Submissions

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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • The file has an OpenOffice or MS Word format.
  • The URL links to references are given wherever possible.
  • The text is single-spaced; font size is 12; italics are preferred to underlined (with the exception of URLs); all images, charts and illustrations are placed inside the text, rather than at the end.
  • The text corresponds to the style and bibliography requirements expressed in Author Guidelines.

Author Guidelines

1. Contributions are accepted in Czech, Slovak or English. We recommend consulting whether an English publication is suitable with the editors. The review process includes the appropriate choice of language. The editors mayissue an exception in terms of a publication in a different language than the abovementioned.

2. The editors will return papers that are not arranged according to the following guidelines.

Paper Structure 

The manuscript of an article in a regular issue of Příroda includes: 

1. Name of paper in Czech (Slovak or English)

2. Name of paper in English (Czech or Slovak)

3. First and last name of author(s) (unabbreviated)

4. Address of author(s) (given in the language of the paper), including their e-mail

5. Abstract in English (maximum 400 words)

6. Alphabetical list of keywords (a maximum number of 7 keywords) in English

7. Abstract in Czech (maximum 400 words) 

8. Alphabetical list of keywords (a maximum number of 7 keywords) in Czech

9. Taxonomic nomenclature (if it is unified in the article)

10. The paper text itself, usually comprising an Introduction, Methods and Materials, Results, Discussion, Summary

11. Summary (a summary of the paper in English); with articles published in English, the Summary is in Czech

12. Acknowledgments

13. Bibliography of sources referred to in the text (on listing references, see below)

14. Notes to images (always listing the photo or drawing’s author) and tables in Czech and English

15. Appendices (images, tables).

In the case of a monothematic issue of Příroda, the structure of the manuscript does not need to fully correspond to the arrangement of a standard issue contribution, and its configuration should be discussed with the editors beforehand.  

Paper Text Format 

When formally working with the text, please follow these rules: 

1. Send the text only in the electronic Word format 

2. Please do not format the text into its final printed appearance in Příroda  

3. Only use the Normal paragraph style, line spacing 1,5 and font size 12 

4. The margins should be 2 cm on all sides 

5. Do not use tabs or spacing at the beginning of paragraphs 

6. Do not align the text right  

7. Page numbers should always be at the mid-bottom 

8. Strictly avoid footnotes or references at the bottom of the page 

9. The journal uses a maximum of two heading levels, without the multi-level decimal numbering. Please follow this scheme. 

10. In terms of font, use only the standard, bold, italics and capital letters (for cited references).  

11. Scientific names of taxa should be written only in italics; when writing higher taxonomic units (family and higher), follow the customized italics use in the given field (botany, zoology, mycology); in cited references, however, italics should not be used with scientific names. 

12. Papers in the field of ecology, zoology, botany and mycology should have a unified nomenclature according to the source listed, and the scientific names should be written in the text and charts without the author’s names. If the paper’s nomenclature cannot be brought into alignment with a single source, it is necessary to list the author’s name – it is enough, however, only in the 1st instance of quoting the species name. 

13. The dash should be written as “–” as opposed to the hyphen “-” 

Tables, Diagrams and Images Formatting 

When formatting tables, diagrams and images, please follow these rules: 

1. Send all tables, diagrams and images only in electronic form; tables in Excel format, images in JPG or PNG format. 

2. Digitized attachments need to appear in sufficient resolution, i.e., a minimum of 300 dpi for photos and 600 dpi for drawings when considering the image size corresponding to a printed page in Příroda (128 x 188 mm); in case of doubt, please check with the performing editor 

3. Tables, diagrams and images are published in color format 

4. All tables, diagrams and images should be accompanied by descriptions in Czech (Slovak) as well as English 

5. Tables and images should be numbered in the order in which references are made to them; list the references in the form of “obr.”, or rather: “Fig.”; and “tab.”, or rather “Table” 

6. Line thickness and size of letters in image attachments should be adapted to the expected size-reduction 

7. Create enough contrast and transparency in maps. Basic cartographic rules need to be followed, i.e., listing the scale and keeping the northern orientation (in the case of a shifted orientation, the north pointer must be included). If the map is detailed, there needs to be an indication of the position of the cut/detail in Czech Republic, at least in the case of the 1st introduction of this detailed map. 

References to Literature and Bibliography 

When citing sources in the text and when compiling the Bibliography, please follow these rules: 

1. The Bibliography contains only papers cited in the contribution 

2. With papers of more than 2 authors, the 1st author’s name is indicated with the “et al.” abbreviation following. In the Bibliography, all the co-authors are included 

3. If there is more than one paper in the text quote, they are ordered chronologically. 

4. With books published after 1970, include the publisher; with books published by large international publishers (e.g., Springer) and publishers whose location is incorporated in the name (e.g., Cambridge Univ. Press), there is no need to include the place of publication 

5. When indicating resources in the Bibliography, please follow these examples: 

Flegr J. (1994): Mechanismy mikroevoluce. – Karolinum, Praha. 

De Kroon H. & Bobbink R. (1997): Clonal plant dominance under elevated nitrogen deposition, with special reference to Brachypodium pinnatum in chalk grassland. – In: de Kroon H. & van Groenendael J. [eds], The ecology and evolution of clonal plants, pp. 359–379, Backhuys Publishers, Leiden. 

Husák Š. & Adamec L. (1998): Záchranné kultivace ohrožených druhů vodních a mokřadních rostlin v Botanickém ústavu AV ČR v Třeboni. – Příroda 12: 7–26. 

Jakrlová J. (1989): Primární produkce suchozemských ekosystémů. – In: Dykyjová D. et al., Metody studia ekosystémů, pp. 304–330, Academia, Praha. 

Pučelíková Z. (1967): Ekologická studie kostřavy walliské (Festuca valesiaca Gaudin) a kostřavy žlábkovité (Festuca rupicola Heuff.). – Ms. [Dipl. pr.; depon. in: Knih. Kat. Bot. Přírod. Fak. UK, Praha.] 

Klimeš L. & Klimešová J. (1998): CLO-PLA1 – a database of clonal growth in plants in Central Europe. – URL: http://butbn.cas.cz/klimes. 

Pyšek P. & Prach K. [eds] (1997): Invazní rostliny v české flóře. – Zpr. Čes. Bot. Společ. 32, Mater. 14: 1–138. 

Zobel M. (1997): The relative role of species pools in determining plant species richness: an alternative explanation of species coexistence? – Trends Ecol. Evol. 12: 266–269. 

6. For transcribing texts from languages that do not use the Latin alphabet (Cyrillic and others), avoid the phonetic transcription; instead, use the ISO-1 or ISO-2 standard in the entire text.