of human subjects must be respected at all times, and identifying data must be anonymized unless explicit consent for publication is obtained.

Authors should aim to include representative populations and report relevant demographic variables (e.g., sex, age, and ethnicity). The terms sex (biological) and gender (social/identity) must be used appropriately in accordance with international reporting standards.

Research Involving Animals

All studies involving animals must comply with internationally recognized ethical standards and applicable national or institutional regulations. Authors are expected to follow recognized frameworks such as the ARRIVE guidelines and relevant legislation.

Manuscripts must include:

• • The name of the institutional or national ethics review committee;
• • The approval number, ID, or license;
• • Confirmation of compliance with institutional and international regulations.

Authors must also clearly describe:

• • The scientific rationale for the use of animals and the choice of species;
• • Biological variables, including the sex of the animals where relevant;
• • Housing, feeding, and environmental conditions;
• • Measures taken to minimize pain, distress, and suffering;
• • Details of procedures, including anesthesia and, where applicable, euthanasia methods.

Submissions that fail to meet these standards will not be considered.

Research Involving Plants and Protected Materials

Studies involving plant specimens, biological collections, or restricted datasets must comply with institutional, national, and international regulations.

Authors must provide:

• • Details of permits, licenses, or approvals for collection and use;
• • Confirmation of compliance with international conventions such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and CITES, where applicable;
• • Adherence to institutional or national guidelines governing plant material use.

Ethics Approval and Documentation

All original research must include a dedicated Ethics Approval section. Authors must provide complete and accurate information regarding ethical review and approval at the time of submission.

Failure to provide appropriate ethical approval documentation may result in rejection. The journal may request supporting documentation where necessary.

Consent for Participation

All research involving human participants must be conducted with informed consent. Consent must be obtained prior to participation and must be freely given, without coercion.

Consent must be documented in writing (or via appropriate electronic means where applicable) and retained by the authors in accordance with local regulations.

Consent forms must not be submitted with the manuscript but must be available upon request.

Consent for Publication

For any manuscript that includes identifiable personal information, images, or data, authors must obtain written informed consent for publication from the individual concerned.

For minors (under 18 years), consent must be obtained from a parent or legal guardian. For deceased individuals, consent must be obtained from the next of kin or legal representative.

Consent must explicitly allow publication under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), meaning that the material will be publicly available online and may be accessed by a wide audience.

Authors must include a clear statement in the manuscript confirming that informed consent for publication has been obtained.

For case reports and case series, authors are expected to obtain written informed consent for publication from the patient (or their legal representative), even when identifying information is not explicitly included, as complete anonymity cannot always be guaranteed. In exceptional cases where no identifiable information is included and consent cannot be obtained, authors must provide a clear justification. The final decision will be made by the editorial office in accordance with ethical guidelines.

The signed consent forms must be retained by the authors and provided to the Editor upon request. All consent documentation will be handled with strict confidentiality.

Privacy and Confidentiality

The journal is committed to protecting the privacy and dignity of individuals. Identifying information—including names, initials, hospital numbers, or specific clinical details—must not be included in text, photographs, radiographs, CT scans, or pedigrees unless essential for scientific purposes and supported by appropriate consent.

Authors are solely responsible for obtaining and archiving consent documentation. To protect patient data, consent forms must not be uploaded with the manuscript or sent via email to the editorial office.

All identifying labels and metadata must be removed from figures and illustrations prior to submission. Authors are advised that partial anonymization (e.g., masking the eye region) may not be sufficient to ensure anonymity.

Any modifications made to protect patient identity must not compromise or distort the scientific meaning or clinical interpretation of the data.

Authors must inform patients that identifiable material may be publicly available in both print and online open-access formats.

Data Protection and Ethical Compliance

Authors must ensure that all research complies with applicable data protection, confidentiality, and ethical standards in their jurisdiction.

Informed consent documentation must be properly archived by the authors and made available upon request. A statement within the manuscript confirming that consent was obtained is sufficient for the peer-review process.

Failure to adhere to these ethical standards may result in rejection or post-publication actions, including correction or retraction.

Special Issue Policy

The International Arab Journal of Dentistry may publish special issues on selected thematic topics approved by the editorial board. Special issues are integrated into the journal’s publication schedule and are subject to the same peer-review standards, ethical requirements, and author guidelines as regular issues.

Authors submitting to a special issue must follow the journal’s standard submission process and comply with the Instructions for Authors. Calls for papers for special issues may be announced through the journal’s website or other official communication channels.

Appointment of Guest Editors

Guest editors may be appointed for special issues on the basis of their subject expertise, academic standing, and relevant editorial or peer-review experience. Nominations may be made by the editorial board, existing editors, or through self-nomination, but all appointments are subject to review by the editorial board and approval by the Editor-in-Chief.

Guest editors are responsible for helping define the scope of the special issue, preparing the call for papers, and overseeing the review of submitted manuscripts. They must ensure that all submissions are handled in accordance with the journal’s standards for scientific quality, originality, and publication ethics. Final decisions on acceptance or rejection remain with the Editor-in-Chief.

Setup and Editorial Process

A proposal for a special issue should be submitted to the editorial board and should include the proposed topic, objectives, relevance to the journal’s scope, potential guest editors, and a provisional timeline for submission, review, and publication.

Once approved, a call for papers may be issued. Manuscripts submitted to a special issue are handled through the journal’s normal submission system and undergo the same editorial screening, double-blind peer review, revision process, and publication procedures as regular submissions. Guest editors may provide recommendations on revision, acceptance, or rejection, but all final editorial decisions are made in accordance with the journal’s usual editorial policies and under the authority of the Editor-in-Chief.

Reporting Guidelines

The International Arab Journal of Dentistry encourages authors to follow established reporting guidelines in order to improve the clarity, transparency, completeness, and reproducibility of submitted research.

Authors are encouraged to consult the reporting guideline most appropriate to their study design. Commonly relevant guidelines include:

• • CONSORT for randomized controlled trials
• • STROBE for observational studies
• • PRISMA for systematic reviews and meta-analyses
• • SPIRIT for study protocols
• • STARD for diagnostic accuracy studies
• • CARE for case reports
• • ARRIVE for animal research

For further guidance, authors are encouraged to consult the EQUATOR Network, which provides access to reporting guidelines, checklists, and supporting resources for a wide range of study types.

Preprints Policy

IAJD supports the early dissemination of research and permits authors to share preprints of their manuscripts on recognized preprint servers, personal websites, or institutional repositories before submission, during peer review, or after acceptance. This is not considered a violation of the journal’s duplicate submission or duplicate publication policy, provided that the preprint status is clearly disclosed at the time of submission.

Authors should ensure that any posted preprint is clearly identified as a preprint or non-peer-reviewed version of the manuscript.

Once the manuscript is published, authors are encouraged to update the preprint record by adding a link to the final Version of Record using its DOI. Authors may also update repository versions to reflect the accepted manuscript where appropriate. However, the final published article in IAJD remains the authoritative Version of Record and should be cited accordingly.

Use of Third-Party Material

Authors must ensure that they have the legal right to include any third-party material in a submission. This includes text, images, illustrations, tables, datasets, screenshots, audio, video, and supplementary content created or owned by another person or organization.

Third-party material may be included only when one of the following conditions is met:

• • the material is in the public domain, including material released under CC0 or material for which copyright has expired;
• • the material is available under a license that permits the proposed reuse and is compatible with the journal’s Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0); or
• • the author has obtained written permission from the rights holder allowing the material to be published as part of the article.

Brief quotations or limited excerpts may be used without separate permission when permitted by applicable law, such as for criticism, review, or scholarly commentary. Such use must be proportionate, necessary for the purpose, and accompanied by complete and accurate attribution.

When reusing copyrighted or openly licensed material, authors must follow all conditions attached to the relevant copyright or license, including attribution, indication of changes, and any restrictions on adaptation or commercial reuse. Material published under a Creative Commons license must be used in accordance with the specific terms of that license.

Authors are responsible for obtaining and retaining all required permissions and for providing evidence of permission to the editorial office upon request. Material for which the necessary rights cannot be demonstrated may be removed from the manuscript, or the submission may be rejected. Authors who are uncertain about whether permission is required should consult the rights holder or seek independent legal advice.