This is the sixth issue of Dentomaxillofacial Radiology (DMFR) that is published in the new “continuous publication” format. This term refers to article-based publishing as opposed to issue-based publishing. What is the advantage of continuous publication? Certainly, the most important advantage is that it speeds up the process from acceptance to final publication. Manuscripts do not have to wait for their slot in a print edition. And since each manuscript after acceptance is assigned a unique article identifier that is not changed again throughout the entire online and later paper publication process, there is no need for authors to recheck and alter the correct citation after final paper publication. To ensure maximum convenience, DMFR now provides the correct citation under the heading “Cite this article as” below the abstract of each article.
In this transition period from conventional, paper-based scientific publication to an online-only publication, new structures and solutions have to be developed and established. An important step towards the future of DMFR was the move to continuous publication in January 2013. We also offer rapid online publication under the heading “DMFR Papers in Press”. If the authors give their agreement, manuscripts are published online as soon as they are accepted, allowing for up-to-the-minute dissemination of oral and maxillofacial imaging research. Digital object identifiers are used as the article IDs for all DMFR Papers in Press articles. Note that these articles may appear online either as “accepted, pre-editing articles” or as “accepted, part-edited articles”. Although both, of course, have undergone the complete peer-review and the revision process, the former have not yet been copy-edited or typeset; hence, they are published in PDF format only and will not be in our house style. The latter, however, have also undergone most of the production process, including copy-editing, typesetting and approval by the DMFR editors prior to release, and thus appear in our house style.
These measures have already dramatically sped up the process from acceptance to publication of an article. We hope that these explanations help to better understand the reasoning behind the changes and novel features.
Sincerely,
Ralf Schulze
Editor