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Interview with Dr Aliye Akcalı, Editorial Board Member of the month, February 2022

by Jennifer Harman, Editor 

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JH: Tell us a bit about yourself and your current focus of research

AA: My name is Aliye Akcalı. Currently, I am affiliated to Dokuz Eylul University, Dental Faculty, Department of Periodontology, as Head of Department as well as Director of the Master Program (MSc) and Head of Dental Biomaterials Department, Institute of Health. I have been working at Queen Mary University of London (Clinical Oral Research Center) as Honorary Lecturer since 2016. With respect to my research interests, I have clinical experience in periodontology and implantology, with a particular emphasis on periodontal/peri-implant plastic surgery and bone regeneration procedures. In addition, I have expertise in investigating host defense mechanisms via basic biomedical research. 

JH: What do you think is the most fascinating recent development in oral health?

A fascinating recent improvement in oral health is the development of models, such as the characterisation of individuals (e.g. via molecular profiling, lifestyle data), for tailoring personalised treatment strategies and delivering timely targeted prevention.

JH: Is there an area of oral health that you think is currently under-explored?

AA: Oral health-related quality of life has become an important parameter in the dental field, and I believe standardized and valid measures to evaluate patient-reported outcome measures still need further investigation.

JH: Where do you see (or where would you like to see) the oral health field in 10 years from now?

In 10 years, I see targeted /personalized treatment approaches for oral tissue regeneration becoming cost-efficient and reliable. 

JH: What does it mean to you to be an Editorial Board Member (EBM) for BMC Oral Health?

It is a privilege to help determine the suitability of submitted manuscripts for publication. Being an Editorial Board Member allows me to give back to the research community by supporting the peer-review process to help maintain the integrity of published research.

JH: What is one piece of advice you would give to reviewers as an EBM handling manuscripts?

I advise reviewers to provide constructive feedback to the authors to ensure they understand the reasons/soundness of their decision.

JH: What is one piece of advice you would give to the authors of submitted manuscripts?

I recommend authors strictly follow and adhere to the BMC Oral Health submission guidelines, which encourages the use of reporting guidelines and the deposition of data sets in publicly available repositories. Importantly, I advise authors to clearly describe what their study adds to the existing literature before submitting their manuscript.

JH: What would you change in scientific publishing if you could?

I would like to build a fast and open platform that allows early sharing of findings via indexing services to give scientists incentives to communicate their work in this way.