Slippin’ Into the Future

In the immortal words of Steve Miller, “Time keeps on slippin,’ slippin,’ slippin’ into the future.”¹ So here we are, a new year, the 23rd of this century. Slippin’ into an unknown future full of potential. This is a big year for the Journal of the California Dental Association.

Since the middle of 2020, the Journal has been published solely in an online, digital version. Up until now, it has been hosted on the Issuu site as a flipbook. This month marks a milestone as we migrate the Journal to Taylor & Francis, an international publisher with over 2,700 scholarly publications. Our transition should strengthen the Journal’s position as a reputable, science-based publication.

By publishing with Taylor & Francis, the Journal will be accessible and more easily located through major search engines. We are working with the publishers to achieve indexing with the Directory of Open Access Journals by fall of 2023. Following that, we plan to apply for indexing with other indices, such as PubMed, Scopus, Emerging Sources Citation Index and eventually MEDLINE. We look forward to having the Journal accessible, searchable and indexed again to facilitate the scholarly research of dedicated authors and clinicians.

The Journal is many things to many people.

The Journal is a time machine and an archive for the profession and for our organization. To get a feel for what was important to dentists in some bygone era, one needs to go no further than the association publication. Thumbing through old copies of the Journal is like traveling back in time. Topics of interest, equipment, therapeutic techniques … they are all there, memorialized on the pages of association publications.

We live in an age of instant information, but unless that information is archived, it can disappear. Much of the digital information we take for granted today is as insubstantial as those files you accidentally deleted without backing up. What is in your mailbox today may be unretrievable at some point in the future.

By moving to Taylor & Francis, the information in the Journal will be memorialized and will live as an archive for future time travelers to avail themselves of.

For the scientist/researcher, the Journal is a resource of evidenced-based dentistry. The Journal provides material that helps in the understanding of oral health. Through original research, data is made available that can bolster or contradict proposed hypotheses. Since 2017, when the National Library of Medicine (NLM) delisted all state dental association publications from PUBMED, the Journal has experienced an understandable reduction in scholarly submissions for publication.

The Journal has been working to meet all the preapplication requirements for MEDLINE admission, and moving to Taylor & Francis should improve our eligibility for indexing with recognized indices. The fact that the Journal charges no article submission fee and is an open access publication also works to our credit. Indexing is a requisite for attracting high-quality scholarly participation. These changes should help attract top authors/contributors and ensure adequate visibility for their work.

Teachers and students find the Journal to be a helpful resource. The new platform will provide a more modern, searchable experience and make content more discoverable and connected. Most Journal editions are curated, that is, they are focused on a topic or theme. These curated issues provide the ability to package articles and facilitate the planning of an educational presentation of a subject. In addition, these themed groupings serve as an invitation and easy introduction to a new and intriguing field of study. The new format can provide tools that allow linking to specific related articles.

Policymakers also find themed issues helpful when addressing the evidence available on a circumscribed topic. The Journal has served to inform policy groups on opioid prescribing, geriatric oral health needs and access to care issues. Our goal is to remain a recognized, reliable resource for information on oral health issues. The new format and future indexing should improve the Journal’s accessibility for those not already familiar with the Journal’s offerings.

Most importantly, the Journal is dedicated to contributing to the knowledge base for the dental profession in general and for our CDA clinicians in particular. The Journal brings to our members a curated experience on topics they may not naturally seek out. It is a safe forum of ideas, technologies/techniques, policy issues and public health perspectives. It serves to reinforce the interconnectedness of oral health, human biology, physiology, medicine, biomaterials, bioengineering and human psychology.

These areas of study make up the backbone of this award-winning, science-based, peer-reviewed Journal. But every dental professional needs additional information to grow and sustain a dental practice. There are regulatory issues, risk management issues and ever-changing technological trends to keep up with. Information made available through the Journal helps the practitioner constantly improve the quality of the services they provide their patients.

Making a dental practice flourish is not a simple task. The Journal is a resource for our members on all aspects of dental practice. The Journal’s content will continue to be open to the public in alignment with our responsibility to contribute to the unrestricted oral health knowledge base. This transition to our new format will provide us with new opportunities to develop our relationship with our members while reinforcing the CDA brand of excellence.

Every member should feel a connection with CDA. Every member should recognize with every interaction that being a CDA member is like holding a high-value ticket to exclusive, enriched experiences. The Journal will build upon the high-quality content already being produced: exclusive C.E. opportunities connected to article content and exclusive graphics. There are member experience opportunities yet to be discovered.

The California Dental Association is a leader in the profession. As our colleagues around the nation look to CDA for innovative solutions, so too do they look to the Journal of the California Dental Association as a standard of excellence in oral health association publications. This transition and indexing are first steps toward placing the Journal in good company with leading scientific publications. A strong platform allows for the evolution that will keep the Journal relevant into the future.

That’s right Steve Miller, time keeps on slippin’ into the future, and that is where the Journal of the California Dental Association is headed.