Article
It is amazing how time flies when you are enjoying yourself!
My career in publishing started in 1983, in the classified sales team at a company called United Trade Press, working on a publication called Factory Equipment News, the leading magazine for managers in manufacturing plants, which kept them informed about all the latest products needed in the manufacturing process, a magazine of its time that unfortunately is no longer required, as basically in the UK we make nothing. I did not realize at the time, one of the UK's leading medical titles was celebrating its 10th anniversary, Dental Update. After 23 years as Managing Director and publisher of Dental Update, I look back and can see that being the Managing Director of this journal has been an honour, just being involved, and at work, enjoying myself. I still recall being ticked off by Board member Professor Edwina Kidd for calling Dental Update a ‘magazine’!
Fifty years ago, there was a perceived need to launch a journal for general dental practitioners that was not researched based, but was practical and factually based, and the content was also peer reviewed to ensure its accuracy. In other words, presenting contemporary research into an easily read, attractive format, with clinical relevance, rather than the drab appearance of some research publications. Hence, the birth of Dental Update in 1973, the same time that the UK entered the EU, Pink Floyd released Dark Side of the Moon, and the UK introduced VAT. Looking back, it seems amazing that Dental Update has lasted as long as those on the list (except the EU), and although comparing it with Dark Side of the Moon might sadden the remaining members of Pink Floyd, unlike the band, we are still publishing.
Dental Update is the finest journal offering peer-reviewed practical articles in UK dental publishing. It offers our subscribers valuable solutions to everyday problems that are seen in the surgery, but, most importantly, that special ingredient that separates Update from other peer dental titles, we insist that our authors write, where possible, in a relaxed and understandable tone using great dental photography, making subscribers feel that it is an enjoyable read as well as being part of their continuing postgraduate learning. Every article must be relevant to today's dentistry and designed for GDPs operating at the coalface of dentistry.
For the past 30 years, the amazing Professor Trevor Burke has been the driving force behind the journal. He has, single-handedly at times, and while maintaining a day job at Birmingham Dental School until recently, driven the quality of our journal to what it is today, and I can only thank him and applaud his skills. Owing to his wisdom, we now can boast that Dental Update is essential reading for fourth and fifth year dental students, with every UK dental school subscribing online, and over 100 international dental schools offering our content to future clinicians.
2002 saw the introduction of CPD. I can only say that the communication from the GDC to the ‘dental workforce’ about what was needed for verifiable CPD was, for want of a better phrase, a complete dog's dinner. Dental Update was the first dental journal to also offer to manage our subscribers' verifiable CPD (supported by Colgate), simply by reading the journal and answering the questions relating to the published papers. We presented this simple idea to the GDC, and they were delighted this could be achieved. (Saved them the job!)
In the early years of CPD, there were no web sites (well, dial-up modems were next to useless in my opinion), so we used reply cards inside the journal for answering the questions posed. By 2004, at the height of CPD, Dental Update was processing the CPD answers for at least 4000 subscribers, offering certificates to all participants, and gradually moving this onto our website. Dental Update was the first publication to be able to offer the chance to download certificates via the site and to store subscribers' CPD history!
CPD was designed to promote and encourage postgraduate education, and Dental Update was that perfect vehicle with its easy-to-read, peer-reviewed content. What has been a disappointment to all at the journal is the lack of gumption from the GDC, which accepts CPD platforms from non-qualified providers with non-peer-reviewed (and hence, not always believable) content. Surely the GDC should have stipulated that courses, and journals especially, should meet a certain standard and be peer reviewed, which is the quality control required. I fear that, unfortunately, that ship has now sailed.
So, a big thank you to all our current and past subscribers who have been part of my 23 years at the helm. Thank you to our amazing Editorial Board. Here's to another 50 years of publishing excellence.
Dental Update's sister publication, Orthodontic Update, is also going from strength to strength, and, most importantly, readers can look forward to Dental Update's 50th anniversary issue in May 2023, in which members of the editorial board will be considering 50 years of their specialties, from materials to periodontology and treatment of caries to oral cancer … an amazing issue to celebrate 50 years of postgraduate education. Dental Update, written by clinicians for clinicians!