Julian English explains how the winner of the Dentistry Top 50 is decided.
It was only after an editorial advisory board meeting for Dentistry magazine that I realised how frustrating ‘perception is reality’ is.
Often described as The X Factor of the dental profession, the Dentistry Top 50 (much like the popular television singing contest) is very popular receiving thousands of votes every year.
It is so popular that these days, to have any influence over the final results one needs to campaign harder than the Tories in a UKIP by-election.
Back to perception being reality… at a recent editorial advisory board meeting, I asked attenders their opinion on the various features and campaigns against the magazine, including the Top 50.
Responses varied person-to-person.
It appears younger dentists use the Top 50 to find out more about the profession they are joining.
And other dentists use it to see who are promoting themselves at the moment.
But the most interesting comment was one of match fixing.
This surprised me because from the beginning of this campaign, Dentistry magazine has gone to great lengths to ensure fairness in the voting system.
So I am taking this opportunity to explain exactly how the Top 50 campaign works.
This is in bullet form to make it easier to digest:
- The campaign runs from January to April annually
- Dental professionals vote for five most ‘influential’ people
- Voting mainly comes through the website www.dentistry.co.uk/top50
- Dentistry provides a list of possible candidates to choose from
- Dental professionals must provide a GDC registration number in order for their vote to qualify
- An independent company manages the entire process
- Block voting and repetitive votes are rejected
- Multiple votes from single IP addresses are rejected
- A list of the top 50 people who received the most votes is published in May.
To the right hand side is the aforementioned list of suggested names to consider.
You can of course choose a name of your own if you consider this person to be very influential in the UK dental profession.
I hope this article explains any confusion ideals and myths regarding the voting system.
And I look forward to changing the perception that seems to be out there about the Dentistry Top 50.
How to vote
To have your say and vote for who you believe is the most influential person in UK dentistry, please visit www.dentistry.co.uk/top50.
