Correspondence Address:
Shankargouda Patil
Advisory Editor, Journal of Dental Research and Review, Associate Professor, Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology, Faculty of Dental Sciences, M. S. Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, Bengaluru, Karnataka
India

Full Text

Thinking creates ideas, and novel ideas rule the world. These life-changing ideas transform into reality by means of meticulous research. Research probes, explains, analyzes, and answers questions, which can be utilized to widen horizons of knowledge and skill. It investigates hypothesis and poses new questions for further research.

As healthcare professionals, we need to keep pace with the leaping ahead advances in the field of dentistry in order to provide the utmost care and quality service. Progress in research, policy knowledge, and international standards that improve the delivery of dental care and oral health are instrumental in fulfilling our role as healthcare personnel.

Research and scholarly pursuits are essential activities to transform research into clinical practice and dental education. Engaging in cutting edge evidence based research as well as publishing them to enlighten other professionals across the world to inculcate and further improvise them, should be encouraged.

Publishing research helps in exchange of ideas among professionals, which ultimately helps them in rendering better health care to the patients. Benefits of publishing research include advancement in the field of dental science, career advancement, future success in obtaining funding for research, and increased sense of self-worth.

However, publishing primary research with inappropriate declaration of conflicts of interests in indexed journals is not ethical and will eventually lessen the trustworthiness of the evidence synthesis. Unfortunately, the dental field does not currently have a committee or an organization addressing these issues. Awareness among dentists is, in fact, poor, with a recent survey reporting, more than half the respondents are being ignorant of these issues.

There are some basic guidelines, which must be followed before publishing the research paper. Familiarization with different publications and selection of a journal that best suits the research should be advocated. A diligently prepared manuscript that conforms to the authors guidelines of the respective journal should be drafted. The manuscript should then be peer-reviewed by a scholar in that particular field for suggestions. Peer-reviewing has to be given primary importance and is the pillar for scholarly research publications.

Research warrants thorough and conscientious approach toward solving hypothesis and should be mandated in all dental establishments. Along with research, it is imperative for the researcher to publish his research in well-acknowledged journals to make it globally acceptable and trustworthy.

Apart from indexing of the journal in reputed databases (like PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science etc.,) dental researchers now-a-days are using various journal matrices for choosing the right journal for their research publications. The most commonly referred journal matrix is impact factor. Moreover, dental researchers are also interested in matrices like source normalized impact per paper for publishing article in multidisciplinary journals. Similarly, many reputed matrices (like Scimago Journal Ranking, immediacy index, cited half-life, impact paper, etc.,) can be used for choosing the right journal for publication. Many national and international accreditation bodies, which rank universities, recommend matrices based publication analysis. Hence, it is utmost important for dental researchers to have sound knowledge of journal matrices for choosing the correct journal for publication.

Writing research paper is a skill, and it develops eventually with one's experience. However, it is observed that even highly accomplished researcher may not have good skills in writing a research paper. Moreover, researcher whose first language of school education was not English finds difficulty in framing grammatically and scientifically correct sentences. In this context, many private agencies including publishers provide English language editing services.

Finally, researchers should be aware of the research performance indicators like crown indicator, h-index, m quotient, g index, modified h-index, contemporary h index, Zhang's e-index.

To negate the influence of self-citation and gift authorship, original research publication index has been proposed. Quality of the publications and the number of citations the published article receives is important than the quantity of articles published.

Many researchers avoid publishing their research on time so that they can get their research patented. This deprives the research community as well as the patients at large the benefits of the discovery.