Submitting Papers
Authors submit papers via email in doc, docx, and rtf formats. The email address can be found either on the Contact box on this and other pages of this web.
All submitted papers should primarily meet the basic publishing criteria listed here.
Before submitting a paper, please read the following chapters and pages in particular:
- Focus of papers
- Publication criteria
- Extent
- Structure of papers
- Formatting of the text
- Examples of citations
Focus of Papers
When contemplating the selection of a topic, as well as its treatment, the author of a paper should consider its contribution not only to Czech but also to the international professional community, particularly at an academic level. Treatises and other studies, as well as articles, should ideally respond to current professional discussion expressed both in literature and at scientific conferences.
The topic of a paper should be chosen so that the extent allowed for by the format of a journal paper is sufficient for high-quality elaboration. Papers whose topics are too widely defined may therefore be rejected for insufficient profoundness of elaboration of the topic.
The title of a paper must really correspond to its content. Failure to meet this condition may result in the rejection of the paper in the peer review process.
The title should not be longer than 100 characters incl. spaces. If possible, it should not contain digits (e.g. numbers of legal regulations, provisions, etc.). The topic of the paper should be expressed factually, e.g. in the case of a legal regulation, by its name, abridged name, or abbreviation. Similar rules apply to a particular provision contained in a legal regulation.
With respect to the academic focus of papers, the title should express that the paper is a comprehensive elaboration of an analysed issue. Thus, the title should not contain expressions such as “Selected questions…”, “A few notes on…” etc. Therefore the paper should be thematically profiled in a clear and specific way.
Supplements to papers
Together with a paper itself, or subsequently, the editorial team must also be provided with the information listed below. This information may be provided in an additional file, or it may be included in the text of the paper.
- Abstract in the Czech language (600-1000 characters incl. spaces)
- Abstract in the English language (the same length)
- Title of the paper translated into Czech
- Key words in the Czech language (3-8)
- Key words in the English language (3-8)
- Author’s place of work: institution (university and faculty, etc.), place of work (department, institute, etc.), rank (postgraduate student, assistant, senior lecturer, and the like)
- Technical information: email address for the audience; in the case of postgraduate students it is necessary to mention whether they are full-time or part-time students and which department they are with
Abstract
The abstract must briefly define the selected problem and its context, the main aims of the paper, and the final result or finding. Its length must meet the requirements of the respective section; see Sections.
Extent
A limit to the length of papers differs depending on the section (see Sections). The extent of a paper may be one of the criteria for its inclusion in the respective section. Limits for individual papers within the set extent margin will be determined by the chief editor, taking into account the importance of the topic, the structure of papers in the particular issue, and other criteria.
The length of a paper is determined by the number of characters. The total also includes spaces between words, as well as the text in any footnotes. The amount of characters may be displayed by using the Word Count tool in the Review menu tab in MS Word.
Structure of the text
A paper should take the form of a continuous presentation in a text with standard paragraphing. Therefore, schematic papers, in which the bulk of the text is presented, for example, in bullet points, cannot be accepted. Similarly, it is not possible to accept papers which contain passages (e.g. citations of works or legal regulations) whose connection with the presentation is not completely clear, or which are beyond the context of the presentation. The text in the paper should be the author’s text, thus it cannot contain more than a small amount of cited passages (from works, legal regulations or judicial decisions, etc.).
The text should be free from grammar mistakes and excessive typing errors.
Structure of the text
The text may be divided into two levels at the most – chapters and subchapters. Neither chapters nor subchapters are numbered. Headings of chapters are in boldface, headings of subchapters are in boldface italics.
The introduction is neither numbered nor designated by the heading “Introduction”.
It is recommended that the length of one segment of the text (chapter or subchapter) be no shorter than 3,000 characters incl. spaces.
Commentaries
An author analyse a particular judicial decision in the form of an article or also a commentary, for which a special section is reserved. The text of a commentary itself starts with a caption (basic technical information on a judicial decision) and the Finding of the Court. It is followed by the description of the facts of the case, the determination of legal issues and the analysis itself, which can be structured like articles.
Formatting of the text
Basic formatting
If possible, the text of a paper should be written in Times New Roman font, size 12, spacing 1. The standard margin width of2.5 cmshould be used. The same applies to footnotes, but with size 10.
No lines should be left out between paragraphs.
Headings should be in boldface; see above in the Structure of the Text
Footnotes
To insert footnotes a special automatic tool in the text editor should be used. Annotations serve primarily for citations of works of authorship and sources. Factual notes may also be included in annotations but their extent should be limited. In no case should the number of characters in annotations exceed the length of the main text. To make citations, please use the editorial examples; see Examples of citations.
Italicization
Italics may solely be used in set cases:
- use of foreign language terms (incl. Latin)
- names of judicial decisions (not their numerical indication, mark, etc.).
Italics are not used in the case of quoting (in quotation marks in the text), i.e. quotation marks are not combined with italics.
Boldfacing and highlighting
Systematic highlighting of words does not pertain to professional literature (it is only used in textbooks or articles intended for practice). As an exception it is possible to accept cases where an author puts emphasis on one word which is crucial to the meaning of a paragraph. In such cases it is to be accepted that highlighting is used once or twice in the entire text. Then, italics should be used to do so.
Boldface is not used in texts at all. It is appropriate only for headings/titles.
Date
Example: 1 November 2012 or 1. 12. 2012
There is always a space after a full stop. A month may be written in words or in digits, however, always consistently throughout the text. Where the text refers to case law with given dates of delivery, it is more appropriate to write months as digits.
Punctuation
There is always a space after a full stop.
The number of a footnote is always placed after the full stop at the end of a sentence, or after a comma in a sentence, or, as the case may be, after a quotation mark.
Further see also Examples of citations.