Requirements Applicable to Articles Offered for Publishing at MQL4.com

MetaQuotes | 26 May, 2006


Starting from May 1, 2006, all the registered users of the MQL4.community website (https://www.mql4.com) can post their articles and be rewarded for this. Purpose of this service is to concentrate at one place as much useful information as possible about programming on MetaQuotes 4 Language (MQL4). The postings are intended to help all those writing Expert Advisors or Custom Indicators.

We admit for publication articles on automated trading and programming in MQL4 language written in Russian or English. Each article will be reviewed free of charge by our staff editors and moderators. We guarantee the integrity of the authors' writing style and protection of your copyright. Every original and authentic article will be rewarded. Authors of the most interesting and "hitting" papers will be celebrated by additional valuable prizes. Translation of the articles into Russian will be taken over by us.


Recommendations on the Contents

First and foremost, the article should contain as much new and practically useful information as possible.

Articles on the following subject are especially welcome:

  1. Programming trading strategies in MQL4
  2. Using MQL4 trading functionality
  3. Details of:
    • using elements of MQL4 language
    • writing and use of MQL4 programs (scripts, indicators, expert advisors, libraries)
    • creation and use of included files and function libraries (mqh, ex4, dll)
  4. Testing expert advisors in the Client Terminal:
    • preparing an expert advisor for testing
    • analysis of test results
    • optimization of the expert advisor parameters
    • analyzing the results of optimization of the expert advisor parameters

An article is expected to be original, that is, not to copy other materials. Quotations from other original texts should be provided with the references to the source.


Initial Steps

The author of the article should proceed with the registration on https://www.mql4.com website and obtaining a publication permit from the website administrator. Following that, you perform the steps below:



To send a finished article for a check by moderator, you should use the "send for proofreading" button. Your monitor will display a confirmation dialog box.


After the "OK" button has been pressed, the article is given the "ready for publishing" status.



The moderator will check the article, provide the feedback and suggestions of necessary changes, if any, in form of "comments", and send the article for update along with the comments. The article will return to the "draft" status.


This procedure is performed in a secure mode, that is, the comments are only accessible to the moderator and the author. The comments are not linked to the version and are made in a different color. If there are no comments, the moderator will publish the article. The article is then given the "published" status.



After the article has taken the "ready for publishing" or "published" status, the author can use the "new version" command to create a new version of the article and continue to work at it. The number of versions of an article is unlimited. After the publication of each subsequent version of the article the previously published version takes the "draft" status.


If the draft version of an article was not updated for three months, it is deleted. The author cannot modify or delete the article which was sent for check or published.


Appearance and Formatting Requirements

  1. Official languages of the community are English and Russian. Therefore, we accept for publication articles written in one, or both, of these languages (for example, an original article and the author's own translation of the article into the other language).
  2. Volume of articles accepted for publication: 300 - 500 lines of text with several screenshots.
  3. You are not allowed to set the name or the font size in the HTML markup of the article. You are not allowed to use for article formatting any styles other than "longtext", "tablekul", "mqstable", "mqstable2", "code", or "fquote".
  4. Source code of a program written in MQL4 should be entered using the in-built editor, by pressing the "MQL Code" button. After you have selected this command, you should enter the source code into the editing field of the opening dialog box. After you press the "OK" button, the highlighted code is entered into the text of the article. The code width should not exceed 95 characters.
  5. Screenshots and pictures are inserted using the in-built editor by pressing the "Picture" button. After you have selected this command, you should indicate in the opening dialog box the full name of the file containing the screenshot or the picture. After the "OK" button has been pressed, the screenshot, or the picture, is inserted in the text of the article. Before creating screenshots, you should set the size of the window title at 18. Width of the screenshot should not exceed 750 pixels. We accept graphics in .gif and .jpeg formats. Please use the "Black On White" color scheme for creating screenshots of charts.
  6. Please name all the files attached to your article with Latin letters only. Do not use Cyrillic, Chinese, etc. since readers who do not have possibility to read such fonts will not be able to use your attached files properly.

Copyright

Author of the article shall agree to the following conditions of publication of articles on https://www.mql4.com website:

  1. MetaQuotes Software Corp. receives exclusive right to the publication and distribution of the article under the author's name, including its republications, its publication in electronic or any other accessible forms, as well as the translation of the article or any parts thereof into foreign languages.
  2. The author shall be entitled to a single publication of the article on his/her own Internet resource. In this case, the author shall reference the address of the first publication with an active hyperlink.
  3. In all the other cases, the author and third parties shall obtain preliminary consent of MetaQuotes Software Corp. for the publication of the article in other sources or at other Internet addresses.

The Author's Fee

Each article is assessed on an individual basis. Minimal author's fee per article is between US$30 and US$50. The fee will be increased if the article is of special interest or represents particular practical value for the community. Authors of the best articles will be awarded additional prizes. After the publication of the first article the author's "Profile Editing" page will display a "Statements" tab with an asterisk in the "Amount" column of the line containing the name of the published article.



After the decision on the amount of the fee has been taken, the determined amount of the fee will replace the asterisk.


Payments for the published articles are effected using WebMoney or E-Gold electronic payments systems within five business days. After the remuneration has been paid to the author, the payment details will appear as a line in the "Statements" tab.