INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS

 

Acta Pharmaceutica (AP) is a fully open access journal, which publishes original research papers, short communications, preliminary communications and review articles, in the pharmaceutical and related sciences. The Journal also carries book reviews and obituaries. The last issue within each volume (No. 4) gives table of contents throughout the volume, as well as information to authors. Reviewers are acknowledged in the next issue.

Publishing frequency of AP is four times a year (volume).

The policy of the Journal is aligned with COPE guidelines

 

Full papers in pdf of current/previous issues may be found on the websites:

https://acta.pharmaceutica.farmaceut.org

https://hrcak.srce.hr/acta-pharmaceutica

https://sciendo.com/journal/ACPH

 

AIMS AND SCOPE

AP is an international, multidisciplinary scientific journal devoted to pharmaceutical and allied sciences which contains articles predominantly on core biomedical and health subjects. The aim of AP is to increase the impact of pharmaceutical research in academia, industry and laboratories. With strong emphasis on quality and originality, AP publishes reports from the discovery of a drug up to clinical practice. Topics covered span from analytics of drugs, through biochemistry, pharmaceutics/biopharmacy and pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, cell biology, clinical pharmacy, drug design/delivery/disposition and stability, genetics, medicine (including diagnostics and therapy), pharmaceutical chemistry/medicinal chemistry, drug metabolism, molecular modelling/docking studies, pharmacology (clinical and animal), peptide and protein chemistry/protein design, nanosystems/pharmaceutical technology/formulation studies, cosmetology, pharmacognosy, radiopharmaceuticals, toxicology to pharmacoepidemiology/pharmacoeconomics, and more.

 

PUBLICATION CHARGES

Because of the high cost of preparing and publishing articles in Acta Pharmaceutica payment of publication fee is mandatory for all articles accepted for publication. Since October 1, 2023 publication fee is 1500 € per manuscript (excl. VAT).

Authors will receive an invoice right after acceptance of their paper which will not be published before the fee has been paid.

Prices are subject to change without notice. Payments should be made to the invoice of the publisher, Croatian Pharmaceutical Society, Masarykova 2, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia, through ZAGREBACKA BANKA ZAGREB, Trg Bana Josipa Jelačića 10, Zagreb, Croatia, IBAN HR8923600001101367614 SWIFT ZABA HR 2X. The invoice will be sent to the corresponding author by e-mail. The title and the manuscript code must be stated on the invoice and the bank order. The copy of the bank draft should be sent by e-mail (hfd-fg-ap@zg.t-com.hr) as a scanned document, within 72 h of receipt of the invoice.

 

 

ARTICLE TYPES

Original research papers should contain unpublished results of original research, which should be presented in sufficient detail to ensure the reproducibility of the described experiments. Should not contain more than 60 literature citations and preferably not more than 10 appendices (including schemes, tables and figures).

Short communications provide reports on short, but completed research or descriptions of original laboratory techniques. They should not contain more than 30 literature citations.

Preliminary communications are brief scientific contributions whose character requires rapid publication without supplying the details necessary to reproduce the described experiments. Preferably upto 6 appendices (schemes, figures, tables) are allowed and up to 25 literature citations.

Review articles are concise and critical surveys of novel accomplishments in the author’s research field. They may also contain original theoretical considerations. The results and role of the author’s research must be clearly distinguished from the results of the investigators referenced. As far as review articles are concerned Acta Pharmaceutica prefers critical reviews written by the authors already distinguished in the respective field. Otherwise, the review article should cover the topic of the utmost scientific interest.

Meta-analysis reviews are also welcome.

Only papers providing previously unpublished scientific information will be entered in the first three of the above categories. Authors should specify to which of the four categories the submitted material should be allocated, but the Editorial Board reserves the right to make the final decision. Authors of review articles are advised to consult the Editorial Board prior to submitting the article.

After the authors have received the letter of acceptance the uncorrected version of their article appears instantly on our web site (https://acta.pharmaceutica.farmaceut.org/) in the “uncorrected proofs” section. This „early bird“ version of the article is posted in order to provide the fastest access to the paper and will be replaced by the final version associated with DOI after receipt of proofs corrected by authors and the payment of the publication fee.

 

EDITORIAL POLICY

Submitting of manuscripts

Manuscripts submitted to AP are only accepted on the understanding that they are subject to editorial pre-screening (desk evaluation which may result in immediate rejection) and peer-review of at least two independent referees, that they are submitted on an exclusive basis, and that recommendations to comply with ethical standards when performing clinical and other biological experiments have been adhered to. Submission implies that the material submitted to Acta Pharmaceutica is original and has not been published and is not in press or under consideration for publication (except in the form of 1-page abstract or as part of academic thesis), whole or in part, in print or electronic format, in any other journal or any other medium, including preprints, electronic journals and computer databases in the public domain.

The authors are advised to provide their papers in accordance with the practice of openness and authenticity, ethics and data transparency (through repositories or supplements). Availability of data should be mentioned.

Reports of biological/clinical research carried out in human subjects must contain a statement indicating approval by the local ethics committee (giving its address) and compliance with the Helsinki Declaration and its revisions, as well as an affirmation that written informed consent has been obtained from each patient. “Approval” is also needed for research with experimental animals, namely, for any use of biological material of human/animal origin.

Manuscripts should be submitted exclusively to the editorial office of Acta Pharmaceutica via e-mail address:

acta.pharmaceutica@farmaceut.org

Only submissions received from authentic institutional e-mail addresses will be further processed. A cover letter should be included stating the wish to publish in Acta Pharmaceutica and identifying the corresponding author (with position and full institutional postal and e-mail addresses), and including a statement indicating that all authors approve the submission of the manuscript to Acta Pharmaceutica. Novelty and significance of research should be shortly but clearly elaborated.

Each article accepted for publication is language edited. The editorial staff reserves the right to make editorial corrections of the manuscript and adjust it to the requirements of the Journal.

During the submittance phase or just before commencing the reviewing process of the manuscript authors should sign Authors’ Agreement Form and Open Access License and return it to the Editor-in-Chief or co-Editor (by e-mail).

Reviewing process and retractions

After initial desk review by the Editor-in-Chief, manuscript will be assigned to an appropriate co-Editor for a more competent preliminary review. After passing a preliminary review the manuscript is subject to peer reviewing process. The submitting author will receive acknowledgement of receipt of the manuscript from the Editor in the phase of initiating the reviewing process.

Bear in mind that the Editor requires a fair, honest and unbiased assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the manuscript. Both Editor and reviewer responsibilities include accountability, standards of objectivity and fairness, promptness and confidentiality.

The authors are encouraged to suggest three non-biased referees (providing all relevant information: full name and position, affiliation, postal and electronic mail addresses), but the Editor/Editorial Board reserves the right to choose other referees, with no potential competing or conflicting interests, who will remain anonymous. Reviewers have an obligation to conduct reviews in an ethical and accountable manner and to provide impartial and timely reviews. In this journal peer review process operates as a single-anonymous.

In case of contradicting reviews of 2 referees, the manuscript will be sent to the third one and/or subjected to editorial evaluation. Articles are considered for publication depending on their research value/integrity and scientific relevance. Rejection rate of Acta Pharmaceutica is close to 80 %.

An author receiving reviews and editorial recommendations for revision of a manuscript has one month to complete the revision and return the manuscript to the co-Editor or Editor-in-Chief. Unless authors have permission from the Editor for a brief delay, manuscript requiring more than a month for revision should be submitted as a new manuscript.

In case of clear evidence of unethical behaviour, malpractice or other type of misconduct by the authors the Editors should consider retracting a publication. Considering complaints and confidentiality, complainant should be anonymous to authors but not to the Editorial Board/Publisher, unless otherwise proves necessary.

 

CONTENT AND STRUCTURE OF THE MANUSCRIPTS

The manuscripts should be submitted in grammatically and stylistically correct English and written in the concisest form possible, which still ensures clarity of presentation. The form and illustrations of the manuscripts should strictly comply with the style of AP and the recently published papers.

Manuscripts must be typewritten (font size 12 or 10 pt), double-spaced with wide margins. Each page must be numbered and line numbering should be used throughout the whole manuscript. Spelling out in full an abbreviation/acronym at its first use (with the abbreviation/acronym following in parentheses) should be done.

Text files can be in MS Word, or most common word processing programs. Included should be also the files containing computer generated graphics, artwork, bitmaps, and/or scanned images in one of the following formats: CDR, EPS, PDF, TIF and JPG. For large image files, use one of the file compressing programs (ZIP, ARJ, RAR). Appendices should be separated from the body text.

The Authors should give information on the source of funding, author´s contribution and ORCID, and conflict of interest, along with the Acknowledgements.

According to the methods of modern information science, the title of submitted paper should be short and informative; double titles should be avoided. The title should be followed by the full names of all authors, and these by the title(s) and addresses of the institution(s). Corresponding author should be indicated in the footnote with the valid, preferably institutional, e-mail address. An abstract (short summary) of 200 words or less and keywords (up to 6) should be supplied. The abstract should be written in the third person. Its main purpose is to aid the abstracting journals to copy it literally. The abstract should contain solely the essential results and conclusions of the presented work. Textual formulations from the title should not be repeated and the findings rather than the aim of the work should not be described. It must be only one paragraph.

Manuscripts should be divided into chapters. The aim of the work should be explained in the introductory part. The work that directly preceded the submitted information should be described in the shortest form possible. Introduction should be written in the form of a report and extensive literature reviews (except for review articles) will not be accepted. Since the articles are intended for experts in their respective fields, no general information should be given.

Experimental data should be presented logically in a straightforward and clear fashion. Well known methods and techniques should not be described in detail. They should be designated only by the names of their authors and/or literature references. Statistical methods should be applied, where necessary, to present the results. Non-standard computational methods and softwares should be shortly introduced and followed with a quote. SI units should be used throughout.

Results and discussion (R&D) should be combined in one section, and followed by short conclusions which do not repeat what is said in R&D section but bring very shortly the most important achievements of the current work and prospectives for the future work.

Authors bear sole responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of references. DOI (Digital Object Identifier) should be appended to each reference possible and care should be taken about its accuracy.

The literature citations should be selective rather than extensive. An exception to this rule are the review articles. The references should be listed on a separate sheet numbered by Arabic numerals according to the sequence in which they appear (in parentheses) in the text. If a reference is cited twice or more times, the same number should be used throughout. References such as »personal communication« or »unpublished results« are not allowed; for papers already accepted for publication it should stay »in press« with the stated name of the journal and DOI. References from journals should include the initials of the first (and middle) name, last name of all authors, the international abbreviation of the journal (according to the Chemical Abstracts), volume and issue, year of publication (in parentheses), and full pages. References from books should contain the initials of the first (and middle) name, last name of the author(s) or editors, the title of the book, edition, volume, the publisher, city and year of publishing, and full pages. The punctuation in the references should comply with the examples given below.

Examples for journal reference:

S. K. Mishra and K. Pathak, Formulation and evaluation of oil entrapped gastroretentive floating gel beads of loratadine, Acta Pharm. 58(2) (2008) 187–197; https://doi.org/10.2478/v10007-008-0001-8

S. A. Baron, C. Devaux, P. Colson, D. Raoult and J.-M. Rolain, Teicoplanin: an alternative drug for the treatment of COVID-19?, Int. J. Antimicrob. Agents 55(4) (2020) Article ID 105944 (2 pages); https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2020.105944

F. Pan-Montojo, O. Anichtchik, Y. Dening, L. Knels, S. Pursche, R. Jung, S. Jackson, G. Gille, M. G. Spillantini, H. Reichmann and R. H. W. Funk, Progression of Parkinson’s disease pathology is reproduced by intragastric administration of rotenone in mice, PLoS One 5(1) (2010) e8762 (10 pages); https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0008762

Example for book reference:

E. Mutschler and H. Derendorf, Drug Actions, Basic Principles and Therapeutic Aspects, Medpharm Scientific Publishers, Stuttgart 1995, pp. 16–26., or J. Feely, T. Pringle and D. MacLean, Calcium Channel Blockers, in New Drugs (Ed. J. Feely), 3^rd ed., BMJ Publishing Group, London 1994, pp. 82–93.

Example for patent reference:

H. P. Wang, O. Lee and C. T. Fan, Preparation of Gemfibrozil Analogs as Anticholesteremic Compounds, U.S. Pat. 5,530,145, 25 Jun 1996.

Example for quote from the Internet:

International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use, ICH Harmonised Tripartite Guideline, Validation of Analytical Procedures: Text and Methodology Q2(R1), Current Step 4 version, November 2005; https://www.ich.org/fileadmin/Public_Web_Site/ICH_Products/Guidelines/Quality/Q2_R1/Step4/Q2_R1__Guideline.pdf; last access date June 22, 2012.

Tables and figures should be designed in a fashion that enables understanding without referring to the text, however, avoiding excessive texts which belong to Experimental, or R&D sections. Presentation of the same results in figures and tables will not be accepted.

Submitting artwork in appropriate formats helps to ensure that the highest possible quality of reproduction can be achieved in both the online and print versions of your article.

The checklist below also gives a quick guide to submitting publication-quality electronic artwork:

Save line art such as charts, graphs and illustrations in EPS or PDF format. Most programs have a ‘Save as…’ or ‘Export…’ feature to allow you to do this.

Save photographic images in TIF format. These should be at a resolution of at least 300 dpi at final size. Save figures containing a combination of photographic images and text (e.g., annotated photographic images with text labels) as EPS or PDF. Any photographic images embedded within these should be at least 300 dpi.

If the file size of the generated images is very large then try saving them in a ZIP archive (or other compressed format such as RAR) to reduce the file size.

Use standard fonts that are legible and of an appropriate size. We recommend the following fonts: Times, Times New Roman, Arial and Helvetica. Make sure that any labelling is legible against the background, and that lines are of a suitable thickness.

Image resolution must be at least 300 dpi at final printed image size. If the final printed image size is unknown, size the image at a larger than final print size, maintaining at least 300 dpi resolution, and we will downsample the image to fit the final print dimensions.

Spaces for illustrations are to be marked in the text while the pertaining legends should be added on a separate sheet. The illustrations should be appended separately. All illustrations, except for formulas and schemes, should be referred to as figures (e.g., Fig. 1). Artwork/figures supplied with your article will appear in colour in the online version, and, unless otherwise requested and paid, in black and white in the print version.

The tables should be clear, descriptive, on separate sheets, and should be numbered using Roman numerals. They should be provided with overhead titles.

Supplements with raw data, or availability of data deposited in repositories statement, is welcome. For the Authors reporting on the synthesis work it is mandatory to add spectra of all new compounds or of a representative one at least, and other necessary information, as supplementary material.

 

FINAL REMARKS

Manuscripts that do not comply with the above submission guidelines will be returned to the author for required changes; the editors also reserve the right to reject incomplete submissions. Manuscripts returned to the authors for changes and not re-submitted within a period of one month will be considered as new articles as per the date of the last receipt. Only after compliance is established, the submission will be processed for reviewing.

Submitting manuscripts in the correct format will expedite the review process and prevent undue delay in publication. Authors can facilitate review and processing of their manuscripts by reading this guide carefully before submitting their papers. Non-adherence to the guidelines slows down or jeopardizes the publishing process.