Instructions of the Editors

Guide for Authors Publication Ethics Principles of the Review Process

Guide for Authors

Focus and Scope

Water Management Technical and Economical Information Journal (VTEI Journal) is a technical peer-reviewed journal published by T. G. Masaryk Water Research Institute, public research institution. The journal publishes original papers presenting research results from the area of assessment and protection of hydrosphere and management of wastes, reviews of important findings in these disciplines and their practical consequences, articles dealing with actual problems of science and technology, notices concerning TGM WRI, p.r.i., matters, and also book-reviews, bibliographical notices and information from conferences. Actual information from the Ministry of the Environment and presentations from other institutions realated to journal´s topics are welcome. Contributions are subjected to a peer-review process.

Practical Instructions

The contributions in the VTEI Journal are published in Czech, English or Slovak languages. Manuscripts should be sent by e-mail to the address: zuzana.rehorova@vuv.cz. The author, together with the manuscript, recommends the editorial staff four potential reviewers on the subject issue. The article must contain: full name of the author(s), his affiliation and e-mail address.  If the authors own ORCID, this information should be noted in the article manuscript. If there are several co-authors of the article, a corresponding author will be designated (or the editorial office will communicate with the first of the authors). The editorial office will confirm receiving the paper. The article can be rejected not only from the reason of its drawbacks but also if it doesn´t correspond to this author guidelines or is out of the journal´s scope. The proof is sent to the author; typographical errors should be corrected and especially formulae and numbers should be checked. Bigger changes in the text can be done only as an exception. The author is expected to send the proof back as soon as possible.

Article Structure

Research papers and reviews are divided to these inner sections: the title, names of the authors and their affiliations, introduction, material (with overview of the already published results) and methods, results, discussion, conclusions, citations, summary in English and Czech (including key-words). Book-reviews, notices, information from conferences etc. should not be much larger than two manuscript pages.

Preparing the Manuscript

Title – concise and informative; avoid abbreviations and formulae. Names of the authors and their affiliation (addresses, e-mail or phone number). Introduction – informs about the objectives of the paper and provides a short analysis of the state of knowledge of the article´s topic. Material and methods – gives information about the research methods and instruments or materials used in research. Discussion, Conclusions – main conclusions of the research are presented, critical elements of the investigation are discussed. Tables, figures, graphs are often part of these chapters. Extent of the article – ca 5–10 pages of manuscript (Arial 9) including tables and figures. References – the style of the references should follow the ISO 690:2011. In the text indicate the references to the literature in the form of numerical references, and in brackets – e.g. [5, 7–9]. Users of reference managers citace.com, Zotero, Mendel, ReadCube, Colwiz and other that use the Citation Style Language can use a style template prepared directly for the magazine VTEI. Summary – provides a concise content of the article, informs about methods and conclusions and their significance for the research. Summary in English and Czech with key-words is a part of the article.

Abstract

An essential part of every original article is a abstract, including keywords. The English abstract is placed at the beginning of the article. Abstracts should be at least 1,500 characters, including spaces. The abstract should contain a concise form of the chapters of the article and should be structured: introduction, objective, methods, results and their meaning and conclusion.

Technical requirements

Manuscripts in Word (Arial 9) are preferred. Do not format the text. Graphical lay-out is done by a DTP worker, not the author. Tables and figures should be numbered according to their sequence in the text and there should be a reference to them in the text. Captions to figures and tables are necessary. Submit each figure as a separate file. Graphs should be submitted preferentially in Excel, pictures in high quality in JPG, TIF, EPS or PDF, maps in vector format (AI, EPS, CDR, PDF). Be careful to write figures, equations and symbols in a proper way. Graphs and diagrams will be graphically adapted so that they can become an important component of the journal´s lay-out.

Ethics in publishing

The authors are responsible for keeping ethics in research, authorship of the article and citing.

Authors are required to follow the guidelines for a formal adjustment of the article, ie. follow the method of citation, format supplied materials, etc.

In the case that the author chooses to publish his contribution in another journal, author is obliged to notify the editorial office which will assess the case and then will familiarize author with attitude to the case.

Terms for authors

Publication Ethics

1. Only original work is published in the Water Management Technical and Economical Information Journal, i.e. the published articles and studies have not been previously or simultaneously published in any other periodical.
2. The copyright of the published article is the exclusive property of the journal.
3. If the author presents an article published by VTEI journal on his/her personal home page, the source of the published article has to be cited.
4. For avoiding self-plagiarism, substantial duplications of whole or partial works are not allowed.
5. Plagiarism of other authors´ work is forbidden and is seen as unethical behaviour.
6. If a supplement taken from another author´s work is a part of submitted article agreement of the holder of the Supplement´s Copyright is required and the source must be cited in the article.
7. In the case of an ethic malpractice complaint the editor will conduct a proper investigation.
8. To protect the publication ethics the Publisher will pay attention especially to these cases of malpractice: research results misappropriation, allegations of research errors and fraud, non-complete citation of resources, research standards violation, undisclosed conflicts of interest.
9. Reviewers evaluate manuscripts critically but constructively to help authors improve the quality of their work.
10. To ensure high quality of the article and to avoid possible unethical behaviour of the reviewers the peer-reviewed process is held by two independent experts.
11. The journal does not charge any fees for sending or  for publication the article.
12. The editors make all available steps against unfair practices publishing.
13. Information about the publishing process remain confidential.
14. In the final thank the authors present sources of financial support for the project.

Principles of the Review Process

1. Submitted article is evaluated by at least two independent experts who cannot be staff members of the T.G. Masaryk Water Research Institute, p.r.i. The Editorial Board of the journal is approving the choice of the reviewers and, if necessary, it can ask for some more assessments.
2. The assessment of the reviewers include: evaluation of topicality and significance of the work, evaluation of correctness of the statements, recommendations in conclusion.
3. The reviewers respect the rules of publishing ethics.
4. The author is immediately informed about the result of the peer-review process. The author will express his opinion on possible critical comments of the reviewers. All suggested revisions must be incorporated into the article and then submitted to the publisher. Final acceptance for publication of the article is given by the Editorial Board of the journal. The Publisher has the right to reject manuscripts in the case that the subject matter is outside the scope of the journal and its publishing politics.
5. The assessments of the reviewers are stored in the editorial office archive.
6. The reviewers evaluate manuscripts against the following criteria:

– originality,

– degree of contribution to present knowledge,

– correctness of methodology,

– formal quality (being properly structured as a scientific paper with a discussion of a good – quality and clearly expressed conclusions),

– quality of references.