Instructions for authors

The editor's office only accepts contributions which correspond  to the magazine’s priciples and core values. A submitted contribution must be exclusively submitted for publication in Sociální práce/Sociálna práca or its English edition Czech and Slovak Social Work. Authors are asked not to submit more than two articles/contributions per year.

Manuscripts and review proceedings

Academic articles. Within the scope and for the purpose of the magazine, refers to an exploratory study or a review study (theoretical, historical research, etc.). The contribution (article) will be subjected to review proceedings with the proviso that throughout their text the author has systematically worked using relevant resources, clarifies the research methodology and presents the results with respect to the research objectives. -this is checked and assessed within the publication proceedings by two independent peer reviewers.

As the magazine is of specialised professional nature, we prefer articles which also deliver certain applied dimensions as well as the aforementioned aspects. The author should explain the relevance of his/her findings and clarify the results within the context of social work. - this is examined and assessed within the publication proceedings to assess the appropriateness of an article by one of the members of the magazine's editorial board.

Review proceedings are bilaterally anonymous, carried out by two independent reviewers. Articles are assessed in terms of content as well as form. If necessary the article may be returned to the author(s) for re-writing or amendment. Based on the reviews, the article will either be accepted or rejected. Disputable cases are settled by the editor of the individual issue. Two versions of the manuscript should be submitted to the editor’s office, sent via e-mail. One of these versions should be free of any information which would lead to the identification of the author. The other one should be a complete version of the article.

Decision on release

The author will be notified of the results of the review proceedings within eight months of receipt of the article.

Requirements for a manuscript

The following are our expectations as to the formating required for the articles. We appeal to the authors to amend their manuscripts according to the indicated requirements prior to their submission for the publication proceedings.

The body of the article

The overall extent of your text (including its title, biography, abstracts, key words, the main body, list of sources, explanatory notes) should be a maximum 10,000 words.

The entire text (title, abstracts, explanatory notes - briefly speaking, the entire document) should be in Times New Roman font, size 12, single line spacing, paragraph spaces before and after 0 p. (see figure on the left). The title should not feature capital letters or upper case characters. Page margins 2.5 cm on all sides of the text. Text, figures, charts, diagrams all left aligned. No page numbering.

The text should be divided into appropriate paragraphs following the logical structure and arguments mentioned. The text may be divided into sections/chapters. The chapters may be differentiated graphically, especially if they have a certain structure. Use three types of sub-/titles only (three levels of chapters). The chapter titles may not use underscored font due to graphical reasons. An example of a graphical division of a chapter:

SOCIAL EXCLUSION Dimensions of social exclusion Economic dimension Political exclusion

1. Social exclusion 1.1 Dimensions of social exclusion 1.1.1 Economic dimension 1.1.2 Political exclusion

We kindly ask the authors to strictly adhere to accurate research into and work with the literature they use, primarily the referencing. In the text, the reference should be made to the author's last name and year of release, these should be separated with a comma. E.g. (Korda, 2002). If a quotation is used, the page(s) should be indicated after a colon without a space. E.g. (Korda, 2002:45).

A list of sources must be included at the end of the article; the list should only include the literature referenced in the article. The list must be sorted in alphabetical order. Where references are made to several works by the same author, the list should be arranged chronologically with the latest work at the top. If several texts of the same author were released in one single year, please specify them by adding "a", "b", etc. (also see "Sources" below).

Tables, diagrams, graphs, charts and images

Tables should be inserted within the texts in the place where the author feels they logically belong. During the editing process, their location maybe altered at the editors discretion.

Tables should not exceed 14 cm in width. Font size should be at least 8-10. For graphs, please use bright contrasting colours, various structures might be used (please note, the magazine is printed in black-and-white only).

Sources of tables, diagrams, graphs, charts and images should only be mentioned if you are not their author and they were reproduced or edited by you. For the form of referring to the source, see below.

Inserted tables, diagrams, graphs, charts and images should be numbered and named as follows:

Sources

Sources are the works that the author(s) have used to gather data and opinions. 

A list of sources should be at the end of the article. A complete account of the sources you used, sorted in alphabetical order by the name of their authors should be included. We have recently decided not to differentiate individual parts/sections in the list of sources (internet sites, laws, church documents and others). 

Please follow the rule of usage derived from the standards for referencing and citations by ISO 690, see below.

All English titles in the list of sources (articles, magazines, journals, monographs, articles in journals and anthologies, etc.) should have their first letter capitalised with the exception of (in)definite articles, prepositions and connections (e.g. European Journal of Social Work, not European journal of social work).

For works written by a collective of authors; if 1 to 3 authors contributed to the work, mention all their names; if 4 and more authors contributed please mention the first three and add the "et al." abbreviation.

1. Electronic sources

Specific categories are used to reference to electronic information sources. The following specific categories are mandatory:

Medium type, carrier	the most frequent specification is "[online]"
Quotation date	[3. 1. 2015]
Availability and access	Available from:

Difference between printed and electronic source:

a) printed (hard copy):

General

AUTHORS. Year. Name.  Location: publisher.

b) electronic:

AUTHORS. Year. Name [online]. Location: publisher. [Quotation date]. Available from:

2. Monographs

a) printed (hard copy)

AUTHOR. Year. Name. Location: publisher.

b) electronic

AUTHORS. Year. Name [online]. Location: publisher. [Quotation date]. Available from:

3. Chapter in monograph

a) printed (hard copy)

AUTHORS. Year. Contribution title. In: Authors/editors of the parental document (Eds.).Title of the parental document Location: publisher, page(s)

b) electronic

AUTHOR. Year. Name [online]. Location: publisher. [Quotation date]. Available from:

4. Article in magazine

AUTHOR. Year. Article title. Magazine/journal title, Volume (issue number in the individual year), page(s).

5. Legislation

Citation of legislation, church documents and archival documents is not governed by ISO 690. The usage for referencing to and citation of these documents in the Sociální práce/Sociálna práca magazine is as follows:

General sequence of individual citations of a legal document:

Identification of the document type (e.g. act)

Sequence number (under which laws it has been incorporated into)

Year of issue

Abbreviation "Coll."

Title

E.g. Act No. 108/2006 Coll. on social services.

6. Church documents, files

PAUL VI Octogesima adveniens (1971). In: Sociální encykliky (1891–1991). Praha: Zvon, 261–296.

BENEDICT XVI Caritas in veritate. Kostelní Vydří: Karmelitánské nakladatelství, 2009.

Sociální encykliky 1981–1991. Praha: Zvon, 1996.

Quotations from the bible should indicate the book, chapter and verse. Abbreviated forms are acceptable, i.e. abbreviation of the book, chapter number, and the verse.