Submissions

Author Guidelines

INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS

The ERIES Journal publishes articles that employ an array of research approaches dealing with efficiency and/or responsibility in education and science within the following categories:

• Full research paper
• Short communications
• Review studies

Published articles may comprise empirical studies using acceptable research strategies, such as survey, case study, experiment, archival analysis, etc. They also include theoretical studies aimed at advancing current theory or adapting theory to local conditions or they may arise from theoretical studies aimed at reviewing and/or synthesizing existing theory and practice in the field of education and science. Concepts and underlying principles should be emphasized with enough background information to orient any reader who is not a specialist in the subject area. Within the manuscript, authors should make clear how the presented analysis deals with efficiency and/or responsibility issues. It is also recommendable that at least one of these key issues appears within the key words of the manuscripts.

In general, submitted manuscripts must focus on at least one of the following research areas:

• Application of operations research in education and science evaluation;
• Decision-making theory in education and science;
• Didactics applied to education and science;
• Empirical research and experiments in education and sciences;
• Information technologies in education and science;
• Project management in education;
• Theory and methodology of pedagogy and education;
• Theory and methodology of science;
• Training in business organizations;
• Training in professional standards.

General information

• All manuscripts must be written in English. If the authors are not native speakers, we strongly recommend using proofreading services. This would avoid negative comments from the reviewers. Consequently, high level of language quality can avoid delays in the review process.
• A typical manuscript as Full research paper should have between 7,000 and 9,000 words (including tables, figures and footnotes); Short communication should not exceed 7,000 words (including tables, figures and footnotes), and Review study should not exceed 9,000 words (including tables, figures and footnotes). Manuscripts that exceed these limits will be critically reviewed with respect to the length.
• A typical manuscript should consist of the following sections: Title, Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgements (if necessary), References, and Appendix (if necessary).
• Abstract should be between 100 and 200 words for all types of manuscripts.
• Each manuscript should have up to 6 keywords. All keywords must be in alphabetical order, separated by commas, and aligned with the journal’s key topics.
• Research highlights contain the core results, findings or conclusions of the manuscript. Highlights are emphasized in 2-4 bullet points (max. 100 characters per bullet point including spaces). Highlights are also submitted as a text into the submission form in the editorial system. Examples of highlights:
  • The assessment of the quality of higher education institutions via quantitative approach
  • The level of self-efficacy of CULS students is significantly heightened
  • E-learning barriers in higher education and responsibility of school’s leaders
  • A proposed financing model for the Czech higher educational system.
• Introduction must precisely describe the analysed problem (i.e., what issue(s) triggered the presented analysis), provide a review of the current state in the manuscript objective, and define the research gap. The author(s) should refer to significant sources, particularly scientific journals and conference proceedings listed in the Web of Science (WoS), Scopus, or ERIH databases. The Introduction should have clear structure leading to the main problem statement (objective of the manuscript). Finish this section with a simple description how the manuscript is divided in following sections.
• Materials and methods must contain method(s) used for research. Furthermore, the author(s) must describe materials, sample or data used in research. Please, be precise in the methodology description to allow replicability of the presented research. Author(s) should include descriptive statistics of the used sample and/or data. More importantly, if the manuscript stems from the author(s) previous work(s), describe this point here shortly and explain the added value compared to previous work(s).
• Results should describe the author(s) main findings and achieved goals according to the described Materials and methods in the previous section. Results should be clearly structured and must answer the main objective stated at the end of Introduction. The author(s) must present all relevant findings regarding their research. This section should not include comments, inferences, or any subjective evaluation of the outcomes.
• Discussion is one of the most important parts of the manuscript. The author(s) must compare their findings with relevant published research within the field. The author(s) must discuss the implications of the analysis, applicability, pros and cons of the achieved results and, if a problem was stated or discovered, how this problem can be solved. Please bear in mind that no manuscript can be accepted for publication without a proper discussion. Missing discussion will lead to a critical review by reviewers. Please, terminate the Discussion with limitations of the analysis, how these limitations impacted the analysis and how these limitations could be minimized.
• Conclusion must summarize the manuscript and stress the most significant results. Moreover, the author(s) may conclude with topic(s) for the future work. Conclusion should not exceed more than a half of a page and should not repeat information provided in the Results or Discussion sections.
• Please mention all details required by any funding and grant-awarding agencies in the Acknowledgement(s) as follows:
  • “This article was supported by the [name of the grant agency] under Grant [name of the grant], number [number of the grant].”

In case of multiple funding, the author(s) should mention all related funding and grant-awarding agencies divided in separate sentences.

Style guidelines

• Please use text font Times New Roman of the size 12, normal spacing and justified.
• Text should be simple one-column text (do not follow the final formatting of the ERIES Journal as a template). The manuscript will be formatted by the technical editor after the acceptation.
• Do not number chapters, for the chapter titles use bold text, size 13 and for the sub-section titles use bold text, size 12. If the author(s) need another level of sub-sections, then the author(s) should use bold text, italic, and size 12.
• Author(s) should use italics for emphasis. Do not number pages or use page headers and footers.

Tables and figures

• All tables and figures must be numbered continuously as they appeared in the text. All tables and figures must be referred in the text and titled as follows: “Table 1: [name of the table], [year(s) captured in the data], (reference if necessary)”, and “Figure 1: [name of the figure], year(s) captured in the data], (reference if necessary)”.
• Title should be Times New Roman font of size 11, as well as the text inside table(s) or figure(s).
• Author(s) should bear in mind that the journal is printed in size A4, monochrome print (no colours). Therefore, please use the colours only in greyscale. Please, ensure whether all you figures are readable according to such conditions.
• Please do not use in the manuscript expressions such as: “above” or “below”; when referring to used table(s) and figure(s). Table(s) and figure(s) can be moved higher or lower in the text during the final formatting by the Technical editor. Author(s) should always refer directly using caption of table(s) or figure(s).
• If the manuscript includes large table(s) or figure(s), then the author(s) can place them in the Appendix.

Table 1: The name of the table, 2000-2012 (source: own calculation) 

Figure 1: The name of the figure, 2000-2012 (source: Adair, 1988) 

Equations 

• Equation(s) should be inserted in invisible tables for alignment, see example below. Each equation(s) need to be numbered, use bold numbers in thin parenthesis on the right side. All equations must be numbered continuously and referred in the text as well. Equation(s) are referred in text by its number in parentheses.

 

(1)

We recommend using MS Word's integrated equation editor.

References

• References have to be alphabetically ordered and each reference has to be mentioned in the text as a continuous quotation and vice versa. The Harvard referencing convention is required as follows:
• Referencing in the text:
  • In case of only one author: “Shopova (2014) states that digital literacy must be considered as a situated practice.“
  • Direct quote from a book or journal article with one author: “Regarding the digital literacy Shopova (2014: 30) states that ´digital literacy must be considered as a situated practice´.” or “Regarding the digital literacy ´ digital literacy must be considered as a situated practice´ (Shopova, 2014: 30).”
  • Direct quote from a book or journal article with two authors: “Fischer and Lipovská (2014: 48) states that ´Humanities and Social sciences spend less than 14.5 hours studying during the workweek´.” or “Regarding the study workload ´Humanities and Social sciences spend less than 14.5 hours studying during the workweek´ (Fischer and Lipovská, 2014: 48).”
  • Direct quote from a book or journal article with three and more authors: “Flégl et al. (2014: 73) conclude that with regard to a university level, ‘all PhD students are dissatisfied with their research results’.” or “‘PhD students are dissatisfied with their research results’ with regard to a university level (Flégl et al., 2014: 73).”
  • Direct quote from a book or journal article with more than three authors: “Stasiak-Betlejewska et al. (2014: 47) point out that ‘well-equipped laboratories can be a source of both students’ and teachers’ skills development’.”
• Creating a reference list:
  • Book with one author: “Krejci, I. (2000) How to write good references: Few steps for excellence, Prague: ERIES Publishing.”
  • Book with two authors: “Krejci, I. and Flégl, M. (2005) Avoiding doubts in reference styles, Prague: ERIE Publishing.”
  • Book with three or more authors: “Houška, M., Krejci, I. and Flégl, M. (1997) To become a master in your research: motivation is the essential, Brno: University Press.”
  • Book – second or later edition: “Krejci, I. (2000) How to write good references: Few steps for excellence, 2^nd edition, Prague: ERIES.”
  • Book by same authors in the same year: “Krejci, I. and Flégl, M. (2005a) Avoiding doubts in references styles, Prague: ERIE Publishing.” and “Krejci, I. and Flégl, M. (2005b) Handle your references correctly, Brno: ERIES Press.”
  • Book with an editor: “Houška, M. (ed.) (2015) Quality discussion must be the basis of your research: Three important steps, Prague: ERIES Publishing.”
  • Books with an anonymous or unknown author: “The structure of your manuscript (2005) Olomouc: K&F Publishing.”
  • Journal article: “Shopova T. (2014) ´Digital Literacy of Students and Its Improvement at the University´, Journal on Efficiency and Responsibility in Education and Science, Vol. 7, pp. 26-32.”
  • Journal article with both volume and issue number: “Shopova T. (2014) ´Digital Literacy of Students and Its Improvement at the University´, Journal on Efficiency and Responsibility in Education and Science, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 26-32.”
• In case of any doubts see the full description of the Harvard referencing convention at http://www.ex.ac.uk/dll/studyskills/harvard_referencing.htm
• The author(s) should check their references according to misspelled names, and years.
• When the cited items have DOIs (Digital Object Identifier), author(s) must add DOI persistent links to the regular references. The persistent links should be active.
• Example of the persistent link: http://dx.doi.org/10.7160/eriesj.2013.060105
• Example of the reference with the included DOI: “Rauchová, T. and Houška, M. (2013) ‘Efficiency of Knowledge Transfer Through Knowledge Texts: Statistical Analysis’, Journal on Efficiency and Responsibility in Education and Science, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 46-60. http://dx.doi.org/10.7160/eriesj.2013.060105
• The author(s) may retrieve articles’ DOIs at: http://www.crossref.org/guestquery7/

Ethics guidelines

• The ERIES Journal is committed to the highest ethics standards. All authors, reviewers, and editors are required to follow the ERIES Journal ethical principles. Please see the responsibilities for editors, author(s) and reviewers in the menu “Ethics Guidelines”. In case of any doubts do not hesitate to contact the editors of the ERIES Journal (editor@eriesjournal.com).
• Any report of possible ethics conflicts is a major issue for the ERIES Journal. All ethics conflicts reported by reviewer(s), editor(s) or reader(s) will be immediately investigated by the Editorial board of the ERIES Journal. If misconduct has been committed the published manuscript will be withdrawn. In addition, the author(s) may be excluded from having any future relationship with the ERIES Journal.

Publication charges

• Manuscript submissions and publication are free of charge

Submission

The manuscript submission is through the journal system. Three documents must be submitted: 1) main document; 2) cover page; and 3) suggested reviewers.

• Please ensure that the manuscript is carefully formatted according to the instructions described above. Please revise that the document does not include authors’ names and affiliations.
• Manuscript must be closely scrutinized for typographical and grammatical errors. If English is not author’s first language then the paper should be proof-read by a native English-speaking person, preferably one with experience of writing for academic use. Spelling should follow the Oxford English Dictionary.
• Special attention should be paid to the exact application of the Harvard referencing convention to both continuous citations and list of references.
• Cover page must be submitted along with the main manuscript. The cover page must include article title and authors’ full names. Specify each author’s affiliation, email addresses and ORCID. Please do not include author(s) names in the main manuscript to ensure double-blind peer-review process. One author must be identified as the corresponding author. In this case, please include postal address and telephone to the author´s contact. Please also bear in mind that the email addresses will normally be displayed in the article PDF and online on the ERIES Journal website. Further, please check that the authors listed in the cover page correspond with the authors mentioned during the submission process in the journal system. Please bear in mind that no changes to authors’ collective can be made after the manuscript is submitted to the journal system.
• The author(s) are required to suggest two experts appropriate for the evaluation of the manuscript. The experts should not share the same affiliation of the author(s), nor they can be affiliated to the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague. Moreover, both experts should have different affiliations. Please describe why these experts are suitable for the review, their affiliation and email address.
• All documents are submitted via the editorial system in the DOC or DOCX format.

Submission declaration

When authors submit a manuscript to the ERIES Journal, it implies that:

• The submitted manuscript has not been published previously.
• The submitted manuscript is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.
• The submission is approved by all authors.
• If accepted, the manuscript will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the copyright-holder.

Review procedure

• The submitted manuscript is submitted to a double-blind peer review process before publication. Please ensure that the author(s) names do not appear in the submitted manuscript. The author(s)´ names should appear only on the cover page, which is not sent to the review process, and in the journal system.
• Commentaries by the reviewers will be summarized and sent by email to the authors, who can choose to revise their papers in line with these remarks. Re-submitted manuscript should be accompanied by the description of the changes and a letter of responses to the reviewers’ comments (see Template of the Replies to reviewers´ comments in the section Download), so that the desk-editor can easily see where changes have been made.

Printed version

• The ERIES Journal is published both in online version and printed version. When the manuscript is published, two copies of the issue will be sent to the corresponding author mentioned on the cover page. If the author(s) require more copies of the printed version, then an additional charge of 200 CZK (8 EUR) per copy is required. This additional charge must be paid via a bank transfer before the copies are sent.

Files

• Template for the Replies to reviewers' comments
• ERIES citation style for Zotero and Mendeley (csl)