About the Journal
Focus and Scope
This quality international journal which has been published continually for more than 30 years.
The Journal is published three times per year in April, August and December and aims to publish original investigations, findings, scholarly inquiries and reviews in the field of forensic odontological sciences. The areas of forensic odontology covered in the journal are Abuse and Neglect, Age Estimation, Anthropology and Archeology, Bite Marks, Dental Damage, Disaster Management, Facial Reconstruction, Identification, Jurisprudence and Litigation, Tools and Techniques, Virtopsy. The Journal of Forensic Odonto-Stomatology (JFOS) is refereed, fully indexed in the largest data bases as PubMed-MEDLINE, PubMed Central, Scopus and EBSCO.
The areas of forensic odontology covered in the journal are Research, Case Reports, Reviews and Techniques.
The submissions are subjected to a blind review procedure by internationally accredited peer reviewers.
This is the official publication of the International Organisation for Forensic Odonto-Stomatology (IOFOS)- ISSN: 2219-6749
Items published in JFOS are:
Original research papers
Case reports
Review articles
Book reviews
Letters to the editor
Peer Review Process
The editor first reviews the submission to make sure it fits both the journal's subject-matter and its editorial platforms.
When accepted 2 reviewers are appointed to read the manuscript closely, to provide individual critiques, to comment on the validity of the science, to identify scientific errors and to evaluate the design and methodology used. They also judge the significance and the importance of the findings, the used references and the made conclusions and evaluated the originality of the work.
Finally they recommend that the paper be published or rejected. If no agreement between both decisions exists, the editor appoints a third reviewer and makes a final decision based on the gathered recommendations.
A double-blind review process is used.
Reviewers are recruited from experts in the field of forensic odontology. They possess an academic degree and /or hold a teaching or research position at a university, academic or governmental institution.
Results of the review process are normally available within three months of submission. Especially long submissions or submissions received during the submissions or reviewing period of a major conference may require additional time.
Outcomes of the review process include acceptance, acceptance with revisions but without re-review, revise and resubmit, or rejection. Articles that are consistently rejected include those that are overly commercial in tone, poorly written or organized, too elementary, or too long or without any novelty.
If authors are encouraged to revise and resubmit a submission, there is no guarantee that the resubmission will be reviewed by the same reviewers or that the revised submission will be accepted. Submissions with a recommendation to revise and resubmit may be resubmitted only one time.
Rejected articles will not be re-reviewed by the Jfos.
All the submissions first receive a preliminary assessment to determine their suitability for the focus and JFOS target audience.
Submissions judged potentially suitable are then given an in-depth anonymous peer review, typically by 2-4 experts. Reviewers judge submissions for topics, significance, and technical quality. Extensive review comments are provided only when necessary to authors whose manuscripts are conditionally accepted for publication.
Open Access Policy
This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.
Policies on Conflict of Interest
JFOS requires authors to declare all competing interests in relation to their work. All submitted manuscripts must include a ‘competing interests’ section at the end of the manuscript listing all competing interests (financial and non-financial). Where authors have no competing interests, the statement should read “The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.” Editors may ask for further information relating to competing interests. Editors and reviewers are also required to declare any competing interests and will be excluded from the peer review process if a competing interest exists.
Human and Animal rights
All research must have been carried out within an appropriate ethical framework. If there is suspicion that work has not taken place within an appropriate ethical framework, Editors will follow the Misconduct policy and may reject the manuscript, and/or contact the author(s)’ institution or ethics committee. On rare occasions, if the Editor has serious concerns about the ethics of a study, the manuscript may be rejected on ethical grounds, even if approval from an ethics committee has been obtained.Research involving human subjects, human material, or human data, must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and must have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee.
Informed Consent
For all research involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the study should be obtained from participants (or their parent or guardian in the case of children under 16) and a statement to this effect should appear in the manuscript.
Journal History
The forerunner of the current journal was the International Journal of Forensic Dentistry, published between July 1973 and April 1977. There was a six years break with no publications in the area of forensic odontology. Then, in June 1983, the Volume 1 of the new Journal of Forensic Odonto-Stomatology was published in South Africa under the editorship of Professor H.A. Shapiro. After his death in 1984 the editorial responsibilities were taken over by the local Editorial Board members in Cape Town, South Africa.
At the 1987 IOFOS General Assembly in Vancouver was adopted the proposal to make this journal the official publication of I.O.F.O.S.. The editorship of the journal moved from South Africa to the Forensic Odontology Unit of The University of Adelaide, Australia, and Dr. Cyril Thomas in Sydney was appointed the editor, a position held until December 2003. Dr. Helen James of the Forensic Odontology Unit of The University of Adelaide held the editorship from January 2004 until December 2007. In 2008 the Journal of Forensic Odonto-Stomatology moved into a new era, discontinuing the printed version for an on-line one. The JFOS issues are openly available without subscription on the dedicated page of the IOFOS website.
The initial transition from the printed to the electronic edition was proficiently handled by a new editor, Jules Kieser, who handed over the reigns to Dr Judy Hinchliffe on the beginning of 2010.
The JFOS editor from 2011 to 2017 was Prof. Patrick Thevissen (Belgium), helped by a partially renewed Editorial staff. Dr. Stefano Garatti took on the role of JFOS webmaster in 2011.
Prof. Vilma Pinchi (Italy) took the position of Editor in 2017 with dr. Douglas Sheasby (UK) and Francesco Pradella (Italy) as Assistant Editors.
The JFOS is a high quality international journal which has been regularly published twice a year from 1983 to 2018. From 2019 the Journal is regularly published three times a year (April, August, December).
