Exploring ADA Commons: Discover what’s new across the tripartite

By: Alisun DeKock

Are you curious about what’s going on at other ADA State and Local Associations? Perhaps you are faced with a unique clinical or business question and wondering if your peers have written about a similar experience.

ADA Commons is a new information resource that can help you find those answers. Featuring membership publications from across the tripartite and archival materials from the ADA collections, ADA Commons is a searchable, open-access database solely focused on dentistry and oral health.

MDDS’s Articulator magazine is now included in ADA Commons, giving Metro Denver Dental Society members the ability to search for past Articulator articles, authors, and specific content relevant to your needs. Because any state or local ADA-member society may participate, ADA Commons also gives you access to the latest journals, magazines, and newsletters of all participating ADA societies. Content also includes archives of peer-reviewed articles, clinical research, legal and HR-related news, editorials and much more.

The creation of this resource was resolved and approved by the ADA House of Delegates in 2022 and funding for the project was secured. As a result, participating in ADA Commons is free for ADA societies and associations. The database launched at SmileCon 2023 and will continue to grow as more publications from across the United States are onboarded.

How To Use
Using ADA Commons is simple. If you are searching for a particular topic, use the search bar found in the left menu to enter in a word, name, or phrase. You can search within the Articulator, in another tripartite publication, across the entire ADA repository, or all of Dentistry Commons (see below). Advanced searching allows you to narrow your search by date, author, title, etc.

Specific issues may be reached directly via the drop-down menu at left under “Select an issue.” Explore the most read articles in a publication simply by clicking “Most Popular Papers” on any page. This provides a list of those items most downloaded by readers.

If you are searching for all works by a particular author across the database, you may find them listed in the “Author” section on the landing page for ADA Commons. (Please note: this database only includes articles from the participating societies; article listings may not be inclusive of everything written by that author.) Additional guidance can be found in the extensive FAQ section.

Dentistry Commons
ADA Commons materials are also indexed by Dentistry Commons, a worldwide database of dentistry-related articles. Dentistry Commons expands the reach of content in ADA Commons to a truly global audience. Because materials are also indexed by Google, Google Scholar, and other search engines, items in ADA Commons have been viewed by individuals in every state of the U.S. As of late July, items have been downloaded over 45,000 times across 155 different countries.

Exhibits
With the growing depth of archival and research materials in ADA Commons, the ADA is now building digital exhibits to feature the archival collections of the ADA and the tripartite. In recognition of the 2024 Summer Olympics and the important role of dentistry in the lives of athletes, the ADA released a new digital exhibit this past July called Going for the Gold: the Interplay of Sports & Dentistry. Navigate to the digital exhibits from the Articulator’s page by clicking “ADA Commons” at the top and then click on “Exhibits” from the ADA Commons landing page.

Uploading Your Digital Work
Coming soon: the repository will give you the option of uploading your published, scholarly works as allowed by your publication agreement. Like a university institutional repository, authors will be able to deposit a pre-print version of their published works. This provides a secure, archival, long-term link to your work in an open-access, sharable database.

ADA Commons will continue to grow, so visit often to explore what’s new!

Alisun DeKock is the Digital Archivist and Publishing Librarian with the ADA Library & Archives. The ADA Library & Archives provides ADA members with access to dental and oral health resources and research, as well as records and publications from the ADA’s archives. Part of that research is available through ADA Commons, an open digital repository that collects, preserves and disseminates state and local dental association publications and research.