With this issue, The Journal of the American Dental Association unveils an updated design and several new features. In the weeks ahead, each issue of JADA, including full text and graphics, will be accessible via the Internet.
"We’re always looking for ways to improve what we do and how we do it," said Laura A. Kosden, publisher and chief operating officer of the ADA Publishing, a division of ADA Business Enterprises Inc. "The changes we’re introducing will enhance The Journal’s user-friendliness, and online posting will make JADA more accessible to our Web-savvy readers and advertisers."
Through an alliance with ingenta inc., the complete text and graphics of JADA cover stories, clinical and research articles, commentaries, letters to the editor and other features will be available online, dating from January 1998 to the present and beyond.
Billed as the "Global Research Gateway," ingenta serves about 2 million visitors each month, offering more than 400 health-care related journals as a part of a collection of about 2,800 full-text electronic journals.
All told, more than 1.3 million articles are available through ingenta services and a MEDLINE database, with links to full-text articles held within the ingenta collection.
The JADA/ingenta online service is expected to be up and running early this year. Watch for an announcement on ADA.org, the Association’s Web site.
Visitors to the site will be able to explore JADA using a keyword search engine. They also will be able to travel seamlessly to the ingenta platform, where they can search other journals as well as JADA—downloading and printing articles as they choose.
To help build traffic, the service will be offered free of charge to all visitors in the first year. After that, it will remain free to ADA members and JADA subscribers, while nonmembers will be charged an access fee, the amount to be determined.
Visitors will be able to download articles in one of two formats: as PDF (portable document format) files or in HTML (hypertext markup language). A PDF file is essentially an exact replica of the printed page, like a snapshot of the original JADA layout. The HTML format includes the same text and illustrations, but in a simplified graphic presentation that’s faster to download.
"We’re offering JADA online in direct response to requests from readers and advertisers," said Ms. Kosden. "This has been a major undertaking for us, much more involved than anyone can imagine. And we’re very pleased to be nearing implementation of this venture."
In this issue, JADA introduces a number of format changes and new features aimed at improving its already considerable appeal.
On the design side, The Journal’s intent is to make better use of cover blurbs or "teasers" meant to persuade readers to look inside. Once they do, they will note a cleaner, more streamlined look, using typefaces that are easier to read (especially in tables) and a standardized handling of the abstracts that accompany clinical and research articles.
New features include an expanded section on Cosmetic & Restorative Care, kicked off in this issue with an article on "Smile Design" by Dr. Jeff Morley, JADA’s associate editor for Cosmetic and Esthetic Dentistry.
Also debuting in this issue is a one-page monthly feature called "Dental Product Spotlight." Produced in cooperation with the ADA Division of Science, this new feature showcases a new or unusual product that has received the ADA Seal of Acceptance and is likely to be of particular interest to practicing dentists.
In the months ahead, JADA also will offer reports on new products introduced at key dental meetings—the ADA annual session and the Chicago Midwinter Meeting.
