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Masaryk University Faculty of Law Directive No. 3/2015
About editorial activities
(as amended with effect from 6 November 2023)
Pursuant to Section 28(1) of Act No. 111/1998 Coll., on Higher Education Institutions and on
Amendments and Supplements to Other Acts (Act on Higher Education Institutions), as
amended (hereinafter referred to as the "Act on Higher Education Institutions"), I issue this
Directive:
Article 1
Subject of modification
1) The editorial activity of the Faculty of Law of Masaryk University (hereinafter referred to
as "the Faculty") is a part of the editorial activity of Masaryk University realized on the
basis of the publishing authorization of the Ministry of Culture of the Czechoslovak Socialist
Republic dated 4 December 1979, No.21 514/79, effective from 1 January 1980. Within
the framework of this authorization, the faculty:
a) publishes and disseminates university scripts and textbooks, collections, monographs,
bibliographies, professional and scientific works, practical manuals, special purpose
prints,
b) publishes periodical publications.
2) The principles of editorial activities at Masaryk University are regulated by University
Directive No. 6/2008 "Principles of Editorial Activities at MU"
3) This Directive of the Dean of the Faculty regulates the basic principles of management and
implementation of the activities referred to in paragraph 1. Editorial activities are regulated
in detail by the current methodological guidelines, which the relevant authorised vice-dean
is entitled to issue.
Article 2
Management of editorial activities
The management system of the faculty's editorial activities consists of:
a) Dean,
b) Vice-Dean for Science and Research,
c) Editorial Board of the Faculty,
d) the Editorial Board of the Journal of Legal Science and Practice and the Editorial Boards
of other
e) periodical publications,
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f) Secretary of the Faculty,
g) Editorial Officer.
Article 3
Scope
1) Dean:
a) approves the basic documents for editorial activities, in particular guidelines, principles,
editorial plan,
b) takes action on major issues of publishing activity,
c) Once a year evaluates the editorial activities of the Faculty of Arts,
d) Appoint members of the editorial board and editorial boards of periodicals, the
executive editor of the Journal of Legal Science and Practice and other periodical
publications (if this function is established),
e) delegates part of his/her authority to the Vice-Dean for Science and Research.
2) Vice Dean for Science and Research:
a) methodically manages editorial and publishing activities,
b) under delegated powers, in particular:
i) manages the activities of the editorial board and editorial boards,
ii) proposes members of the editorial boards and the executive editor of the Journal
of Legal Science and Practice and other periodical publications (if this function is
established).
3) Editorial Board of the Faculty:
a) is a collective advisory body of the Dean, chaired by the Vice-Dean for Science and
Research, other members are employees of the Faculty and possibly external
collaborators appointed by the Dean, the Secretary of the Editorial Board is the
responsible employee for editorial activities,
b) sets out in particular the concepts and objectives of the Faculty's editorial activities,
c) expresses its opinion on the principles of the Faculty's editorial activities, proposes an
editorial plan to the Dean for approval and submits an evaluation of the implementation
of the editorial plan to the Dean,
d) meets at least once a year to agree on the editorial plan and evaluate the previous
period.
The term of office of the members of the Editorial Board is four years.
4) Editorial Board of the Journal of Legal Science and Practice and editorial boards of other
periodical publications:
a) are a collective advisory body of the Dean, focused on the content of the abovementioned
publications. They are headed by editors-in-chief appointed by the Dean,
b) are responsible for the professional quality of periodical publications and approve the
contents of individual issues.
The term of office of the members of the Editorial Board is four years.
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5) The Secretary of the Faculty participates in the preparation of the editorial budget and
monitors its income and expenditure.
6) The editorial officer is responsible for the practical implementation of editorial activities at
the faculty. He is also responsible for:
a) for the level of technical editing of publications and periodicals (if there are no executive
editors),
b) for the organisational aspect of publishing publications and periodicals.
Article 4
Planning activity
1) The basis for the management of editorial activities is the annual plan of editorial activities
(hereinafter referred to as "EP"), which is prepared by the Editorial Board on the basis of
the intentions of individual authors, taking into account the economic possibilities of the
Faculty. Publication plans (proposal sheets for individual titles) are submitted by 30
November of the preceding year to the Dean, through the Vice-Dean for Science and
Research, heads of departments, heads of departments for science, research and project
support in the case of project publications, and course guarantors.
2) Necessary planning data:
a) author, co-authors (or collective, including the leader of the author collective), or the
organizer of the work,
b) the title of the work in Czech and English (in case of any additional clarification of the
title of the work, this fact must be communicated to the editorial centre in view of the
necessity to change the publishing contract and to take further measures),
c) the expected page length of the manuscript (separately the scope of documents especially
legal regulations, case law, explanatory notes), the number of figures,
diagrams and graphs, or other appendices affecting the calculation of the royalty,
d) the proposed amount of the cost and its justification (estimate to be made in relation
to teaching, i.e. for master's, bachelor's, lifelong learning, for the wider professional
public, etc.),
e) the order of publication of the work (first edition, supplemented edition, reprint, etc.),
f) the desired format of the work (printed book, e-book)
g) date of expected submission of the manuscript, information about the stage of the
work in progress,
h) in the case of a textbook, information on whether it is a B.Sc. or M.Sc. textbook and
for which semester it is intended, from which date the textbook is to be available and
for which subjects (with an indication of the number of students) it will be intended,
i) an annotation in both Czech and English (focused briefly and factually on the cognitive
aim of the work and the audience for which the work is intended) of up to 10 lines.
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3) Submitted proposals are assessed by the Editorial Board, which compiles a draft EP from
the selected titles. When assessing proposals for inclusion in the EP, the Editorial Board is
guided in particular by the economic possibilities of the faculty, the necessity of the
proposed publication for teaching and the expected sales of the work. The Dean approves
the EP.
4) Additional additions to the EP during the year are possible only in exceptional cases (e.g.
the need to quickly provide unplanned teaching aids) on the basis of the explicit consent
of the Dean or in the case of a project output.
Article 5
Draft processing
1) The author is obliged to process the manuscript in a standard word processor and submit
it via e-mail to the responsible editorial officer.
2) The instructions for authors given on the Faculty's website apply to the preparation of the
draft.
Article 6
Publishing contracts and royalties
1) Priority publications of the MU Faculty of Science are published as employee works. The
dean decides on exceptions.
2) Titles produced/funded through grant projects are always published in employee work
mode and are open-access.
3) Licensing agreements are concluded with authors by the faculty through the responsible
editorial officer.
4) The amount of royalties is set by the Dean by a separate measure, after discussion in the
Editorial Board. The same applies to fees for reviews of published works.
Article 7
Reviewing draft texts
1) Draft/manuscripts of teaching aids and monographs are submitted for peer review, unless
their peer review has already been carried out on another occasion (e.g. review of a
habilitation thesis). The Dean, in consultation with the Vice Dean for Science and Research,
may decide not to review a work, taking into account the nature of the work, the
professional erudition of the author and other criteria.
2) The author is obliged to take into account the reviewer's comments or to duly justify
his/her failure to do so. Any dispute shall be resolved in accordance with paragraph 3.
3) If the reviewer does not recommend the publication of the work, the dean will decide on
the further course of action on the proposal of the editorial board.
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Article 8
Production and distribution
1) Typesetting of the publication and its submission to the press is handled by an editorial
specialist.
2) All manuscripts (drafts) must undergo basic editorial processing at Munipress Publishing,
i.e. at least registration, completion of the copyright, completion of the bibliography,
completion of the ISBN card and filing of the file.
3) The author is responsible for the correctness and completeness of the submitted text and
for the graphic proofreading. The author is responsible for ensuring that the manuscript is
not plagiarised and is an original work of authorship.
4) The responsible person for editorial activities negotiates the reprinting and its circulation
with all the subjects involved (author, subject guarantor for teaching aids, or head of the
department); proposals for reprints are approved by the Vice-Dean for Science and
Research.
5) Distribution and sales of published titles are handled by the Economics Department. The
author is involved in defining the range of potential buyers of the publication.
Article 9
Transitional and final provisions
1) This Directive shall enter into force on 6 November 2023.
2) It applies to all publications published (i.e. printed) after the date of entry into force of the
Directive and which have been included in the EP for a year or more thereafter. The Vice
Dean for Science and Research is responsible for ensuring compliance with the Directive.
3) This text replaces the text of 16 February 2015.
In Brno, 6 November 2023 Martin Škop
Dean
Translated with DeepL-Translator