Guide for authors
The journal publishes original scientific papers, short communications and review articles. Papers are published in British English, in justified cases in Slovak with an English title, abstract and key words. Manuscripts must be submitted in carefully edited English. The author is fully responsible for the originality of the paper and formal correctness. The Editorial Board decides on the publication of papers, taking into account peer reviews, scientific importance, and manuscript quality.
Scientific papers have to be written clear, accurate, and concise, to be cited by other scientists, it should not exceed 7,000 words (30 pages double spaced), including tables and figure captions.
The short communication is the precise and concise version of research paper with some unique or significant findings requiring immediate communication in the scientific community. It should have an abstract and should not exceed 2,500 words (10 pages double spaced). No subheadings and a description of materials/methods should be integrated in the text.
Review article surveys and summarizes previously published studies, rather than reporting new facts or analysis information (up to 10,000 words, 40 pages double spaced).
The journal does not have article processing charges (APCs) nor article submission charges.
Reviewer’s evaluation
All incoming scientific manuscripts will be evaluated by the Editorial Board. If contributions meet topics-related and formal requirements, they will be sent to two referees. The reviewers are asked to assess papers within 3 weeks. The Editorial Board will make a decision about acceptation or rejection of a manuscript on the base of the reviews, scientific importance and quality of a manuscript.
After reviewer’s evaluation
The author is liable for return the corrected manuscript to the editorial office within 3 weeks. All points of the review should be answered i.e. manuscript should be amended according to reviewer’s requirements or reasons for leaving it unchanged should be explained in a cover letter. All changes – corrections proceeded in manuscript must be explain and highlighted by colour.
Manuscript layout:
The paper should be on standard size of paper (A4 format), Times New Roman, type size 12 font, double-space lines, 2.5 cm margins on each edge of the page. MS Word should be used. If any abbreviations are used, they shall be explained appropriately when they are used in the text for the first time. Latin words are to be written in italics. Tables, graphs and other material are to be submitted separately to the text. Word editor should be used to create tables, for tables each item should be placed into a separate cell. Maximum size 16.4 (width) x 23 cm (height) = one page per table. Tables are to be numbered with Arabic numerals in the order in which they are referred to in the text and have a brief, but self-explanatory title. Abbreviations or symbols used in the tables must be explained either in the table title or as a footnote. Column headings should be as brief as possible; the units should be indicated in square brackets. No vertical lines should be used. Graphs should be provided in MS Excel editor (stored with original data) or as a figure, without shadow outline and background and without grid. Size of figures should either match the column width (7.6 cm) or their width must not exceed 16 cm, the maximum height is 23 cm; photos, figures and diagrams in format .tiff, .gif, .jpg, .psd, .eps, .pdf, .ai – in BW, RGB or CMYK; resolution min. 300 dpi.
Title of paper has to be concise, accurate (not exceeded 85 characters without spaces); no subtitles and abbreviations should be used
Authors and Affiliations – complete name(s) of the authors, the name(s) and address(es) of the work place, e-mail
Corresponding author is responsible for professional processing of analyses and interpretation of obtained data, checks the accuracy of the text and presentation of results; the author identification by ORCID database.
Abstract is a short summary of the whole paper containing all essential facts of a scientific paper; it should provide the reader sufficient information about the objective, used method(s) and the most important results. As far as possible, the abstract should be concise and clear in writing. It should not exceed 250 words without spaces. It does not contain cited references.
Key words (up to 7 words) should not differ from words mentioned in the title.
Introduction should outline the main reason why the research was conducted, describe a brief review of literature consisting of refereed periodicals, journals and books. It sets out basic research questions, or some dominant hypotheses. The last paragraph should include the statement of objectives of the paper.
Material and Methods. This section should describe in detail all materials used, experiments, their distribution, conditions. All original procedures used to process the experimental experiments and all analytical methods used for evaluation should also be described in detail. Describe the complete methodology only if it is an original procedure, otherwise it is sufficient to quote the author(s) of the method and mention specific differences. This section must also indicate the methods of statistical processing, including the software used.
Results should be processed in a clear way illustrated by tables and figures. Parallel documentation of identical results in tables and figures is not admissible. The authors should confront partial results with data published by other authors, whose names and year of publication are to be cited by including them in the text directly, e.g. …as published by Lutz (1987), Keller et al. (1997), Welsch and Miranda (2001) found …, or citing authors and years of publication in parenthesis (Lutz 1987; Welsch & Miranda 2001; Keller et al. 1997).
Discussion is an evaluation of the achieved results especially with regard to the factors that could influence them and confront them with the results of other authors in such way to be obvious what is new in the obtained results, and how do they differ or agree with the results of other authors or with hitherto knowledge. Asked scientific questions should be answered briefly at the end of this section. Results and discussion can be presented in one heading.
Conclusions must be clear and brief. There is a need to define clearly the obtained new knowledge, the most important results, their scientific or practical significance and recommendation for the practice and/or for direction of further research.
Acknowledgement and information regarding the funding sources will appear at the end of the text, before the References section.
References should provide the list of refereed literature arranged in alphabetical order according to the surname of the first author. The full title of all authors should be followed by the year of publication, the original title of the paper, the full name of the periodical, the relevant volume, the number of periodical and page numbers. In the case of book or proceedings the title should be followed by the name of publisher and the place of publication. References sources should be quoted in English language. The references should consist of peer periodicals (mainly peer-reviewed). It is not recommended to quote proceedings from conferences, research reports, dissertation and habilitation theses. When linking to websites, also state the exact date when the information was obtained. Only papers quoted in the text should be included in the list of references. If available DOI registration use.
Ethical rules of publication in the scientific journal PEDOSPHERE RESEARCH
The ethical principles are based on the rules of publication ethics formulated in the Statement on the Scopus Journal Selection Process of 2010, as well as on the recommendations of the International Commission on Publication Ethics and are in accordance with the Act no. 185/2015 Coll. on Copyright – Copyright Act, which applies in the Slovak Republic. The ethical principles of publication were developed with the intention of adhering to scientific ethics in research as well as in publishing its results.
PUBLISHING ETHICS OF AUTHORS
The manuscript of the article sent to the editors of the journal PEDOSPHERE RESEARCH must meet the following conditions:
- the manuscript of the article may not be in the review procedure in another domestic or foreign journal, nor published in other periodicals, whether domestic or foreign;
- the author(s) is/are responsible for: i) the content of the paper and for its originality; ii) the chosen research methodology; and iii) the interpretation of the published results;
- scientific conclusions that have already been published in other journals (printed or electronic) and are not supplemented by new results will not be published in the PEDOSHPERE RESEARCH; plagiarism is unacceptable and such a contribution cannot be published in this journal;
- the corresponding author is responsible for the correct and accurate citation of the references and sources used in the manuscript according to the guide for authors in PEDOSPHERE RESEARCH;
- if the manuscript of an article has more than one author, they shall agree among themselves on the order in which their names appear; the corresponding author is always published first, followed by co-authors, who do not have to be listed in alphabetical order, but according to their share in the article; this is the prerogative of the authors of the article and the Editorial Board of the journal will not interfere.
- the corresponding author is obliged to cooperate with the Editorial Board of the journal during the review process and to eliminate or correct errors according to the results of the review within a specified period of time, or to supplement the required explanations and results.
- if the corresponding author of the scientific article does not agree with the comments and recommendations of the reviewers, he has the right to request non-publication of the reviewed article, or to rework it and send it for a new review.
- the Editorial Board of the journal is obliged to respect the decision of the authors who decide to withdraw the manuscripts of scientific articles, as they do not share a favourable opinion with the comments of reviewers or the Editorial Board and do not plan to modify them and send them for a new review.
Download ethical rules in PDF.
Examples of references
Journal article:
Ross, N. (2015). On truth content and false consciousness in adorns aesthetic theory. Philosophy Today, 59(2), 269-290. DOI: …
Dismuke, C. and Egede, L. (2015). The impact of cognitive, social and physical limitations on income in community dwelling adults with chronic medical and mental disorders. Global Journal of Health Science, 7(5), 183-195.
Book
Patterson, J. (2005). Maximum ride. New York: Little, Brown, 500p.
Dahl, R. (2004). Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. 6th ed. New York: Knopf, 400p.
Vermaat, M., Sebok, S., Freund, S., Campbell, J. and Frydenberg, M. (2014). Discovering computers. Boston: Cengage Learning, 500p.
Daniels, K., Patterson, G. and Dunston, Y. (2014). The ultimate student teaching guide. 2nd ed. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications, 300p.
Book chapter or article in an edited book
Bressler, L. (2010). My girl, Kylie. In Matheson, L. (Ed.) The Dogs That We Love, 1st ed. Boston: Jacobson Ltd., pp. 78-92.
Citations for journal articles found on a database or on a website
Raina, S. (2015). Establishing correlation between genetics and nonresponse. Journal of Postgraduate Medicine, [online] Volume 61(2), p. 148. Available at: www.proquest.com/products-services/ProQuest-Research-Library.html [Accessed 8 Apr. 2015].
The SI international system of measurement units should be used link on pdf.
The author’s address: On a separate sheet of paper, the author should include full name (co-authors’ full names), including all academic and scientific degrees and detailed address of the institution with postcode and e-mail address. The author who is responsible for any correspondence with the journal has to be indicated clearly.
Offprints: Free reprints are available on the website www.pedosphereresearch.sk.
Compliance with these instructions is obligatory for all authors. If a manuscript does not comply exactly with the above requirements, the Editorial Office will not accept it and will return it to the authors without reviewing.