Instructions for authors

(updated 27/02/2023)

The Journal of Competitiveness accepts scientific articles focused on the defined areas.

Only scientific contributions meeting the following requirements can be published in the journal:
1) The scientific article based on own research containing all parts of a scientific article (introduction, theoretical solutions, objectives and methodology, results, discussion, conclusion).
2) The article is original and has not yet been published.
3) The author has the copyright including the permission to use it freely.

The author confirms these facts by signing a statement ( DOC »). The statement must be signed by each author, each author signs his/her own document. We do not accept a document with all signatures on one paper. This statement (statements) should be sent via editorial systém OJS as one of the attachments.

The author is responsible for originality and professional as well as formal accuracy of the contribution.

Contributions in the Journal of Competitiveness are published in the English language only. Contributions are accepted in the electronic form and format MS Word - doc (alternatively docx, rtf) upload via editorial system (OJS). The acceptance of the article for publishing will be confirmed by e-mail.

The Journal of Competitiveness is published 4 times a year:
Issue 1 - March 31
Issue 2 - June 30
Issue 3 - September 30
Issue 4 - December 31

The journal is financially supported by Tomas Bata University in Zlín. However, the authors are charged by Article Publishing Charges (APCs) to make all articles freely available through Open Access to all readers around the world. APC is EUR 450 (excluding VAT). The Editor-in-Chief can reduce this fee.

The author is obligated to provide a certificate of English Proof-Reading, which certifies that the manuscript has been proofread by a professional and reputable Publishing House (Elsevier's Author Service is recommended). The certificate is required as a last step before publication (the author will be asked for that). Author who is English native speaker can sign a statement about the quality of English. The quality of language will be checked.

The structure of a contribution

The structure of a contribution for acceptance is binding, namely in the following form:

• Title of the contribution
• Name of the author and co-author(s) (without academic degree titles)
• Abstract (explain here the aim of the contribution, the methodology and main results)
• Keywords
• JEL Classification
• The text of the contribution (shall correspond to the structure of a scientific article: introduction, theoretical solutions, objectives and methodology, results, discussion, conclusion)
• List of references
• Particulars about author(s) (name including academic degree titles, workplace, e-mail address)

A template of a contribution can be downloaded here » (2/2023).

Instructions for writing a contribution

• The contribution should be submitted in such a form that it can be published in black and white colours. It is therefore necessary to use only black fonts and all pictures and tables should be clear and legible in single colour.
• The text should be composed in such a manner that there is not a greater number of figures or tables on a single page. Tables and figures in landscape format are not acceptable.
  Figures and tables should be supplied in a sufficient quality for print. Figures and schemes are recommended to be supplied as separate documents (jpg, xls, doc, pdf, eps, etc.). The quality of the above is the responsibility of an author (300dpi resolution recommended).
  Equations and formulas are denoted by numbers in round parentheses and it is recommended to be produced by Editor of equations or inserted by the jpg format.
• The list of references should be complete and accurate. For each work shown in the list of references, there must be a reference in the text. References should be arranged alphabetically. More than one reference from the same author(s) must be sorted chronologically with regard to the year of publication.

Citations in the text and the list of references should follow the referencing style used by the American Psychological Association. Details concerning this referencing style can be found at http://www.library.cornell.edu/resrch/citmanage/apa. Authors can also use citation machine at http://citationmachine.net/
References should be 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.

Notes under the line are not acceptable.

Authors are required to complete the reference in a list of literature used with DOI (Digital Object Identifier) if it has been assigned to the publication. To search for the DOI, please visit: http://www.crossref.org/guestquery/

Important notice: In case of failure of the above instructions for authors, journal editors will reject the contribution due to formal reasons and it will not be evaluated further.

PEER-REVIEW PROCESS

Procedure for the peer review

The Journal of Competitiveness makes sure that the Editor, the Editorial Office members, authors and reviewers strictly follow the principles of scientific and publishing ethical codes. The review process is conducted in the form of double blind review. Before the manuscripts are submitted for a critical review process, all the information that would enable any identification of authorship is removed. Authors are supposed to send the manuscripts to the Editorial Office together with their signed authors’ statement (signed by all co-authors on the same page) by which they acknowledge both the originality and authorship of their work.

All articles must be checked by Crossref Similarity Check before their next proceeding. The Editorial Office draws up the protocol for each article that has been submitted to the Editorial Office. If the article does not meet the criteria in this area, the author is informed of the reasons for refusing the article. If the submitted article is original without a suspicion of plagiarism, it is sent to the responsible editor (desk review). The responsible editor checks the quality of the article according to the following criteria:

• the theme and the character of the contribution corresponding to the criteria defined by the journal;
• the formal treatment of the contribution following the Instructions for authors, including the prescribed formatting for a scientific article;
• a stylistic and linguistic level required;
• citations and list of the used literature arranged properly and according to the existing standards.

The editor has the right to reject contributions that are not in accordance with the journal’s editorial purpose and do not meet the above criteria and informs the author about this matter via e-mail.

Based on editor’s positive review, the contribution proceeds to the peer review process. In the peer review process, minimum of two independent reviewers (at least one of them is from a different country than the author’s) evaluate the quality of an article submitted and make a proposal regarding further procedure.

The evaluation is primarily aimed at meeting the following criteria

• Is the subject of the contribution in accordance with the overall topic of the journal?
• Is the theme of the contribution relevant and of interest for specialized readers?
• Does the formulation of the title and the abstract correspond to the actual content of the contribution?
• Are the goals of the contribution appropriately set out and clearly formulated?
• Is the theoretical argument of the contribution appropriate and well-articulated?
• Are appropriate research methods employed for dealing with the issue?
• Are the main results and conclusions of the contribution clearly formulated?
• Does the contribution have a clear structure which corresponds to the established goals?
• Does the contribution contain appropriate critical views and opinions of the author on the issue analysed?
• Are the conclusions and results of the contribution valuable and of use?
• Are the bibliography and information sources sufficient and up-to-date?

The review process takes approximately 3 months.

The articles recommended for a publishing are sent to the Editorial Board for the final approval of publication at the earliest issue of the Journal of Competitiveness. They are sent without mentioning the author's name, affiliation and acknowledgment.

The final decision to include the article in the Journal of Competitiveness is reserved by the Editorial Board.

Each author is notified about the result of the peer review process by e-mail and has the right to comment the review reports. If the author makes a protest about the review reports, the Executive Editor and responsible editor check these reservations within 30 days and they inform the author about the result.

The Editorial Office and the Editorial Board retain the right to reject the contribution.

The author claims that copyrights given to the publisher belong to him/her without limitations. He/she has no obligations that would obstruct providing the license to the publisher. The author provides the right to use the work to the publisher.

All articles from Journal of Competitiveness have "free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself." (From the BOAI Definition of Open Access).

The journal offers access to the contents in the open access system on the principles license Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0).