Instructions for Authors

Submission of Papers

It is understood that material submitted to the Journal is original report that has not been published previously in printed or electronic format (except as abstract). and is not under consideration by another publication or electronic medium. All manuscripts submitted for publication should be written in clear, plain English (American or British English spelling). The correctness of the English language throughout the whole manuscript is entirely the responsibility of the authors. The papers with insufficient English language will be rejected immediately after submission, without further processing. All authors must give a signed consent for publication in a letter submitted with the manuscript.

Each person listed as an author is expected to have participated in the study to a significant extent, as guided by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication" accessible at http://www.icmje.org/. Although all manuscripts are subject to peer review, the responsibility for the accuracy and legitimacy of the scientific content of the manuscripts rests with the authors. It is also the responsibility of the authors to notify the editor in writing of all potentially perceived conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise.

Conflict of Interest Statement

Disclosure of biomedical financial interests and potential conflicts of interest

authors of research articles should disclose any financial arrangement they may have with a company whose product figures prominently in the submitted manuscript or with a company making a competing product.

Journal policy requires that reviewers, associate editors, editors, and senior editors reveal in a letter to the Editor-in-Chief any relationships that they have that could be construed as causing a conflict of interest with regard to a manuscript.

The letter should include a statement of any financial relationships with commercial companies involved with a product under study.

Financial Disclosure (select relevant items):

(A) I certify that all my affiliations (relationships) with or financial involvement (eg, employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, royalties) with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript are completely disclosed below or in an attachment (or separate sheet).

(B) I certify that all financial and material support for this research and work are clearly identified in the manuscript and financial relationships are separated into those relevant to the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript and all professional financial relationships during the period from inception of the work until its publication are revealed (Acknowledgement section).

(C) I have no financial interest in this manuscript and no affiliations (relationships) to disclose.

Each author must read and sign the statement on financial disclosure.

Manuscripts should be typed double-spaced on numbered pages and conform to the "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals." Two manuscript pages is approximately one printed page.

Reviewing

All submitted manuscripts are reviewed initially by the Editors-in-Chief. Those manuscripts with insufficient priority for publication are rejected promptly. Other manuscripts are sent to relevant senior scientists for RAPID peer review. The identities of both peer-reviewers and authors are kept confidential. The comments by the reviewers may be conveyed to the authors by the Editor, at his discretion.

Manuscripts are reviewed with due respect for the author's confidentiality. At the same time, reviewers also have rights to confidentiality, which are respected by the editor. The editor ensures both the authors and the reviewers that the manuscripts sent for review are privileged communications and private intellectual property of the author.

When submitting a manuscript for consideration for publication, authors may suggest the names of potential reviewers of their choice.

If an author for any reason wishes to withdraw his/ her submitted manuscript from publication, the editor will always respect this wish unless the submitted and accepted manuscript has already passed publishing procedures.

Authority & Responsibility

The intellectual content of the paper is the responsibility of the authors. The Editors and the Publisher accept no responsibility for the opinions and statements of the authors. While every effort will be made by the Editors and the Publisher to avoid inaccurate and misleading data, they accept no liability whatsoever for the consequence of inaccurate information. The authors undertake to keep the Editor and the Publisher fully and effectually indemnified against any liability of claims that may arise from the publication of inaccurate and/or misleading data.

Copyright

It is a condition of publication that the authors transfer the world copyright of their manuscripts to the Activitas Nervosa Superior Rediviva. All manuscripts should therefore be accompanied by a signed statement that the article is original, is not under consideration or has not been previously published in another journal. Nevertheless, authors will be entitled to publish any part of their paper elsewhere without permission, provided the usual acknowledgments and reference to the ORIGINAL source. Illustrations, figures, tables or quotations from other publications are already copyrighted and can be reproduced only with written permission from the copyright owner. Written permission to use these should accompany the manuscript.

Ethics

The Editors and the Publisher support the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975, as revised in 1983, and expect that the authors of papers submitted to the Journal will have obtained ethical consent and followed those legal and regulatory requirements for human experimentation with drugs, including informed consent, according to procedures which apply in their institution and country.

When reporting experiments on animals, indicate whether the institution's or a national research council's guide for, or any national law on, the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.

Manuscript Presentation

Manuscripts should be typed on numbered pages and conform to the "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals" except the Reference section (see below).

The pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the Title page. The sections of the manuscript should be in following sequence: Title page, Abstract (structured for Original papers and non-structured for Review Articles), Key words (5-10), Abbreviations, Main text (Introduction, Material and methods, Results and Discussion), Acknowledgments, References, Tables and Figures. Particular attention should be taken to ensure that the manuscript adheres to the Instructions for Authors of the Activitas Nervosa Superior Rediviva in all respects.

It is very important that all the text is typed without extra spaces between words and that all text within a paragraph is typed without extra carriage returns between the lines. To make a new paragraph, only a carriage return is allowed (tabs allowed for numbered or bullet lists). For tables, see TABLES.

The Editors reserve the right to alter manuscripts whenever necessary to make them conform to the stylistic and bibliographic conventions of the Activitas Nervosa Superior Rediviva.

Title Page. Title page of the manuscript should contain:

1. The title itself.

2. The name(s) of the author(s): first name(s) spelled out, family name and academic degree(s).

3. Affiliations of the author(s): The name(s) of the department(s) or institution(s) from which the study originated.

4. Corresponding author: The name and full address, including telephone and fax numbers, e-mail address(es) and other useful information of the corresponding author. The authors are obliged to inform the publisher immediately about any change of their fax, telephone, e-mail and ordinary mail address.

5. A "running headline," a maximum of 40 characters, including word spaces.

Abstract and Key Words. Abstract and Key words follow directly after the Title page (no extra page) A structured abstract (Original Articles) and non-structured abstract (Review papers) not exceeding 250 words should state what was done, including objectives, design, setting, results, the main findings, conclusions, and how the work was interpreted. Additional headings maybe used.

At least 5 to 10 key words should be used, which correspond to MESH (Medical Subject Headings) by Medline. The key words should be separated by semicolons. The key words will be included in the Subject Index of the volume.The next section can start directly after this on the same page.

Abbreviations & units. List of abbreviations and symbols used and spell them out in full. Abbreviations and symbols must be standard, and SI units (The International System of Units) should be used throughout. Drugs should be described by their official names, but trade names should be indicated in brackets the first time a drug is quoted in the main text.

Main Text

The text is conventionally divided into sections headed: Introduction, Material and methods, Results and Discussion. Lengthy papers may require subheadings for clarification.

Introduction. State clearly the purpose of the paper. Do not review the subject extensively and give only pertinent references.

Material & Methods. Describe your selection of the observational subjects (patients or laboratory animals, including controls) clearly. Describe the study population in detail. Identify the methods and procedures in sufficient detail to allow other workers to reproduce the results. If the methods used are new or substantially modified, describe them and state their limitations.

When reporting research on human beings, the authors must include an assurance that the work was approved by a medical ethics committee (Internal Review Board - IRB) and that the subjects gave their informed consent to participate. (See Ethics.)

When reporting experiments on animals, indicate whether the institutions or a national research council's guide for, or any national law on, the care and use of laboratory animals was followed. (See Ethics.)

Results. Do not repeat in the text all the data displayed in the tables or illustrations; only important observations should be emphasized or summarized.

Discussion. Emphasize only the new and important aspects and conclusions of the study, including the implications and the limitations of the findings and their relation to other relevant studies. The conclusions should be clearly linked with the objectives of the study. Avoid unqualified statements and conclusions that are not supported by the data. Do not claim priority, and do not allude to work in progress. State new hypotheses when warranted, but clearly label them as such. Recommendations, when appropriate, may be included.

Statistics. Describe statistical methods with enough detail to enable a knowledgeable reader with access to the original data to verify the reported details. The design of the study and the data sources should be clearly identified. The statistical methods used should be described so that it is clear which method was used and where. Give relevant references and additional details if nonstandard methods or analyses have been applied. The basic principle is to supply sufficient information about design and analysis to allow the research to be repeated by someone else. The presentation of the analysis should include relevant summaries of the data, not just the results of significance testing. The use of confidence interval is encouraged.

References

Responsibility for the accuracy of bibliographic citations lies entirely with the authors.

Citations in the main text: Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list, but maybe mentioned in the text. If these references are included in the reference list they should follow the standard reference style of the journal and should include a substitution of the publication date with either "Unpublished results" or "Personal communication", Citation of a reference as "in press" implies that the item has been accepted for publication.

All citations in the text should refer to:

1. Single author: (Norton 2000) or (Norton 2000a,b)

the author's name (without initials, unless there is ambiguity) and the year of publication;

2. Two authors: (Krusz & Stillman 2001)

both authors' names and the year of publication;

3. Three or more authors: (Edwards et al 2001)

first author's name followed by "et al" and the year of publication.

Citations may be made directly (or parenthetically). Groups of references should be listed first alphabetically, then chronologically.

Examples: "reports and open studies are available (Norton, 2000; Edwards et al. 2001; Krusz & Stillman, 2001). Mathew et al. (2000) used a fixed and relatively low dosage of valproate and accomplished ..."

Reference List:

References should be numbered and arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary. More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters "a", "b", "c", etc., placed after the year of publication.

The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in the Index Medicus.

Examples of correct form of references:

(see next page)

1. Standard journal article List all authors when six or less. When seven or more, list only the first six and add et al.

Example: Parkin DM, Clayton D, Black RJ, Masuyer E, Friedl HP, Ivanov E, et al (1996). Childhood leukaemia in Europe after Chernobyl: 5 year follow-up. Br J Cancer. 73: 1006-1012.

If the language is not English, add the translated title in brackets, e.g. Swedin G (1979). Transkutan elektrisk nervstimulering som smartlindring vid forlossning. [(Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation for analgesia in childbirth.) (In Swedish with English abstract.)] Lakartidningen. 776: 1946-1948.

2. Books and other monographs

a/ Personal author(s):

Ringsven MK, Bond D (1996). Gerontology and leadership skills for nurses. 2nd ed. Albany (NY): Delmar Publishers.

b/ Editor(s) as author(s):

Norman IJ, Redfern SJ, editors (1996). Mental health care for elderly people. New York: Churchill Livingstone.

c/ Chapter in a book:

Phillips SJ, Whisnant JP (1995). Hypertension and stroke. In: Laragh J Brenner BM, editors. Hypertension: pathophysiology, diagnosis, management. 2nd ed. New York: Raven Press, p. 465-478.

d/ Conference proceedings:

Kimura J, Shibasaki H, editors (1996). Recent advances in clinical neurophysiology. Proceed ings of the 10th International Congress of EM and Clinical Neurophysiology; Oct 15-19,1995; Kyoto, Japan. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

e/ Conference paper:

Bengtsson S, Solheim BG (1992). Enforcement of data protection, privacy and security in med ical informatics. In: Lun KC, Degoulet P, Piemme TE, Rienhoff O, editors. MEDINFO 92. Proceedings of the 7th World Congress on Medical Informatics; Sept 6-10, 1992; Geneva, Switzerland. Amsterdam: North-Holland, p. 1561-155.

f/ Dissertation:

Kaplan SJ (1995). Post-hospital home health care: the elderly's access and utilization (dissertation). St. Louis (MO): Washington Univ.

When citing a book, do not forget to include ISBN.

TABLES AND FIGURES (Figures, illustrations, graphs, etc.) Tables and Figures should be numbered consecutively and provided with a concise title and legend. Be sure that each table and figure is cited in the text. All tables and figures should be specifically referred to in the text, e.g. Table 3, Figure 3. Figures/illustrations, etc. must be of a high quality scan (.tiff, .eps or .jpg in high resolution, original Illustrator file .ai or PowerPoint file), and sent electronically by email. All figures (figures, illustrations, photographs, representational drawings, graphs, etc.) must be professionally executed; freehand or typewritten lettering is unacceptable. Please make sure that the text size is big enough on graphs and figures (after reduction to final size in printed version).

Figures and Tables including the legends should be placed at the end of the document or in a separate file (not inserted in the main text).

Color

If authors wish to have their figures, tables, or other illustrations to be published in color, for every color figure EUR 70.00 (within Europe) or USD 100.00 (outside of Europe) will be charged.

Figures must be sent electronically as separate attachments:

a/ PC compatible Adobe Illustrator or .EPS files (for Mac users .eps) with fonts included in the file (not converted to vector/outline illustration); at the same time the original program files used for illustrations (figures) should also be attached (even original Mac files); as well as .PDF files. Bitmap raster images as .TIF, .BMP, .GIF or .EPS are accepted if the resolution 600 dpi for published figure size is provided. Files can be compressed with WinZip. JPG files are accepted if saved in high quality compression only.

b/ Excel and PowerPoint files are accepted (PC compatible).

Acknowledgments

The scientific and material contributions of others to the work should be acknowledged. Any grant supports should be listed and permission for reproduction of published material acknowledged. Authors are responsible for obtaining written permission from anyone acknowledged by name. The acknowledgments will be published as an appendix to the text.

Proofs

Before publication the correspondent author will receive a copy of the final version of the paper as PDF, which should be read carefully for errors and returned promptly. Proofs will be sent for the correction of typographic errors only. No other changes will be accepted. Proofs not returned within 7 days will be considered as approved by the author(s).

Doctoral Theses & Dissertations in brief

This Journal encourages the submission of important works by young investigators, researchers and practitioners. In this section the Editors wish to recognize innovative research conducted during graduate and postgraduate studies. Each doctoral thesis or dissertation should contain an abstract and provide a concise synopsis (10 manuscript pages maximum) of the major findings presented in the final version.

Doctoral Theses should be sent for evaluation to Prof. Eva Ceskova: eceskova@fnbrno.cz

Case Series in Neuroimaging

Manuscripts concerning Case Series in Neuroimaging should be sent for evaluation to Prof. Jiri Horacek: horacek@pcp.lf3.cuni.cz

Letters to the Editor

The Activitas Nervosa Superior Rediviva welcomes Letters to the Editor, a section carrying comments, opinions, etc.

Book Reviews

The Activitas Nervosa Superior Rediviva welcomes relevant Book Reviews.

News Section

The Activitas Nervosa Superior Rediviva welcomes information about upcoming events relevant to the aim and scope of the journal.

Supplements

Monographs or series of articles that will undergo regular scientific review (regular peer-review procedure), as well as university approved theses, conference proceedings, symposia on relevant issues or topics, etc. may be published as supplements to the Activitas Nervosa Superior Rediviva. The material submitted to the Supplements is treated with the same scientific standards as manuscripts in the regular issues.

Reprints Print Quality Pdf

Instead of Reprints, a print-quality PDF for unlimited use can be ordered by the author(s) for the price of EUR (Europe) 100.00 / USD 150.00.

Structured Abstract Example

OBJECTIVES: Anxiety is an emotional state experienced by people, and is not readily modeled in animals. In order to extend till now ethologically derived paradigms used in the evaluation of anxiety and fear in rodents, a modified open-field was designed.

METHODS: Spontaneous behavior of male rats was investigated in the elevated arena; the bottom was divided by inter-space of different width (2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 cm) into two identical parts. Anxiolytic effects of diazepam (DZP) at doses 0.5, 1.0, 2.5 and 5.0 mg/kg were investigated in the newly designed device and compared with the effects of similar doses in a large circular open-field arena.

RESULTS: In Experiment 1 the progressive extension of the inter-space prolonged the first passing, decreased the total number of passing, and increased the inter-space sniffing in intact animals. In Experiment 2 DZP at doses 1.0, 2.5 and 5.0 mg/kg significantly enhanced the readiness to cross, the frequency of passing the inter-space and decreased inter-swpace sniffing as compared to controls. In Experiment 3 we found that DZP at doses 0.1 and 0.3 mg/kg increased behavioral activity both along the perimeter and in the center of the arena, thus indicating lower level of anxiety.

CONCLUSION: The presented modified open-field test is a useful paradigm to investigate risk assessment behavior in rats, and may provide a sensitive novel model of anxiety and fear level.

Reference List Example