New journal launched by Dental Institute staff

Social Science & Dentistry journal front cover

A new journal aimed at social and behavioural scientists working in dentistry was launched by members of the Dental Institute at the most recent IADR conference in Miami. Dr Sasha Scambler and Professor Tim Newton, both members of the Department of Oral Health Services Research & Dental Public Health, are the founding editors of the journal and are delighted to have the opportunity to provide a forum to bring together work in sociology, psychology and related disciplines as applied to dentistry.

The founding principle of the Journal Social Science and Dentistry is that there are highly significant relationships between the social sciences, the empirical investigation of issues of oral health and health care and policy formation and implementation which require to be explored and publicised. The aim of the journal is to provide a scholarly international forum for reflections and debates on the full range of contemporary oral health issues. The journal will be primarily, but not exclusively soliciting contributions from sociology, psychology, economics and social policy.

Contributions from other related disciplines, epidemiology, philosophy, anthropology and medical geography, for example, are also welcome. Submissions covering topics such as the definition, meaning and importance of oral health; inequalities in oral health and access to oral health care; oral health behaviour; policy evaluation in dentistry; oral health related quality of life and the development of dentistry as a profession are welcome. Social Science and Dentistry accepts empirical, theoretical and policy papers as well as reviews and commentaries.

Posted on 5 May 2009