Quality assessment of instructions for authors in dental, oral and maxillofacial journals

Abstract

Objective: to develop and test inter-observer reproducibility of instructions for authors quality rating (IAQR) tool measuring the quality of instructions for 
authors at journal level for a possible improvement of editorial guidelines.
Material and methods: instructions for authors of 75 dental and maxillofacial surgery journals were assessed by two independent observers using assessment 
tool inspired from AGREE with 16 questions and 1 to 4 points scale per answer. Two observers evaluated the instructions of authors independently and blind to 
impact factor of a given journal. Scores obtained from our tool were compared with “journal impact factor 2013”. 
Results: IAQR presented with an excellent interobserver reproducibility (κ= 0.81) despite a difference in data distribution between observers. There existed a weak 
positive correlation between IAQR and “journal impact factor 2013”. 
Conclusions: The IAQR is a reproducible quality assessment tool at the journal level. The IAQR assess the quality of instruction for authors and it is a good
starting point for possible improvements of the instructions for authors, especially when it comes to their completeness. 
Nemesis relevance: 28% of dental and maxillofacial journals might revise their instructions for authors to provide more up-to-date version.