A Commemorative Issue of the Work of Prof. Dr. Ruth Freeman

Dear Colleagues,

At the untimely death of Professor Ruth Freeman on the 23rd September 2021, the internationally known dental public health specialist and academic had just entered her retirement from full-time work with the University of Dundee. Although the status of her retirement might have indicated a stepping back, she had many projects still being prosecuted indicating a continued active legacy. Her interests were extensive, and arguably a unique combination of both a psychological and physical focus.  She spear-headed the excluded individual, the status of their health— oral or general— and how services, health behaviour and environment could be altered systematically to improve their quality of life. The Dentistry Journal wishes to honour this remarkable scholar by supporting a Special Issue dedicated to her work. The Issue offers authors the opportunity to submit articles that acknowledge Ruth Freeman’s work (single perspective or across various fields). Authors might include reference to the many specific areas that her research touched and influenced. They include, but not exclusively, minority groups: the homeless, prisoners, dental phobics, chronic facial pain sufferers, young dental patient attendees, disability and burn out of dental staff.  In addition, she was interested in the psychological makeup of the individual from an in-depth perspective.  She drew on her undoubted skill as a trained and practising psychoanalytical psychotherapist.  This in-depth work revealed underlying features. These, she believed, needed to be translated into active study, channelled into theory, and targeted as possible factors to introduce into effective intervention in service development or individual behaviour change. There are many examples in her research to demonstrate this process.  Articles are invited, therefore, that adopt an area of Ruth Freeman’s published work and indicate how her particular interest has influenced the authorship and preferably how their current research is reflecting and extending some of the tenets of her public health philosophy.

The Editor of the Special Issue is Professor Emeritus Gerry Humphris (Ruth’s spouse and oral health researcher) from the University of St Andrews.

In her final years, she wrote a series of policy papers with other key academics to advance the principles of intersectionality, inclusion oral health and vulnerability. Dr Janine Doughty is one member of the writing group (also including Muirhead and MacDonald) and is one of the Issue’s Sub-Editors. Additional Sub-Editors include Professor Satu Lahti from University of Turku, Finland and Professor Barry Gibson (University of Sheffield). Both are prestigious and influential researchers with an extensive collaborative history of working with Ruth Freeman in the fields of dental anxiety and qualitative methodology applied to oral health, respectively. Finally, Professor Jan Clarkson of the University of Dundee was Ruth Freeman’s Co-Director of the Dental Health Services Research Unit responsible for world-class oral health research. Prof Clarkson is probably best known for her ground-breaking trials of dental service development and interventions, and the two Co-Director academics together proved to present a formidable profile of expertise in the paediatric and public health arenas.

The Journal looks forward to receipt of original work to celebrate a sorely missed inspirational colleague and collaborator, a truly unique leader of a major set of branches of dental public health. The Special Issue will provide a marker of the substantial body of work that Freeman conducted and demonstrate her influence in years ahead.

Prof. Dr. Gerry M. Humphris
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Dentistry Journal is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• dental public health
• minority groups
• health care communication
• health education
• staff support
• burnout and occupational stress
• dental fear