Preamble
The pharmaceutical company PRO.MED.CS Praha a. s. announces the Dr. Bares Award Publication competition (hereinafter referred to as the "Competition") for the year 2021 to support medical and scientific knowledge in clinical practice.
The historical overview and results of the completed Competitions can be found at www.dr-bares-award.com and on the website of PRO.MED.CS Praha a. s. at www.promedcs.com.
The Competition shall be held from 1 April 2021 to 26 February 2022 (hereinafter referred to as the "Competition Period"). Competition applications may only be submitted from 1 April 2021 to 17 December 2021 (hereinafter referred to as the "Period for Submitting Applications"). The Competition evaluation shall be conducted at three consecutive levels: a) basic evaluation, b) national evaluation, and c) international evaluation.
Electronic communication shall be conducted via the website www.dr-bares-award.com or e-mail address dr-bares-award@promedcs.com.
Competition Rules
The Dr. Bares Award 2021 (abbreviated as "DBA") is organised by the pharmaceutical company PRO.MED.CS Praha a. s., with its registered office at Telcska 377/1, Michle, 140 00 Prague 4, Czech Republic, ID No.: 00147893, registered in the Commercial Register maintained by the Municipal Court in Prague, Section B, File No. 3 (hereinafter referred to as the "Organiser").
The competition is open to the territories of the following countries: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, China, Estonia, Georgia, Germany, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Moldova, Mongolia, Poland, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tunesia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, Vietnam.
Participant of the competition
Any natural person who is competent to perform legal acts and who meets the following conditions may become a participant in the Competition:
a) he/she has reached 18 years of age no later than the date of submission of the Competition application pursuant to these Rules,
b) he/she is a health care professional, meaning a person with completed university education (at least a Master's programme) in the field of medicine or pharmacy,
c) he/she is the author of a scientific article (within the meaning of the Competition Rules) which is submitted to the Competition (see Authorship below),
(hereinafter referred to as the "Participant").
Any person meeting the conditions for participation in the Competition defined herein who is validly registered at least once in the Competition in accordance with these Rules shall become a participant in the Competition.
Scientific article
For the purposes of this Competition, a scientific article means a professional article published in a professional periodical, regardless of the publisher's country, which presents the original results of the research carried out by the author or by the team of which the author was a member. The texts accepted in the Competition must be the entire texts of the articles with the breakdown according to the requirements of the periodical publishers concerning the structure of the scientific article (most often: abstract, introduction, material and methods, results, discussion and conclusion, bibliography), with the usual method of citing sources, including footnotes or endnotes if appropriate, i.e. not articles of purely informative nature, editorial materials, corrections, abstracts or summaries, although published in a professional periodical. A scientific article in a professional periodical is not an abstract of a scientific contribution, e.g. at a conference.
The scientific article for the purposes of the Competition must meet, inter alia, the following two criteria:
a) original scientific article in the field of gastroenterology and/or hepatology and/or related to the metabolic syndrome (both clinical and experimental, including in vitro studies, in vivo studies, epidemiological articles, meta-analyses, etc.),
b) published in a professional periodical in the period from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2020 (or available in the online version in this period, see Professional periodical below).
If the scientific article was published in a language other than English, the condition for inclusion of such a scientific article in the international level of evaluation (see below) is the delivery of its translation into English no later than the date determined by the Organiser
(hereinafter referred to as the "Scientific Article").
Professional periodical
The professional periodical means a) a reviewed scientific journal, i.e. a printed publication that is published under the same title, with the same content focus and in uniform graphic layout, or b) an electronic reviewed professional journal (periodical) which has been assigned an ISSN code (a journal registered and identifiable under an international ISSN code) at the time of publication of the Scientific Article. For the purposes of the Competition, daily press and popular science magazines are not professional periodicals. Assessment and decisions of whether the printed publication is a professional periodical may only be made by the Organiser.
Authorship
One of the conditions for participation in the Competition is the fact that the Applicant is the author of the Scientific Article (see above). It is also possible to register a Scientific Article that has been created by several persons (as co-authors). The author (and hence a potential Participant in the Competition) of any co-authored Scientific Article means the author whose name is the first in the order of the authors given in the published Scientific Article (another author means the person stated as second, third, etc. in the order of the authors).
For the purposes of this Competition, any of the co-authors (i.e., for example, another author, etc.) of the evaluated Scientific Article may be considered to be the author instead of the author determined based on fiction under the preceding paragraph provided that he/she submits the author's written consent (in the sense of the fiction laid down in the first paragraph of the Authorship section) bearing an officially certified signature.
It applies that the Participants bear full responsibility for the settlement of the rights to Scientific Articles with the potential co-authors or other persons who own property rights to such Scientific Articles. By submitting an application to the Competition, the Applicant declares that he/she shall be entitled to use the relevant Scientific Article for the purposes laid down herein.
Registration for the Competition
The Applicant shall enter the Competition by visiting the website at www.dr-bares-award.com in the Period for Submitting Applications to complete the Competition application available in the "Publication" section.
The Applicant shall fill in all the required information in English in the application form completely (in full) and truthfully, in the scope required in the registration form at www.dr-bares-award.com/publication, then shall upload the scans/photographs of all the required attachments, legible without any doubt and difficulty, which are always: a scan/photograph of the submitted article, a scan/photograph of the content of the journal, a scan/photograph of the title page of the journal and, if the consent of any co-author is required, see above, the consent of the author (which in this sentence means the author under Paragraph 1 of the Authorship section). The Organiser shall be entitled to request all sent documents in paper form at any time (any documents uploaded electronically must be identical to their printed versions) provided that the documents sent in paper form are intact originals of the requested documents the contents of which will be legible without difficulty.
By ticking the appropriate boxes, the Applicant shall then confirm that he/she agrees with the Competition Rules and that he/she has reached 18 years of age, shall give consent to the processing of his/her personal data and consent to the recording and use of his/her appearance (i.e. consent to filming and photographing) and name (detailed information about the extent and rights are stated in the application form), and shall confirm that he/she is the author of the Scientific Article and that he/she has settled any and all rights with the persons who own the rights to the Scientific Article and that he/she shall be entitled to register the Scientific Article for the Competition. Then he/she shall send the application to the Organiser of the Competition by pressing the relevant button.
By submitting the application, the Applicant undertakes to abide by the Competition Rules and to follow the Organiser's instructions without reservation.
The record date for the submission of the application for the Competition shall be the date of receipt of the application by the Organiser. Upon receipt of the application, a reply confirming receipt of the application shall be automatically generated and sent to the Participant's contact e-mail. Any applications submitted to the Organiser in the Period for Submitting Applications shall be included in the basic evaluation in the Competition (see below).
Any Scientific Articles submitted to the Organiser after the Period for Submitting Applications has expired shall not be included in the Competition.
Basic evaluation in the Competition
The basic evaluation shall be conducted by the Organiser within the Period for Submitting Applications on a continuous basis, depending on how the applications with Scientific Articles are submitted. In the basic evaluation, all applications received in the registration period shall be evaluated with regard to formal aspects.
If any Applicant/Participant submits an incomplete, illegible or otherwise unsatisfactory application, the Organiser shall be entitled to request the Applicant/Participant to supplement or specify the information and documents necessary for the basic evaluation within a reasonable period of time, no later than the end of the Period for Submitting Applications. If the Applicant/Participant fails to make the aforementioned supplementation, or fails to do so within the period of time laid down, and the application fails to meet the conditions of this Competition, the Organiser shall be entitled to decide not to include his/her application in the Competition.
Without limiting the validity of the previous paragraph, the Organiser of the Competition shall be entitled to refuse any application if it fails to meet the Rules laid down by the Organiser, albeit in a minor part (i.e. the Organiser shall not be obliged to call upon the Applicant/Participant to make such supplementation).
The Organiser shall not include in the Competition any applications that are incomplete or contain incorrect information, any applications received after the Period for Submitting Applications, any repeated applications submitted by the same Participants with identical Scientific Articles, any applications containing Scientific Articles that have been submitted to the Competition by other Participants, and any applications with scientific articles not published in the period laid down herein, although their acceptance for publication has been proved.
Likewise, any applications that contain articles which are not Scientific Articles within the meaning of these Rules or which fail to meet other formal requirements of the Competition shall not be included in the Competition (or, as the case may be, such applications shall be excluded if they have been included contrary to these Rules). In particular, any applications containing the following articles shall not be included: overview scientific articles, sets of scientific articles, abstracts, posters, essays, doctoral or dissertation theses, books, textbooks and proceedings. In addition, any applications containing scientific articles already awarded in another competition of a similar nature shall not be included in the Competition.
The Organiser shall be obliged to inform the Participant of the inclusion/non-inclusion of the application in the Competition at the contact e-mail address given in the application. At the moment of sending the confirmation of inclusion of the application in the Competition, the Applicant shall be registered for the Competition together with a specific submitted Scientific Article (hereinafter referred to as "Registration").
In the Competition, it is only possible to register one published Scientific Article with one particular application. Another Scientific Article may be registered through a new separate application. One particular Applicant may also register multiple individual Scientific Articles for the Competition. Only one Participant who is deemed to be the author within the meaning of these Rules may participate with one particular Scientific Article in the Competition. No team of natural persons (such as a team of scientists) or any legal entity may be registered for the Competition.
The Scientific Article (together with the Participant who registered it) which meets the conditions of the basic evaluation, i.e. which is registered for the Competition, shall advance to the national evaluation level.
The advancement to the national evaluation level shall be ensured by the Organiser as follows: the registered Scientific Articles shall be divided by country for which they were registered (according to the Participants' residence), anonymised (i.e. no personal data of the Participants shall be transferred), and transferred to the relevant national evaluators no later than 14 January 2022.
National evaluation in the Competition
The national evaluation shall be conducted by the national evaluator who is responsible for the fairness of the Competition at national level and coordinates the selection of Scientific Articles in the country he/she represents.
The national evaluator is selected by the Organiser of the Competition, which guarantees that it is a generally recognised expert in the field of gastroenterology and/or hepatology in the territory of the country in which the national evaluation level is conducted. In the event that less than five (5) articles are registered in a certain territory, the Organiser may entrust the evaluation to an evaluator, i.e. a generally recognised expert in the field of gastroenterology and/or hepatology, from another country where more articles have been registered. The evaluator shall then evaluate each country separately, i.e. the articles shall not be evaluated together in one territory.
The registered Scientific Articles shall be evaluated by the national evaluator taking into account a) the originality of the Scientific Article, b) the importance and benefit for the medical disciplines, and c) the application of the results in practice.
In the event that fewer than thirty (30) Scientific Articles have advanced to the national evaluation level for a country, the national evaluator shall select up to three (3) Scientific Articles to be nominated to the international evaluation level. In the event that more than thirty (30) Scientific Articles have advanced to the national evaluation level for a country, the national evaluator has the right to select one (1) more article per each additional one to ten (1–10) Scientific Articles for the international evaluation level (for example, if fifty two (52) Scientific Articles have advanced to the national evaluation, the national evaluator has the right to select six (6) Scientific Articles).
If the national evaluator concludes that a sufficient number of Scientific Articles fail to sufficiently meet the competition criteria based on which the national evaluator evaluates articles, the national evaluator has the right select fewer than three (3) Scientific Articles to advance to the international evaluation or, as the case may be, to choose none.
The selected Scientific Articles advancing to the international evaluation level shall be submitted by the national evaluator to the Organiser no later than 4 February 2022. The Organiser must not influence the national evaluator's decision in any way and must respect the results of the national evaluator's evaluation. The Organiser has the right to request that the national evaluator provide more detailed written reasons of the selection for the international level.
The results of the national evaluation shall be published at www.dr-bares-award.com no later than 25 February 2022.
The Organiser shall ensure that the Scientific Articles selected from the national evaluation level for the international evaluation level is transferred to all individual members of the international committee no later than 11 February 2022.
International evaluation in the Competition
The international evaluation shall be conducted by the international committee consisting of at least three (3) and no more than seven (7) members. The number of members of the international committee must always be odd. The number of members of the committee shall be decided by the Organiser, especially with regard to the number of the Scientific Articles qualified for the international evaluation.
The Organiser of the Competition shall select and appoint members of the international committee (or, as the case may be, substitutes if it is necessary to modify the member composition of the committee during the Competition for strictly objective reasons), as well as guarantee that only generally recognised experts in the field of gastroenterology and/or hepatology will become members of the international committee.
The membership in the international committee is not directly conditional on prior membership in the national committee; however, the national evaluator or a member of the national committee may be a member of the international committee. Any member of the international committee is substitutable. Any substitute must be a person with medical education, working in the field of gastroenterology and/or hepatology, and must be generally recognised in the field.
The international committee's session to select three (3) best Scientific Articles in the Competition shall be held on 26 February 2022 at the venue determined by the Organiser.
Prior to the session, the members of the international committee shall select the chairperson of the committee from among themselves, who will lead the session and have the right to decide on any moot points. When selecting the chairperson of the international committee, each member of the committee has one vote, and the person with the largest number of votes shall become the chairperson of the international committee. In the event of equal votes, the election shall be repeated once. If the chairperson of the committee is not elected in this repeated vote, he/she shall be appointed by the Organiser of the Competition.
The international committee shall use the following point assignment methodology (where 0 is the lowest possible evaluation and 10 points is the highest possible evaluation):
- At the start of the evaluation, each member of the committee shall receive a total of 10 points to be arbitrarily assigned to the selected Scientific Articles.
- Each member of the committee shall assign the points to individual Scientific Articles at the international evaluation level at his/her own discretion.
- The chairperson of the committee shall add up the points assigned to the individual Scientific Articles by all evaluators including himself/herself to determine three (3) Scientific Articles with the highest number of points. The three (3) winning places and their descending order (1st, 2nd and 3rd place) shall be determined on the basis of the number of points won.
- In the event that any Scientific Articles have won the same number of points and, as a result, it is not possible to determine three winning Scientific Articles, each of the evaluators shall again receive 10 points, and the evaluation of the Scientific Articles with the same number of points shall be repeated as described above. If the result with the same number of points is reached again, the final order shall be decided by the chairperson of the international committee.
The chairperson of the international committee shall hand over the result of the evaluation to the Organiser no later than at 11:59:59 p.m. of the day when the international committee's decision-making process took place.
Minutes shall be taken on the decision-making process and signed by all the members of the international committee present. The minutes shall be taken by the person authorised by the Organiser, personally present during the decision-making process, and without the right to influence the decision-making process of the international committee or its members.
With respect to the current epidemiological situation caused by COVID-19, i.e. if it will not be possible for the committee to meet in person, the Organiser has established the following alternative decision-making process for the committee to use via remote access.
If the case described in the previous paragraph occurs, the committee shall decide via the Organiser’s special voting application in the period between 21 and 25 February 2022.
The committee’s decision-making process will be carried out in the same method as described above, but with the exception that an international committee chairperson shall not be selected.
Based on the results after the end of voting, this application generates a competition evaluation certificate as well as the ballot papers of the individual members of the committee (which subsequently will be signed by the committee members).
The Organiser must not influence the decision-making process of the international committee in any way and must respect the results of its evaluation. The Organiser shall publish the results of the international committee's at www.dr-bares-award.com within 14 days of receiving the results of the evaluation personally from the chairperson of the international committee.
Prizes in the competition
At the national evaluation level, the selected Scientific Articles shall be awarded without any order. The prize for their authors is a certificate of appreciation and the advancement of the Scientific Article to the international evaluation level. The certificate of appreciation shall be awarded to the authors of the evaluated articles after the end of the international evaluation level by a person authorised by the Organiser, unless agreed otherwise in advance.
At the international evaluation level, a total of three (3) best articles shall be selected, and the first, second and third place shall be determined. The winners (Competition Participants - authors of the selected Scientific Articles) shall be awarded a certificate of appreciation and a financial reward.
The amount of the financial reward for the authors of the Scientific Articles awarded at the international evaluation level of the Dr. Bares Award 2021 Publication in first, second and third place shall be as follows:
1st place - EUR 10,000
2nd place - EUR 6,000
3rd place - EUR 3,000
Announcement of results and award of Competition prizes
The prizes shall be awarded to the winning Competition Participants personally, if possible given the global epidemiological situation associated with COVID-19, by the Organiser's representative during the official prize ceremony. The Organiser will announce the date and venue of the prize ceremony on the websites www.dr-bares-award.com a www.promedcs.com by 31 December 2021. The financial reward shall be paid no later than 31 December 2022.
The prize recipients (Competition winners) undertake to respect the conditions of the prize award. The conditions for the prize award are the signing of the certificate of handover of the financial reward in the Competition and the personal participation in the prize ceremony at the time and venue specified by the Organiser.
In the event that any Competition winner is unable to personally attend the prize ceremony, he/she shall be entitled to authorise a representative based on a written power of attorney with an officially certified signature to accept the prize.
Any and all reasonably incurred costs associated with acceptance of the prize (accommodation, tickets, air tickets) up to CZK 50,000 shall be paid by the Organiser.
If the conference mentioned herein shall not be held, or if neither the winner nor their representative will be able to appear in person, the prize will be paid to the winner based on a certified signed certificate of handover of the financial reward to the bank account provided by them by the date stated above. The diploma will be sent to the provided address.
General provisions
The Competition Rules as well as the entire organisation of the Competition are governed by the laws of the Czech Republic.
By completing and submitting the application, the Participant declares that his/her rights to participate in this Competition are not legally or factually limited in any way. In the event that any third party submits to the Organiser any claims related to the Competition participation of a particular Participant, such a Participant undertakes to settle any claims made by such a third party without the Organiser's mediation, without undue delay and in a complete manner.
The Organiser of the Competition shall be entitled to definitively exclude any Participant if it discovers or reasonably suspects that such a Participant or any of the Participants or any other person has committed any fraudulent or unfair act or any act against good morals or the Competition Rules which helped the Participant to participate in the Competition, which could influence the results of the Competition or, as the case may be, which helped the Participant to win a financial reward or a certificate of appreciation in the Competition. This decision made by the Organiser shall be final, without the possibility of appeal.
The Organiser's employees and persons close to them, i.e. close persons within the meaning of Section 22 of the Civil Code of the Czech Republic, may not participate in the Competition.
Any costs related to the Competition shall be paid by the Participant himself/herself, unless agreed otherwise with the Organiser. Any demonstrable and reasonable costs incurred in connection with the evaluation and assessment shall be borne by the Organiser. The Organiser shall not reimburse the Competition Participants for any costs incurred in connection with participation in the Competition or in the official announcement of the results, unless expressly laid down otherwise herein.
The Organiser of the Competition shall not be liable or responsible for the loss of rewards sent by bank transfer or otherwise, nor for any delay in delivery. In addition, the Organiser of the Competition shall not be liable or responsible for any technical problems and failure to submit applications (or, as the case may be, delay in submission), including any and all attachments, and any problems arising within the transmission of messages by electronic means.
The Organiser reserves the right to change or modify the Competition Rules at its sole discretion at any time. Neither the participation in the Competition nor any prizes may be claimed by legal means.
Any persons who fail to meet the conditions for participation in the Competition or who act contrary to the Rules shall not be entered for the Competition. If any person who fails to meet the conditions for participation in the Competition is found to have been entered for the Competition for any reason contrary to the preceding sentence, such a person shall be excluded from the Competition without compensation. The Organiser of the Competition reserves the right to check whether the conditions for participation in the Competition have been met, to assess the entitlement to rewards, and, in disputable cases, to make definite decisions at its own discretion. The final decision in any dispute or in doubt in connection with the Competition shall be made by the Organiser. In addition to the previous sentence, it shall be laid down that the obligation to dispel any doubts about meeting any conditions of the Competition must be met by the Participant.
The financial reward is expressed in the amount before tax and, before paid to the winning Participant, it shall be taxed by the Organiser in accordance with the current laws of the Czech Republic or, as the case may be, in accordance with the laws of the country in which the winner's tax liability will be applied.
The Organiser shall pay the financial reward by electronic transfer on the basis of a certificate of the transfer of the financial reward signed by the winner. The payment of the taxed financial reward by the Organiser shall not release the recipient from any other tax obligations. By participating in the Competition, the Participants declares that he/she has become acquainted with the conditions of taxation should he/she win in the Competition and, with that knowledge, he/she enters the Competition.
In the event that the Organiser fails to deliver or otherwise hand over the financial reward in accordance with the pre-agreed procedure, or if the delivery of the financial reward is connected with unexpected difficulties, the entitlement to such financial reward shall be terminated, and the financial reward shall be kept by the Organiser, which shall be entitled to decide on its further use.
The general provisions and Rules of the Competition are available on the Organiser's website and are kept in writing at the Organiser's registered office.
