Pharmacological Reports

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NOTE TO CONTRIBUTORS (PDF format)
EndNote reference style for download

  1. Scope of the journal. Pharmacological Reports, formerly The Polish Journal of Pharmacology, publishes papers concerning all aspects of pharmacology, papers dealing with drug action at the cellular and molecular levels, and papers on the relationship between molecular structure and biological activity. The language of all publications is English. Studies on plant extracts are not suitable for Pharmacological Reports. We only publish reports on compounds with well-defined chemical structures.


  2. Types of publications. The journal features the publications of the following categories: regular papers, short communications, and review articles.

       Regular papers should present new experimental studies that constitute a significant contribution to existing knowledge. Theoretical papers which deal with new ideas and concepts based on earlier findings will also be welcome.

       Short communications should present important new findings in a brief form.

       Review articles should cover the most important current topics or present interpretative and critical accounts. They should not be simple compilations on subjects of general interest. Review articles are published only by invitation of the Editor-in-Chief. Authors intending to prepare a review should first contact the Editors.


  3. Submission of manuscripts. Manuscripts and figures should be sent by email to the Editorial Office at editor@if-pan.krakow.pl (the e-mail server must be able to send and accept attachments up to 15 MB in size). Submission is free of charge and must be completed online.
       The submitted manuscript should be accompanied by a written statement that the manuscript has not and will not be published in whole or in part in any other journal.
       Additionally, it is obligatory that the authors send the names, addresses, and email addresses of eight to ten potential reviewers. Although the journal does not guarantee that these reviewers will be invited, the Editors will take these suggestions into consideration. These recommendations will help the journal to speed up the editorial process.
       Each manuscript will be given a registration number by the Editorial Office, and this number should be cited in all correspondence and included in all file names.
       All submitted papers will be evaluated by independent reviewers, and are subject to editorial revision. The author(s) will receive the original manuscript with the comments of the editors and reviewers, on the basis of which the final version should be prepared. This version must fulfill the requirements listed in the Note to Contributors. The authors take full responsibility for any errors in the final manuscript.


  4. Volume of the manuscript. Brevity and clarity of presentation are essential. Lengthy historical introductions and long speculative discussions are unacceptable.
       The maximum length of regular papers is 5,000 words, and 9,000 words is the maximum for review articles. The length of short communications should not exceed 3,000 words, four illustrations (figures and tables), and 20 references.


  5. Form of the manuscript. The manuscript should be double-spaced, with wide margins, on A-4 size paper. All pages, including the title page, must be numbered. No specific enhancements (underlining, capitalization, wider margins, different spacing, etc.) should be used in the body of the manuscript. If necessary, appropriate proofreading marks may be inserted as comments in the manuscript. Each new paragraph should be marked by indentation. Headings (e.g., Methods or Results) should be centered. The approximate positions of figures and tables should be indicated in the margin.
       Authors are required to submit an electronic copy of their paper by e-mail, preferentially in Rich Text Format or Microsoft Word format, with TIFF, EPS, CDR (ver. 11), Microsoft Excel, Power Point, or SigmaPlot format for graphic files. Each figure should be submitted as a separate file.


  6. Language. Researchers who are not native speakers of English and submit manuscripts to international journals sometimes receive negative comments from reviewers or editors about the English language and grammar usage in their manuscripts, and these problems can contribute to a decision to reject a paper. To help reduce the possibility of such problems, we strongly encourage such authors either to have the manuscript reviewed for clarity by a native English speaker or a graduate of English studies or to use one of many English language editing services (e.g., "American Journal Experts"; see: www.journalexperts.com). Please note that any language editing is at the authors' own expense. Authors who are not native English speakers are requested to attach a certificate at the time of submission confirming that professional language editing has been performed.


  7. Organization of the manuscript. Each manuscript must be accompanied by a letter of submission. In this letter authors should declare their individual contribution to the manuscript and disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest. If the paper involves work with animals or animal tissues, the letter should contain a statement declaring that the work was carried out according to statutory bioethical standards and was approved by a bioethical committee or an equivalent body.
       Regular papers, short communications and review articles should include the following elements: title page, abstract page, report pages, references, tables, graphs, figures and legends.

    Title page should include:

    • The title (not more than 120 characters, including spaces)
    • Authors' names listed as follows: first name, middle initial (if any), last name
    • The name(s) and full postal address(es) (street, zip code, city, and country) of the affiliated institution(s) in which the work was performed
    • The name and e-mail address of the corresponding author
    • The running head (up to 60 characters, including spaces)

    The abstract page should include:

    • The body of the abstract (up to 250 words but no longer than 100 words for a short communication). The abstract should present the aims of the study, the major findings (with specific data, if possible) and the principal conclusions. The abstract must be structured into separate sections: Background outlining the context and purpose of the study; Methods containing a short description of methodologies used; Results reporting the main findings; and Conclusions including a brief summary and potential implications
    • A list of four to eight key words
    • A list of abbreviations should be provided if more than four abbreviations are used. A list of abbreviations must be arranged in alphabetical order

    The report pages for regular articles should be divided into:

       INTRODUCTION (up to 750 words), briefly describing the background of the investigation and stating the aim of the study.

       MATERIALS and METHODS. Animals and chemicals should be described in the first two paragraphs. The source of chemicals and drugs should be given unless obviously unnecessary. The basis of dosage calculation (free form or salt) should be indicated. Sex, strain and approximate weight of animals should be given (e.g., male Wistar rats 100-230 g) and housing and feeding conditions should be briefly described.
       The dosage schedules do not need be mentioned in the Materials and Methods section if they are easily discernible from graphs or tables. The route of administration (po, iv, ip, icv), solvent used, etc. should be indicated.
       Newly introduced techniques should be described in detail to allow experiments to be easily reproduced. Any modifications to previously described methods should be specified briefly, with proper references. Techniques that have been previously described should only be mentioned in brief, with proper references, unless they were published in sources that are not easily accessible.

       RESULTS and their significance should be presented clearly and concisely, preferably in the form of graphs and tables that should be self-explanatory. However, if there are only a few numerical data, it might be both economical and more legible to describe them in the body text. Authors are requested to report the results only once (i.e. not to repeat them in figures or in the text if data are already presented in tables).

       DISCUSSION (up to 1500 words) should contain a critical review of the results of the study in the light of relevant literature. It should end with brief conclusions.
       In short communications, the Results and Discussion sections may be combined.

       ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (including financial support) are placed at the end of report pages.

       REFERENCES should be arranged alphabetically, numbered consecutively and referred to in the text preferably by the number only (in square brackets). If a paper by more than two authors is quoted by authors names, use the name of the first author followed by et al. and the reference number, e.g., Bunney et al. [4]. References in the list should include: the consecutive reference number, names and initials of authors (if there are not more than seven names all should be listed, for eight or more authors, the first seven names should be listed followed by et al.), the title of the article, the title of the journal (abbreviated according to PubMed usage), the year and volume of the publication, and the first and last page numbers. In the case of a book reference, the title should be followed by additional information concerning edition (if relevant), publishing house, place of publication (the first one, if more than one are given), and year of publication. The page number or numbers may be indicated. For a chapter in a collective volume, give the title of the chapter quoted, followed by the book title, surname(s) and initials of editors, followed by the same information is required as for books and by inclusive pagination. Use standard American transcription for author names, book titles, names of towns, etc. if the original reference is written in a non-Latin alphabet. The title of the paper may be translated into English, followed by a statement of the language of the original paper.

    Examples:

    1. Byrtus H, Pawłowski M, Duszyńska B, Wesołowska A, Chojnacka-Wójcik E, Bojarski AJ: Arylpiperazine derivatives of 3-propyl-beta-tetralonohydantoin as new 5-HT1A and 5-HT2A receptor ligands. Pol J Pharmacol, 2002, 53, 395-401.
    2. Lacko A, Włodarska I, Zymlinski R, Mazur G, Wróbel T, Gisterek I: Cardiac toxicity in cancer therapy (Polish). Pol Merkuriusz Lek, 2002, 13, 79-85.
    3. Leonard BE: The potential contribution of sigma receptors to antidepressant actions. In: Antidepressants: New Pharmacological Strategies. Ed. Skolnick P, Humana Press, Totowa, 1997, 159-172.
    4. Strachan T., Read AP: Human Molecular Genetics, 2nd edn., BIOS Scientific Publishers Ltd., Oxford, 1999.

       Only printed books, articles and papers accepted for publication (not merely submitted), and websites may be quoted in the references list. Private information and unpublished data may be mentioned only in the text. Avoid citing sources difficult to locate and of low status (e.g., internal bulletins or abstracts of local meetings).

       Reference style can be downloaded here (EndNote format): PharmacolRep.ens

       TABLES, ILLUSTRATIONS, and GRAPHS. Tables should be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals in the order in which they appear in the text. Each table should be typed on a separate sheet (A-4 size) together with explanations, that are double-spaced. A title should be placed above the table. The table should be constructed in such a way as to minimize blank spaces and should not exceed one page in length.
       Illustrations and graphs should be referred to and numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals in the order in which they appear in the text. The authors are requested to provide at submission all figures of sufficient high quality to be assessed in the peer review process, preferably in TIFF or EPS format. The minimum resolution for illustrations, graphs, annotated artwork, photographs, and micrographs is 600 dpi. The following sizes are recommended: figure width should preferably fit into a single column or double column of the printed journal wherever possible; text and labeling should be typed in standard fonts using a font size of 8-10 (a sans serif typeface such as Arial, Helvetica, or Futura is preferred); and line width should be 0.6 to 1 pt. Color prints are accepted only when absolutely necessary (e.g., some immunohistochemical images).
       The amount of lettering in graphs should be kept to a minimum; explanations should be given in captions and legends. A list of figure captions should be typed on a separate page. The figure legends should explain the figures in sufficient detail to allow readers to understand it without reference to the text, whenever possible. Legends, captions and labels should be consistent with terminology and/or nomenclature used in the text.


  8. Experimental procedures. Authors should adhere very carefully to the ethical standards for animal experimentation. Appropriate guidelines for the acquisition and care of animals can be found in the NIH Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (National Institutes of Health Publications No. 80-23, revised 1978).
       The Editors reserve the right to reject papers if there is any doubt as to whether suitable procedures have been followed.


  9. Analytical and spectral data. All new compounds described in the paper must be characterized by elemental analyses that agree with the calculated values within 0.4%. Elemental analyses should be collected in a separate table which will not be printed. Elemental analysis for each new compound should appear in the text as follows: Analysis for C(11)H(25)N(3)O (215.2): C,H,N. The structure of all new compounds must be confirmed by modern spectroscopic techniques (e.g., NMR or mass spectra). The homogeneity of compounds should be checked using a routine chromatographic technique.


  10. Nomenclature. Standard American nomenclature should be used throughout the manuscript. General spellings should comply with the current Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Authors should use systematic names of chemicals recommended by IUPAC or names similar to those used by Chemical Abstract Service or The Merck Index. Dorlands Illustrated Medical Dictionary is authoritative text for medical nomenclature. Drug names should preferably be those recommended by WHO and only non-proprietary names are acceptable (if necessary, consult Marlers Pharmacological and Chemical Synonyms). Proprietary trade names should be used in parentheses in the Methods section, and the manufacturer should be identified by name and country.

       Example: Oxcarbazepine (Trileptal, Novartis Pharma, Basel, Switzerland).

  11. Units and abbreviations. Standard SI units and their abbreviations should be used. However, the use of legal non-SI units of length (A), volume (l, ml, ul), time (min, h, s) and temperature (°C) is encouraged. Doses should be expressed in grams (and derivatives) or moles (and derivatives) per kilogram of body weight. Concentrations should be written in grams (or moles) per liter or milliliter, or per gram or milligram. Notations such as ml/kg, mmol/kg, or mg/ml are preferred to ml x kg-2, mmol x kg-2, or mg x ml-1. Doses administered intracranially (e.g., icv, intra-VTA) should and human doses may be calculated per subject. In addition to standard abbreviations, the names of drugs, enzymes, reagents, etc. may be abbreviated, provided that the abbreviation is listed in the abbreviation list and that, at the first occurrence of the abbreviation (in both the abstract and the main body of the manuscript), the abbreviation is explained. Abbreviations should not be used in the title and should not be confusing. They should be based on American English spelling and preferably consist of three capital letters. The same abbreviations must be used in the text and in figures and tables. Use abbreviations only if they provide substantial space saving.


  12. Software. All software employed in molecular modeling, QSAR, and other studies must be specified by name and source. When conformational calculations are used, the potential functions or parametrization of the method should be stated to facilitate reproduction of the information and results presented in the paper.


  13. Reprints. The corresponding author, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail at no cost. Paper offprints can be ordered for an extra charge. Please contact the Editorial Office directly after you obtain the acceptance note.


  14. Copyright. Papers submitted for publication in the Journal are published according to the binding copyright law in Poland.
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Last updated: Cracow, May, 2012 by W. Zajaczkowski