Editorial policy and requirements

The journal publishes original research papers, brief reports and review articles from all areas of microbiology and immunology. Novelty and importance of data in the international context are required. The following types of manuscripts can be rejected: purely descriptive papers, reports of local or regional importance, tentative verifications of known methods, etc.

Your manuscript must contain information interesting for the readers of Folia Microbiologica. It should be clear, concise and free of repetitions and ambiguities. Its extent should not exceed 20 000 characters without spaces (including tables and figures), in brief reports less than 5 000 characters without spaces. Before publishing a review in Folia Microbiologica please inform the Editorial Office of the intended topic, length or manuscript, etc. Any reviews have to be first approved by the Editorial Office. Editorial Office can also require modification of manuscript length.

Before submitting a manuscript examine carefully a recent issue of Folia Microbiologica and observe the general format and layout (page size 154 × 240 mm), especially regarding the title page, references, tables, subheadings, footnotes, abbreviations, etc.

NOTE: Both PDF (including tables and figures in one single document) and Microsoft Word versions (text in RTF or DOC, and separate figures in CDR, TIF, BMP, JPG, etc.) are required!

Preparation of manuscript

Title page should contain full title of the paper, running title, name(s) of author(s) (the name of the corresponding author should be marked with an asterisk), name(s) and address(es) of institution(s) in which the work has been performed, full postal address of the corresponding author (including the e-mail address and fax number).

Abstract limited to not more than 1200 characters without spaces should concisely summarize all important results of the paper without excessive experimental details and their interpretations. Non-documented results (data not shown) can be used only exceptionally (in fully justifiable cases) in order to keep the volume of the paper reduced as much as possible.

Introductory part (without subheading) should give a concise background and provide the rationale to the presented study. It should not be an exhaustive review of the topic under study or contain irrelevant data. It should also describe briefly the design of experiments and clearly formulate the aim of the work.

Materials and Methods should give sufficient information to allow others to repeat the work. It should consist of paragraphs dealing with individual methods. Only the procedures of not yet published methods or modified parts of established methods may be described in detail. Established methods should be properly cited. Methods demonstrating the reproducibility of results (e.g., statistical evaluation of the data) should be also included.

Results should present relevant experimental data in appropriate forms (tables, figures, text) and give their interpretation (i.e. evaluation in the sense of investigated feature, determination of the power of effector, generalization of the observed properties in the range of studied models, etc.). It may be divided into subsections with appropriate subtitles.

Discussion should not repeat parts of introduction or Results. It should relate the acquired results to those of previous own and/or other studies and present general interpretations and conclusions. It can outline working hypotheses, theories, and applications.

A combined section of Results and Discussion is optional.

Acknowledgements (without heading). This optional section contains acknowledgements of personal and/or grant and institutional supports.

References should be written according to the following example in the alphabetical order (do not write author names in capital letters):

Baldwin T.O., Holzman T.F., Holzman R.B.: Active center-based immunoassay approach using bacterial luciferase. Methods Enzymol. 133, 248–264 (1986).

Chee M. Jr.: Enzymic multiplex DNA sequencing. Nucl. Acids Res. 19, 3301–3305 (1991).

Paris A.B., Kushner S.R.: An improved method for transformation of Escherichia coli with ColE1 derived plasmids, pp. 17–23 in H.W. Boyer, S. Nicosia (Eds): Genetic Engineering. Elsevier, Amsterdam 1978.

Watson J.D., Hopkins N.H., Roberts J.W., Steitz J.A., Weiner A.M.: Molecular Biology of the Gene, Vol. 1, 4th ed. Benjamin–Cummings, Menlo Park 1987.

In the text, they should be referred to by name(s) (two names in the case of two authors and/or the name of the first author plus et al. in the case of more authors) and year (e.g., Chee 1991; Paris and Kushner 1978; Baldwin et al. 1986). Several papers by the same author(s) in the same year must be distinguished by letters a, b, c, etc., placed after the year of publication. All listed references should be cited in the text. Cite relevant publications BUT avoid over-referencing. The label in press may be used only for a paper accepted for publication in the indicated journal. Unpublished data and personal communications may be cited in the text but not listed in References. Papers in preparation or submitted for publication are not allowed to appear either in the text or References.

Submission of manuscript

Manuscripts (paginated) should be submitted in an electronic form by e-mail. Large files (e.g., graphics) that cannot be sent by e-mail should be submitted on CD, DVD, etc. Please use the PC format, not Macintosh. In parallel, send all materials (text, tables and figures) to the Editorial Office also in the form of a PDF (Adobe Acrobat Writer) file.

Text should be in Microsoft Word for Windows, left justified without any additional formatting of the text (fonts, characters, paragraphs, pages); an exception will be italics in scientific terms in accordance with international usage. Do not divide words at the end of line. Electronic text must not contain references to www pages etc. in interactive form (automatic connection to www page after clicking on the reference); www addresses are to be free of this interactive mode. The use of SI (Systeme International) units is strongly recommended. Appropriate publications on symbols and abbreviations in the field are also to be consulted. Normal parentheses, ( ), not the slash or solidus, /, should be used.

Tables should be clear and easy to understand. They should have a concise heading; individual quantities can be explained by notes below tables. Values and meanings of quantities should be identical in the tables and in the text. Units of all quantities must be given in column headings. Tables should be in Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Word format and should be numbered by Roman numerals in the order in which they appear in the text.

Figures – send all figures in an electronic form as separate graphical files compatible with CorelDRAW/Corel PHOTO-PAINT or Adobe Photoshop (and/or graphical bitmap format, i.e. as CDR, TIF, BMP, JPG, etc.). Do not incorporate figures into text files (e.g., DOC, RTF). Figures should be numbered by ordinal numerals in the order in which they appear in the text. Each figure has to have a heading explaining the nature of information it provides. Type and send the legends to figures collectively on a separate page (text file).

Line drawings should be submitted together with unequivocal and brief description of axes (usually a symbol of the quantity plotted and/or units). All longer explanations should be included in the legend. Do not use column graphs except when necessary (e.g., in graphical presentations of functions of multiple variables). When you decide to use column graphs please append also source data for potential pre-printing adjustments.

Photographs – figures in grey scale or, exceptionally, in color (after an agreement with the Editorial Office), should be of high contrast and the highest quality possible (resolution 300 dpi). They should also be submitted as original photographs (not glossy prints) preferably in the final size, in no case larger than 250 × 200 mm (the first author’s name should then be written in soft pencil on the reverse of the photograph). Send this type of documentation in two electronic forms: (a) in a file with all the numbering, scale(s), letters, arrows, etc. incorporated (preferably as PDF file), and (b) as graphical file(s) (in the required resolution of at least 300 dpi) without any descriptions, scales, etc. (to ensure optimal pre-print processing). With microphotographs please specify the magnification or, if you add the scale bar(s), the editors will provide the scale bar incorporation accordingly. Likewise, do not describe parts of a composite figure or objects in a microphotograph directly but do so in the legend (the editors will provide the appropriate descriptions).

Schemes (reactions, base or amino acid sequences, etc.) should be submitted in a text or a graphical format (see Figures), with sufficient resolution and easy to read; individual objects (e.g., in Microsoft Power Point) are to be anchored and/or grouped.

Chemical formulas should be created by using specialized software, potential modifications will be made in collaboration with the Editorial Office.

Please be aware that a breach of these conditions for manuscript submission can result in the manuscript being rejected without any further editorial processing.

The receipt of the manuscript will be acknowledged by the Editorial Office.

Further editorial processing

After review by expert referees the author(s) will receive the comments on the paper and recommendations for manuscript modifications, corrections, shortening, etc. If the manuscript is judged unfit for publication in Folia Microbiologica (at any step in the editorial processing) it will be rejected.