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Guidelines for authors

1.   The Author/Authors provide the Editorial Board with an original, final and complete version of the article which should meet the following criteria:

•   the size of the article should be about 10 pages in A4 format (about 20,000 characters) including high quality illustrative material, such as drawings, photographs, lists, tables, footnotes, bibliography, summaries, keywords,

•   prior to writing the text, the author should select the Times New Roman 12-point font and set the parameters that define the settings of the basic paragraph style: justified, first line indentation of 1 cm, line spacing of 1.15, space after 2 pt. Activate page numbering,

 •   the illustrative material should be inserted in the text. The number, caption and citation referring to each figure should be placed below them. The number and title of the table should be placed above it, and all the comments and citation (in this order) should come underneath.

•   in the case of tables –– bold font should not be used in the heads; the text should not be aligned using spaces and tabs. In numerical data, we use a decimal point to separate parts of numbers written in decimal form.

•   non-editable graphics copied from other programs should be pasted into the Word document as Images.

•   by including quotes and illustrative material constituting someone else’s work in the submitted text, the author is obliged to clearly indicate the source not only in the list of literature, but also in the caption under the illustrative material, etc. (Act of February 4, 1994 on copyright –– Journal of Laws No. 24, item 83, art. 34),

•   final text editing will done by the Editorial Board (using the adopted template) only after its final preparation. Therefore, you should avoid dividing words manually, justifying the text with additional spaces, getting rid of one-letter words at the end of the line, ending the line (line) by pressing the combination of [Shift] and [Enter] for no apparent reason, etc.

•   end each paragraph by pressing [Enter],

•   commas, fullstops, exclamation marks, question marks, semicolons, colons are used without spaces afer the word they follow; you get a hyphen (or quarter pause) by pressing the [-] key. We use it without spaces in compound words or when specifying a range (e.g.: window-cleaner, 1999-2000). Also, we a recommend using an en dash (a half-pause) separated by spaces to separate parts of sentences (e.g. “He had a fever – 100 degrees, 101 degrees – and then it subsided.”). Word will automatically replace a spaced hyphen with the en dash “–”. It is also possible to enter the en dash directly from the keyboard by pressing [Ctrl] and [-].

•   if you need to use characters that cannot be accessed directly from the keyboard, you can use the “Insert symbol” function.

•   the footnote reference numbers should be used without spaces after the word preceding them. We always put a full stop, comma and colon after the in-text reference number (the exception is a number used after an abbreviation, e.g. C.N.N.12).

•   do not underline the URLs. Using the “Remove hyperlink” function may be necessary.

2.   In the case of an original work, the content of the article should be written in Polish or English and divided into the following parts:

•   abstract in Polish and English, keywords,

•   introduction – an introduction to the research with a detailed presentation of its assumptions,

•   content – research methods and material; research results; a discussion taking into account the current literature, divided into chapters and subchapters,

•   summary – conclusions,

•   bibliography – written in the Latin alphabet; ordered alphabetically and numbered, without the division into netography, list of legal sources, documents, legal acts, case law, websites, etc.)

The general unified layout of the text should be maintained, in line with the adopted article template (the final paragraph formatting is done by the editors).

Attachment. Article template – click to download.

1. Cross-referencing footnotes should be used. The way footnotes and bibliography are edited must be consistent and follow one pattern. Make sure you:

– distinguish the titles (e.g. with italics)

– distinguish between journals and monographs,

– use the surname with the initials consistently,

– either include the information on the publishing house in the bibliography consistently,

– either include or not include the names of translators consistently,

– consistently use citation abbreviations (ibid., ibid., ibid., op. cit., ed.) or abstain from using them; 

Using other types of footnotes will require sending a complete list of literature and getting the consent of the Editor.

The obligation to standardise the bibliographic information (footnotes and literature) rests with the Authors.