Guidelines for Authors
The scientific journal Acta veterinaria Brno is dedicated to the publication of original research articles and clinical studies (the first reports of the author´s own work), review articles (based largely on other scientist´s work), in veterinary and biomedical sciences. The objective of the journal is to promote the art and science of veterinary medicine and pursue animal health and welfare. Articles reporting new and substantial contribution to veterinary science and original methods that have not been published, simultaneously submitted for publication elsewhere or already accepted for publication elsewhere are considered. A written statement to this effect must accompany the manuscript, along with approval for publication by the author´s head of department. Signatures of all authors should be included along with the statement that the manuscript has been read and approved by all authors. The authors bear full responsibility for the contents of their contribution. Book reviews are published, too.
The journal honours the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (Ann Intern Med 1997 126:36-47). In these, among issues to consider before submitting a manuscript a redundant or duplicate publication is defined as follows: "redundant or duplicate publication is publication of a paper that overlaps substantially with one already published".
Authorship: „All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the content. Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions to
- conception and design, or analysis and interpretation of data; and to
- drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and
- final approval of the version to be published.
Conditions 1, 2, and 3 must all be met. Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not justify authorship. General supervision of the research group is not sufficient for authorship. Any part of an article critical to its main conclusions must be the responsibility of at least one author.
Editors may ask authors to describe what each contributed; this information may be published.“
The Editorial Board reserves the right to reject manuscripts that are not in the scope of the journal, do not meet the standards and requirements for publication, or papers based on work that involves unnecessary pain, distress, suffering or lasting harm.
The manuscripts are independently reviewed by two reviewers that are anonymous to authors. In case of doubt, further expert opinions may be required. When the Editor-in-Chief has received written opinions of reviewers, he/she will relay these to the author. The revised version of the manuscript should be submitted in one complete set (both paper and electronic) with a cover letter describing the corrections made/rejected within two months. The final decision concerning a revised manuscript is the responsibility of the Editorial Board.
There is a charge of 8000 CZK or 320 euros per accepted and printed article, payable to the University account before printing. The authors will receive 25 offprints.
Proofs
A copy of the galley proofs in pdf format will be sent to the corresponding author. Corrections other than typesetting errors cannot be accepted. The proofs must be returned immediately.
Manuscript
The authors should submit the electronic version of the manuscript and a cover letter to the Editor-in-Chief (actavet@vfu.cz). They still may send an original of the printed manuscript with documents mentioned above and a complete sets of figures or photographs to the the Editor-in-Chief, Acta Veterinaria Brno, VFU, Palackého 1-3, 612 42 Brno, Czech Republic.
The manuscript (use Times New Roman, 12 point font) should not exceed 10-15 pages (double-spaced on paper A4, 210 × 300 mm, 30 lines, i.e. 1800 characters per page with a 2,5 cm left margin), including references, tables and illustrations. For illustrations, use .jpg format. Do not submit tables in excel format, the DTP studio cannot process them. In the text and references, do not use indentations, do not use italics except for Latin names of animals, plants, and bacteria.
The authors should keep a complete hard copy and the electronic form of the text and illustrations.
Title
should be short, specific and informative. Abbreviations cannot be used in the title.
Author's names and addresses
give first names, middle initials and surnames, in minuskules, and identify affiliation of each author by upper index numbers.
Abstract
should begin with Acta heading as follows: Cox F.: Fat is Good for Aged Rats. Acta Vet. Brno 0000, 00: 000-000. It should be no longer than 250 words. It must be structured, and provide sufficient information about the contents of the paper (including purpose, methods, results, conclusions and significance of the work) to stand alone and not require reference to the text for understanding. It should be self-contained, informative, and present important numerical data. Abbreviations and references should not be used.
Keywords
(4-6) for abstracting and indexing purposes should follow the Abstract and should not repeat words from the title.
Introduction
should set the study in context with existing knowledge by briefly reviewing the background literature that led the authors to carry out the work. Only references relevant to the presented experiments should be included.
Materials and Methods
should relate to the objectives as described above. It should keep strictly to a clear description of all aspects relevant to the experimental observations. It should be described in sufficient detail to allow precise reproduction in toto of the work by the reader. SI units (noted in negative exponent form, e.g. ng ml-1) and internationally accepted nomenclature should be used (e.g. Nomina Anatomica Veterinaria, Nomina Histologica, Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology). The generic name, dose and route of administration should be given for drugs and anaesthetics, the name and location of manufacturer of drugs, reagents and special equipment should be provided. All abbreviations should be explained when first used. Statistical treatment of the data should be included. The papers describing research using animals should contain the following information: species, strain or breed of the animal, their sex, age and body mass. Origin of the animals, i.e. identification of the breeding colony, quality of animals from the microbiological point of view, i.e. conventional, specified pathogen free (SPF), gnotobiotic (germ-free or associated animals). Housing conditions in the experimental facility - conventional, barrier system, isolators, relative humidity, temperature, lighting regime, diet description (e.g. type of pellets), feeding and watering of animals - ad libitum, restricted. Methods of anaesthesia and euthanasia should be given. Animals must be treated in consent with animal care and use regulations of the respective country and such statement must be included in the manuscript. Ethical considerations, licences and approvals under which the work was carried out must be provided.
Results
should only include data that answer the questions in the introduction. The text should explain tables and figures, but numbers should not be repeated extensively within the text. The most appropriate form of presentation should be chosen, and any repetition of data avoided. Do not include tables or figures in text, include them at the end of the paper. Mark their placement at the left margin in pencil.
Discussion
(may be combined with Results) should evaluate and interpret the results clearly and concisely. If separated from Results, no repeated or new results should be included. The discussion should integrate literature data with author«s findings, and present his own conclusions.
Acknowledgements
should be brief, and acknowledge only direct contribution to the work reported, financial or other support.
References
should contain all the relevant citations. Citing „grey literature“, i.e. abstracts from local seminars, conferences, miscellaneous local prints etc. that are difficult to locate is acceptable but should be limited to a few items, and an English title should be provided in parentheses. In citations, include names of all authors. Avoid, if possible, using “unpublished data“ or “personal communications“ unless they exist in written form. Abbreviate titles of journals according to the style used in the Web of Knowledge and Index Medicus. References to papers which have been accepted but not published yet should be cited as “in press“. The accuracy of references is the responsibility of authors. They should be alphabetically ordered without numbering and indentation. References to electronic sources must include the date of access.
Examples
Cox EF, Box XS, Fox Z 1996: Science does make sense. J Physiol 234: 123-126
Fox VK 1986: Methods in Enzymology. Academic Press, London, 243 p.
Hlavička G 1994: Linoleic acid uptake and vitamin E requirements of guinea pigs. PhD. Thesis, Univ Vet Pharm Sci, Brno, 124 p.
Mock MS 1996: Structure of enzymes. In: Fox VK (Ed.): Methods in Enzymology. Academic Press, London, pp. 233-248
Statistical Guidelines. J Vet Internal Med Web site. Available at: www.acvim.org/wwwfp/jvim/statguide.htm. Last modified August 9, 2000. Accessed September 12, 2001.
Illustrations
and tables should be restricted to a minimum. They should be numbered consecutively and must be each submitted into the system. They should be done professionally, using initial capitals for the first word only of the legends. Grid marks should face inwards, and legends should run in parallel to the axes, left to right and bottom to top. No 3-dimensional or colour graphs should be used, and black columns in histograms should be avoided. Freehand or typed lettering is unacceptable. Photographs – in jpg format. Photomicrographs must have internal scale markers. Symbols, arrows or letters used in them should contrast with the background. Copyright clearance must be obtained and a letter of permission presented to the Editor-in-Chief before an illustration is reproduced from a published article or other material.
Tables
should contain as few lines and columns as possible, and combining symbols and lines should be avoided. The desired positions of tables and illustrations should be indicated in the text. Presenting the same results in tables and graphs is not acceptable. We expected authors to submit very high quality images for graphs and diagrams.
The copyright of the University covers the rights of all authors. After acceptance the papers will be published both in the journal and on-line, through the University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno (http://www.vfu.cz/acta-vet/actavet.htm). (http://vfu-www.vfu.cz/acta-vet/index.html).