Instructions for authors
CONDITIONS FOR ACCEPTING A MANUSCRIPT FOR PUBLISHING The editorial office does not require “imprimatur”.
Accepting contributions for publishing is conditional on undergoing the review process. The editorial office reserves the right to make minor textual changes and to make language corrections. Each work sent to the journal needs to be accompanied by a cover letter stating the title of the work, names of the authors, including titles, names of their workplaces, correspondence addresses, email addresses, the national insurance number of the primary author, his or her home address, bank account number and a statement saying that the work was not published elsewhere, nor sent for publication elsewhere. The review procedure: After receiving an article in electronic form, the chief editor confirms to the primary author that the article and all its appendices were received. If the work fails to fulfil the conditions set out by the instructions for authors in a significant manner, it is returned to the author to be supplemented or reworked before the review process itself begins. Afterwards, an independent and anonymous review procedure commences. After the review procedure is finished (which is usually within 3 weeks, depending on the reviewers’ schedules), the primary author is notified of its results and asked to make changes to the text as necessary. The author must issue a reaction to the review. After all the necessary changes are made, the primary author is again notified whether the work has been accepted or not and the approximate date of publication is set.
PROCESSING MANUSCRIPTS The editorial office accepts manuscripts in electronic form or sent by email. Apart from the electronic form, please post one print-out of the manuscript (including all appendices) to the editorial office’s address. Please use MS Word, ‘normal’ style, Times New Roman font, size 12, spacing 1.5, left-aligned. Do NOT split words, use bullets or indents, underline words, use frames, use automatic paragraph numbering (especially not in the bibliography section). Do NOT use automatic paragraphing or any other graphic editing function. Do NOT insert pictures into the text! Start paragraphs at the beginning of the line, without using spacebar to create an indentation and use ENTER only at the end of a paragraph or a title, NOT at the end of each line.
Important terms can be stressed in bold type. It is also recommended to distinguish the levels of headlines (for example by writing them in bold or in italics), but not by increasing their size or putting them into frames. Graphs, tables and quality photos are much appreciated and there should be at least one picture per every 3 pages of text. When using graphs, it is necessary to include the original numerical values as well, so that the graphs can be transferred into computer graphics. Tables, graphs and photographic documentation should be appended to the manuscript separately and labelled with a number and a description. Tables and graphs must be supplemented by a list of abbreviations and symbols used in them, with their explanations. In the text itself it is necessary to mark where the graphic elements are supposed to go, using numerical references.
For tables please use a text editor or MS Excel, for graphs please use MS Excel, including the source data. Please attach pictures as separate files in one of the following formats: JPG, PNG, TIF or EPS. Resolution should be at least 300 dpi and a picture should be at least 12 cm wide. Do not compress JPG files! Pictures inserted into a MS Word file, into the text are not suitable for us at all and we do not accept them, nor do we accept pictures inside MS Power Point files - it is necessary to save such pictures into JPG or TIF files and send them in that form. It is also possible to send us original, physical pictures to be scanned; they will of course be returned in the same condition in which we received them. Materials (tables, graphs, pictures) which the author took from other publications can be printed only with a written permission from the person/publisher holding the copyright.
After editorial changes and language corrections are done, the article will be sent back to the author for author’s correction, by fax or by email as a PDF file (which can be opened using Acrobat Reader). The details of handing over the corrected text, including terms and deadlines will be arranged with each author individually. It is not possible to make significant changes or supplements to the text during author’s correction! We draw the authors’ attention to the fact that the deadline for submitting author’s corrections is limited by the fixed terms of the journal’s production (in practice the time is usually 5 working days) and no changes, edits or submissions made after the deadline can be accepted.
After being printed in the journal, the articles are also available at our website www.postgradmed.cz Articles fulfilling all the necessary requirements can be sent directly to the editorial office’s address.
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