Instructions for authors

Scope of the journal:

The scientific journal International Journal of Health, New Technologies and Social Work Including Public Health New Technologies, Nursing, Laboratory Medicine, Social Work and Education (formerly Zdravotníctvo a sociálna práca), issued as print and online versions, is publishing peer-reviewed manuscripts, focusing topics related to helping professions, especially: healthcare, public health, nursing, laboratory medicine, social work and education/pedagogy. For the abstracting and indexing, see the journal’s website.

Types of Articles:

Contributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication: Editorial, Review paper, Original article (Original research), Short communication, Letter to the editor, Corporate presentation, Advertisement, Book review.

Manuscript preparation

  • Text editor: Microsoft Word (doc, docx).
  • Spacing: 1,15.
  • Font: Times New Roman.
  • Font size:11.
  • Use italics for scientific names of organisms (e.g. Staphylococcus aureus).
  • All tables, graphs, pictures or schemes must be also referenced in the text of the manuscript. Include also pictures and graphs as separate electronic files, if possible (jpg, jpeg, tiff, gif).

Tables: Do not use tabulator or columns to create the table – use tools from MS Word. Tables shall be numbered, such as „Table 1″ and must have an appropriate heading. Pictures (schemes) and graphs: shall be numbered, such as „Picture 1“ or „Graph 1“ and must have an appropriate heading and below the graph, include a short legend explaining all symbols and abbreviations. Do not forget to identify the source of the picture, graph or table.

Use brackets ( ) in the manuscript. Slashes / are allowed for mathematical formulas only. Abbreviations must be defined in the brackets in the position in the manuscript, where the abbreviation is used for the first time. Avoid using abbreviations in the title of the manuscript and its abstract.

Language of manuscript:
English

Extent of the manuscript:
Length of the manuscript is not limited.

All manuscripts must include:

Title of the manuscript– in Bold and capital letters. Title must be both in English and also in native language of authors (first author or corresponding author), e.g. Slovak, Czech, Polish, Serbian, German.

List of all authors – names and surnames of all authors, in the order based on their contribution during the manuscript preparation, and their institutional affiliation. Avoid writing academic degrees or positions of the authors. Each author on the list must have an affiliation. The affiliation includes department (or other organisational unit), university (or organisation) and its location, including city, and country. See the template below for details.

Contact address
One of the authors should be designated as the corresponding author. It is the corresponding author’s responsibility to ensure that the author list and their institutional affiliations are accurate and complete.

The designated corresponding author must provide his/her contact details – e-mail address and full postal address, including: full academic degrees of the author, his name and surname, Street and No, City, ZIP code, Country. The phone number  is not compulsory information, it is up on the free decision of the author, whether it will be provided.

Abstract
Necessary part of the manuscript is the structured abstract. Non-structured abstracts will not be accepted. Abstract must be written in English and also in the native language of the authors (e.g. Slovak, Czech, Polish, Serbian, German).

Abstract word limit: within 200 words.

Key Words: at least 3, maximum 10.
Key words are necessary for indexing and cataloging of biomedical information in international bibliographic databases. It is recommended to use MeSH –the standardized vocabulary of biomedical terms used for indexing documents in MEDLINE or in Index Medicus.

Structure of the abstract: must be the same as the structure of the manuscript.

Template for the Abstract of papers based on original research:
Abstracts of original papers (based on original research) should have sections as following:

Abstract
Introduction: Text
Research Objectives: Text.
Material and Methods: Text.
Results: Text.
Conclusion(s): Text.

Key Words: Keyword, Keyword, Keyword.

Template for the Abstract of review papers or theoretical papers:

Abstract
Introduction: Text.
Research Objectives: Text.
Core of Work (or other appopriate, e.g. Findings): Text.
Conclusion(s): Text.

Key Words: Keyword, Keyword, Keyword.

Organization of the paper

Introduction
Provide an adequate theoretical background, that serves as starting point of the research, or is further elaborated by the research.

Research Objectives: State the scientific objectives of the research, presented in the manuscript.

Material and Methods

Description of methods and organization of research (e.g. survey, RCT), sample characteristics. Specify the statistical software used. Specify statistical procedures for testing hypotheses, specify tests and methods of primary and secondary analysis of data, significance thresholds, etc.

Results

Results should be clear and concise, findings summarized in tables or graphs.

Discussion

This section should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. Authors should critically assess their findings, in contrast to similar researches published in the literature home or abroad, and point to the limitations of the study (e.g., small sample). A combined Results and Discussion section is also appropriate.

Conclusion(s)

The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of a Discussion.
References (see the recommendations below).

References

The journal uses “Harvard” style of referencing.
In Harvard referencing, in-text citations contain the author(s)’s or editor(s)’s surname, year of publication and page number(s) in the brackets which is followed by dot. E.g.: Text, text, text, (Mitchell 2017, p. 189). Note: p. refers to a single page, pp. refers to a range of pages. In case of multiple authors, the first three author’s surnames should be stated, followed by ‘et al’: (Sibbald SL, Wathen CN, Kothari A, et al. 2016).

If foreign publications are referenced, it is important to use DOI instead of ISSN. Digital Object Identifier (DOI) are frequently used encodings that help locate individual published items in international bibliographic databases – thus, avoid using ISSN, excepting use of resources which are not included in important in international bibliographic databases.

References such as ‘Unpublished results’ and ‘Personal Communicaton’ will not be accepted.
In the list of references, use bold to highlight the volume of the journal.
References should include only articles cited in the text and should be listed in alphabetic order and numbered.

Format of References:

Book: Author(s) – Surname, Name initials, (year of publication). Book title. Edition. City, Publishing House, total No. of pages, ISBN.
Book chapter: Author(s) – Surname, Name initials, (year of publication). Title of the chapter. Pages of the chapter. In: Author(s) – Surname, Name initials. Book title. Edition. City, Publishing House, total No. of pages, ISBN.
Journal paper: Author(s) – Surname, Name initials, (year of publication). Paper title, Journal title (abbreviated journal title), Vol, (No): pages (pp. 7-17). Doi.
Electronic document: Author(s) – Surname, Name initials, (year of publication). Book title. Edition. City, Publishing House, year. [online] [date cit. year-month-day]. Available from: URL

Examples:

Book:
1  Beneš J. (2018). Antibiotika. Systematika, vlastnosti, použití (in Czech). Praha: Grada Publishing 2018. 1.Edition. 598 p. ISBN 978-80-271-0636-3.

Book chapter:
2 Salát D. (2015). Základy farmakoinformatiky (Basis of pharmacoinformatics). p. 173-185. In: Beňo P, Šramka M, Sabová A., Tomić Z, Salát D. Všeobecná farmakológia pre zdravotnícke odbory (in Slovak): Typi Universitatis Tyrnaviensis a VEDA SAV. 204 p. ISBN 978-80-8082-944-5.

Journal:
3 Sibbald SL, Wathen CN, Kothari A (2016). An empirically based model for knowledge management in health care organizations. Health Care Manage Rev (abbreviated journal title) 2016; 41(1-3):64-74. Doi: 10.1097/HMR.0000000000000046.

Electronic document:
4 Mládková L (2014). Tacit knowledge – the human dimension of knowledge. New Delhi: Asian Research Consortium; 2014 [online] [cit.2016-06-12]. Available from:
http://www.indianjournals.com/jor.aspx?target=ijor.ijrobbrm&volume=2&issue=2&article=editorial

Ethics in publishing and publication malpractice statement

To avoid unfair practice in the field of publishing (plagiarism, statement of inaccurate information etc.) and to ensure high scientific quality of publications, as well as public apprehension of the author’s scientific results, the editorial staff, authors, also the readers must adhere to internationally recognized ethical standards.

Publishing ethics of the journal International Journal of Health, New Technologies and Social Work (formerly Zdravotníctvo a sociálna práca – Health and Social Work) follows COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines available here: https://publicationethics.org. The study itself should follow the ethical standards of the Helsinki Declaration, as revised in 2013 (available at https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/).
The above mentioned ethical standards must be recognized and agreed by te author in the moment of the submission of their manuscript. All authors have obligation to respect copyright assignments and licences. Authors have obligation to provide references and referenced Works must be included in the bibliography. All authors are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article.
All authors must declare potential conflict of interest and the financial support.

Conflict of interests or competing interests

All potential conflicts of interest must be reported within the text of the manuscript, under this heading. All of the authors must declare any conflict of interest, that may be a barrier for publication of the results in this journal, with regard to the above mentioned international standards for publication ethics.

Financial or grant support

All sources of financial or material support (grant schemes, corporate support, etc.) must be clearly declared in the section Acknowledgements. Authors should disclose the role of the research funder(s) or sponsor (if any) during the research and publication of the results. Details of all funding sources for the work in question should be given in this section. The full official funding agency name should be given together with grant/project numbers. Authors should disclose possible competing interest – e.g. in cae that some of co-authors is an employee of a corporation.

The sentence should begin: ‘This work was supported by …’ If there are no funding/financial sources reported, the authors agree to the following statement: ‘The authors have no funding to report‘.

The collective of authors

In accordance with ethics of publication, the members of the collective of authors should be the ones who contributed significantly to the research and to the creation of the manuscript.

Contact address

The author who will handle correspondence at all stages of review process and publication, also post-publication, should be clearly identified.
The designated corresponding author must provide the contact details: name and surname including full academic degrees of the author, Full postal address, street and No, city, ZIP code, country, and e-mail address. It is up on the decision of the author, whether to provide also the Phone No (it is not compulsory).

Postal address is required for delivering of the offprint copy of the journal (or the journal supplementum). E-mail address can serve to contact the authors by the editorial board and readers interested in the published paper.

Manuscript submission

Ensuring that the author(s) have followed the formal and content requirements indicated above, the manuscript can be submitted. The manuscript should be sent by the first author or by the corresponding author in an electronic form (avoid PDF file) e-mail to the editor-in-chief: msramka@ousa.sk

Peer review process

It is forbidden to publish the same research in more than one journal.

After the manuscript is delivered to the editor, the designated corresponding author will be notified. The manuscript will undergo the review process.

Originality check:

The originality detection system Dupli Checker (https://www.duplichecker.com/) can be used to detect plagiarism.
After first reading by the editorial board, the manuscript will be sent together with the review form to the reviewers – selected members of the editorial board or of the board of reviewers. The reviewer can be also an expert, who was suggested by the board of reviewers.
Peer review process is blind, authors do not know the identity of the reviewer. The reviewer will send two copies of the review to the editorial board: one copy with the signature, the o second copy without. The period for the review should not extend 21 days (3 weeks), or 30 – 31 days (1 month) under reasonable circumstances respectively.

The reviewer should focus the following criteria during the review of the manuscript, such as:

Does the title of the paper respond to its content? Is the structure of the paper meeting te criteria of the journal?  How is the quality of language and style of the manuscript? Is the information provided in the abstract of good quality? Are the key words appropriate?  How is the scientific quality of bibliography (e.g., was current literature used)? The reviewer should also suggest the corrections to improve the quality of the manuscript. The conclusion of the review must be stated the general evaluation of the paper under the review, and suggest whether it is recommended for the publication, i fit can be published after corrections or rejected. In case the reviewer suggested rejection of the manuscript, the reasons must be clearly stated in the review document.

After the review document is ready, it will be sent to the authors of the manuscript without the signature of the reviewer – as a warranty of the anonymity of the review process. The editorial board subsequently will contact the authors for response and revision of the manuscript. The corresponding author is responsible for the delivery of the manuscript edited following recommendations indicated by the reviewer. The revised manuscript will be published in the next edition of the journal. In case that the reviewer does not recommend the publication of the manuscript, the editorial board will notify the authors about the decision to reject a paper, based on the result of the review process.

Article processing charge (Publication fees)

After the acceptance of the manuscript for the publication based on the results of the review process, the authors will asked for payment of the article processing charge (APC) on the bank account. Article publication fees are charged after peer review and acceptance, but prior to publication. Basic APC is 90,- Eur for the first 5 pages of the manuscript, additional pages are charged 15,- Eur per page. Print in colour 50,- Eur per page. The board of editors will realocate the income from authors (publication fees) into costs of print services. Open access charges – electronic publication of the manuscript on the journal webpage and the maintenance of the webpage are not subject of specific charge currently.

Template of the manuscript

1. Template for the organization of papers based on original research:

Organization of papers based on original research

Title of the article in English
Title of the manuscript in native language of authors

Name(s) Surname,1 Name(s) Surname,2 Name(s) Surname 3
(Avoid writing academic degrees or positions of the authors, such as: director, head, deputy – head, student, PhD student,…)
Workplace
1 e.g. University or High school, Faculty, Department, City, Country, State
2 e.g. Research Institute, Department, City, Country, State
3 Institution or Organization, City, Country, State

Contact address

Abstract in English (structured, as outlined in the instructions above)
Key Words: 3-10.
Abstract in native language of authors (structured, as outlined in the instructions above)
Key Words: 3-10.

Introduction
Research Objectives
Material and Methods
Results
Discussion (Note: Results and Discussion can be joined into one subheading)
Conclusion(s)
Conflict of interests
Financial support (grant or other support of the publication)
References

Or:
2. Organization of review papers or theoretical papers

Title of the article in English
Title of the manuscript in native language of authors

Name(s) Surname,1 Name(s) Surname,2 Name(s) Surname 3
(Avoid writing academic degrees or positions of the authors, such as: director, head, deputy – head, student, PhD student,…)

Workplace
1 e.g. University or High school, Faculty, Department, City, Country, State
2 e.g. Research Institute, Department, City, Country, State
3 Institution or Organization, City, Country, State

Contact address

Abstract (structured, as outlined in the instructions above)
Key Words: 3-5.
Abstract in native language of authors (structured, as outlined in the instructions above)
Key Words: 3-10.

Introduction
Research Objectives
Core of Work (or other appropriate, e.g. Findings)
Conclusion(s)
Conflict of interests
Financial support (grant or other financial support)
References