The IDEALS Bulletin is it its 9th year, as is IDEALS itself. As the recent membership survey has shown (described elsewhere in this issue), the Bulletin continues to serve an important function. Nevertheless, the Editorial Board has been struggling for many years to solicit more contributions. In some years we received so many submissions that we were able to publish 3 issues, in other years we have had only one issue.

We should remember that our problems in sustaining a professional bulletin, let alone a full-blown journal, are not unique to IDEALS. To my knowledge, there has only been one journal ever in our field, entitled "Law and Ethics in Dentistry," published by Mosby. But after only three years (1989-1990), it was discontinued. We know from our colleagues in the American Society of Dental Ethics (ASDE) who serve as editors of the "Issues in Dental Ethics" section of the Journal of the American College of Dentists (JACD) that they too have difficulty securing submissions.

And yet, as "In the Literature" and "Recent Thesis" sections in our Bulletin show, there are certainly many people writing high quality papers, chapters and books on dental ethics and law. There are probably many reasons why these articles end up dispersed (rather than concentrated in one journal). One reason is no doubt the struggle of IDEALS (and likewise ASDE) to gain notoriety and persuade these folks to become (and stay) members of IDEALS. The IDEALS Membership Committee is working on reversing this trend.

Another cause may be the absence of a peer-reviewed journal. University-based writers generally are under pressure to publish whatever they write in peer reviewed journals, even if those journals are not the most logical destination for their articles. Articles published in other journals often do not count at all. Indeed, at some universities, even peer reviewed articles do not count unless the journal has an impact factor. There are only 55 journals world-wide in dentistry and oral surgery/medicine combined that have an impact factor, and there are only 16 in all of health care ethics, health law and forensic medical sciences combined. In short, the "publish or perish" rule that guides much of  academic writing keeps those who could and would like to from sending submissions to IDEALS (or even to "Issues in Dental Ethics" for the JACD is not among the 55 with a citation index).

Thus a catch-22 situation emerges.  As long as we do not get a decent number of high quality submissions that are likely to make it through peer review, we cannot start a new international Dental Ethics and Law Journal -- an idea that has been discussed in the IDEALS Board ever since its founding 9 years ago. But as long as we do not have such a peer reviewed journal, few scholars will submit their articles to us.

While we cannot solve the "impact factor" problem, we may be able to find a solution -- or at least a partial one -- for the "peer review" problem. The IDEALS Editorial Board proposed to create a new section in the Bulletin called "Peer Reviewed Papers."  Those submitting an article can request that it be peer reviewed via the double-blind review process that is usual in scholarly publishing. If an article passes the peer review, it will be placed in that new section. It does not, or the author does not wish it to go through the peer review process, we will evaluate it simply in-house and work with the author to get it ready for publication in any other of the Bulletin sections.

The IDEALS Editorial Board eagerly awaits your submissions.
 

Correspondence Address:
 
Jos Welie
Center for Health Policy and Ethics
Creighton University
2500 California Plaza
Omaha, NE 68178 - USA
jwelie@creighton.edu