EDITORIAL
The thorny road of acknowledgement
DOI: https://doi.org/10.25241/stomaeduj.2019.6(3).edit.3
Author: Marian-Vladimir Constantinescu
Dear Readers,
“Honor, Respect, Work”, the emblematic motto of the family of teachers and soldiers I was born into and where I grew up.
I was raised and educated to respect all work well done, and also those who practice it joyfully.
In 2013 I was contacted by the manager of a private publishing house that publishes over 10 medical journals. He invited me to be in charge of a dental journal they did not have in their portfolio. I made an objective analysis of the needs of my colleagues and the existing quoted dental journals. I noticed the limited number of such listed journals. After about four years, with some publishing experience, and a study conducted together with some Italian colleagues, I tried to enlist the co-operation of international and then of national celebrities. I considered that the best choice for my undertaking is Prof. Jean-François Roulet, DDS, Habil, Prof hc, Dr hc, from the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA, leading personality of the dental world, and editor of four quoted dental journals. After presenting to him the situation of dentists in Romania and the Republic of Moldova and their inability to publish in quoted dental journals, I asked for his support as editor-in-chief of this new journal. Although at the time we did not know each other, with generosity and readiness to give a helping hand, he accepted my request. Then, we asked for the co-operation of several major names in the dental world. Some embraced the idea, others did not respond, and one of them rejected it.
The publication of the first 2014 issue was indeed a nightmare for me. After Prof. J-F Roulet first corrected it, I felt like a boxer knocked-out during in the first seconds of the very first round! That number was revised seven times in a row! That was the defining moment for me, when I began to learn what real editorial work means. With each new issue I had something to learn. Since then, I have regularly attended all seminars organized by Clarivate Analytics, with Adriana Filip as a lecturer.
In 2015, the private publishing house that initially registered the journal under an ISSN, received the money necessary to publish the 2016 numbers, money which I had managed to raise through a sponsorship contract. Nevertheless, the respective publishing house spent the money for other purposes and went into insolvency.
As I had lost all confidence in contracts signed with private companies I contacted the Romanian Academy Publishing House. The director of the publishing house told me that they only publish journals whose editors are members of the Academy. As the members of the editorial team were only members of the Academy of Medical Sciences, I had to ask for the support of two members of the Romanian Academy. The former was Prof. Constantin Ionescu-Târgoviște, MD, PhD, Acad (AR), from the “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania, President of the Romanian Medical Association, of which my company “The Association for Oral Rehabilitation and Posturotherapy in Romania-ROPOSTURO”, established in 2004, is also a member. This is the Association which, in 2005, organized the First World Congress of Posturology in the building of the Parliament Palace (www.stomaeduj.com/roposturo.ro/congres2005/en_news.htm).
I met the latter during a conference held to launch a new book at the POLITEHNICA University Bucharest. He is Prof. Adrian Bejan, Eng, PhD, J.A. Jones Distinguished Professor, Acad (AR), Duke University, Durham, NC, USA. The Board was thus strengthened by the presence of the two full members of the Academy and this played its part in securing the final acceptance of the Presidium of the Romanian Academy to publish our journal. Yet, there was another factor which was decisive, namely the consistent lobby provided by Dr. Hubert-Pierre Ouvrard, former President of the Academie Nationale de Chirurgie Dentaire (ANCD) of France, Prof. Gottfried Schmalz, member of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina of Germany and Prof. Vjekoslav Jerolimov, member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (CASA). Thus, when I applied again, I was granted approval that as of its first 2016 issue, the Stomatology Edu Journal shall be published under the auspices of the Romanian Academy (https://acad.ro/def2002eng.htm), while the journal has to fully cover all its publication costs. In early 2017, when the “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa to Prof Michael L. Glick, Dean Emeritus of the School of Dental Medicine of the New York University at Buffalo and JADA editor, I presented this journal to him. I asked him to give us his approval to publish an abstract of an article with CE credits in each issue of our magazine. In this endeavor, I was supported by my good friend Prof. Adi A. Garfunkel, Dean Emeritus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, his master. Thus, as of the 2017 first issue, the Stomatology Edu Journal is the only journal that publishes in each issue an abstract of a JADA article with CE credits. Following Prof. J-F Roulet’s constant encouragement to motivate the authors, but also our army of editors, we registered the Stomatology Edu Journal for evaluation in as many databases as possible. To provide visibility, the Stomatology Edu Journal was registered with Crossref, each article starting with the first 2014 issue received a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) and is found on Google Scholar. Also, as of 2017 the journal has been accepted by the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). Starting with the first 2017 issue, the articles are accompanied by references with active links. Yet, despite all these remarkable advances made by our journal, our editors who have assured us of all their scientific support do not really hurry to send us articles. In fact, it is easy to understand because the Stomatology Edu Journal is not rated and their articles cannot be quantified by their universities.
A few days ago, I had the opportunity to meet Prof. James R. Hupp, Founding Dean and Professor of Oral-Maxillofacial Surgery, School of Dental Medicine, Professor of Surgery, School of Medicine, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA, as he was on a brief visit in Bucharest. He is Editor-in-Chief, and his wife Carmen, Managing Editor of the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (JOMS), a journal published by Elsevier rated IF: 1.781. During our friendly conversation, I was told they receive over 1,600 manuscripts annually, out of which only 400 are selected for publication. How wonderful it is to work for a quoted magazine that holds such a portfolio of manuscripts!
On June 13, 2018 the Stomatology Edu Journal was registered for evaluation at Clarivate Analytics. As the Clarivate Analytics Editor, Web of Science, stopped working for the company, the evaluation of the journal remained unfinished. Recently, Kathleen Michael, Manager, Editorial Selection at Clarivate Analytics was kind enough to tell us that the evaluation still continues, but under other conditions. These new conditions increase the level of requirements to be fulfilled for the evaluation. Now, the Web of Science Core Collection selection process consists of a single set of 28 criteria to evaluate journals.
That is, 24 quality criteria to select editorial rigor and best practices and 4 impact criteria to select the most influential journals, using citation activity as the main indicator (https://clarivate.com/webofsciencegroup/solutions/editorial).
Now, knowing these evaluation criteria, the operational editorial team must go on working with the same dedication, rigor and exigency to maintain the high quality standards of the journal out of respect for the over 280,000 readers and the international scientific community.
In 2018 I attended the spring session of the ERO-FDI in Salzburg, and Dr. Michael Frank, DDS, PhD, ERO Elect President, President of the Dental Chamber Hesse, Board of the German Dental Chamber, had a high appreciation of the quality of the Stomatology Edu Journal which made him accept to be a member of the Editorial Board as Associate Editor-in-Chief.
Now, in the current issue, as President-in-Office of ERO-FDI, he presents our readers with his first editorial entitled “High Quality Oral Health – An FDI World Dental Federation Objective”.
Moreover, as a sign of appreciation of the CE PROGRAM FAQs of the Stomatology Edu Journal, ERO-FDI and FDI intend to integrate our journal as a scientific partner for the promotion of Continuing Education in Europe and beyond.
So help us God!
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