Neurobiology of Aging publishes the resultsof studies in behavior, biochemistry, cell biology, endocrinology,molecular biology, morphology, neurology, neuropathology,pharmacology, physiology and protein chemistryin which the primary emphasis involves mechanisms ofnervous system changes with age or diseases associated withage. Only original articles will be accepted. Reviews and primaryresearch articles are included, occasionally accompaniedby open peer commentary. Letters to the Editor andbrief communications are also acceptable. Brief reports ofhighly time-sensitive material are usually treated as rapidcommunications in which case editorial review is completedwithin six weeks and publication scheduled for the nextavailable issue. Negative Results will be published asone journal page (3 doublespaced typed manuscript pages),with supplementary material to be posted at the journal website.

The accepted abbreviation for Neurobiology of Aging forbibliographic citation is Neurobiol. Aging.

All new manuscripts must be submitted through theNeurobiology of Aging online submission and review website (http://ees.elsevier.com/nba/ ). Authors are requested tosubmit all required material in electronic form to this website. Detailed instructions and a step by step guide areprovided at the web site.

Authors are referred to the following published editorial policystatements: Coleman, P.D. How old is old? Neurobiol. Aging25:1;2004. Coleman, P.D.; Finch, C.E.; Joseph, J. The needfor multiple time points in aging studies. Neurobiol. Aging25:3-4;2004. Finch, C.E. Middle-age: An evolving frontierin gerontology. Neurobiol. Aging 12:1-2;1991. West, M.J.New stereological methods for counting neurons. Neurobiol.Aging 14:275-285;1993. West, M.J.; Coleman, P.D. How tocount. Neurobiol. Aging 17:503;1996.

Articles will be published in English. International authorswho are not fluent in the English language should seek helpin the preparation of their manuscripts. Such assistance willenhance the review process and greatly reduce the time topublication, if the article is accepted.

GUIDELINES

Genetic Analysis of Disease in the Era of Whole Genome Analysis and Public Databases. Over the past 5 years genetic analysis has changed almost beyond recognition. We now have the technology to assess association between any phenotype and alleles across the genome in a single analysis. Furthermore, these data arestored in publicly available databases such as dbGAP (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gap) and Alzgene (www.alzgene.org) where they are accessible and can be used in ongoing meta-analyses. In this environment, researchers should consider carefully the extent to which analyses they reportsubstantively contribute to the literature.

In the future, we will expect authors of any manuscripts submitted to access these databases before submission. While there are circumstances when limited analyses are appropriate, in general, clearly whole genome analyses are the way forward and there is no doubt that findings which come out of such studies are more reliable than those which come from candidate gene analyses. Additionally, we caution against the overinterpretation of analyses of secondaryphenotypes (such as age of onset, or rate of cognitive decline).

In studies where whole genome analyses are reported, we will always expect full summary statistics to be made available alongside the publication.

We note that for many major phenotypes, there remain no whole genome reports. Clear examples include Alzheimer’s disease in populations outside of Europeans. We would welcome such studies.

Genetic Reports.It is our wish to provide rapid review of high quality-genetic studies for traits and conditions related to normal and diseased aging brain, whether these are positive or negative in outcome.

Genetic analysis and technologies have moved on and we want the studies we publish to be definitive. With this in mind, we suggest the following should be considered when you are submitting to Neurobiology of Aging:

(1) Does the study assess the whole gene? We would suggest that any analysis should include a haplotypic analysis of the whole gene of interest rather than single SNPs unless the SNP tested is believed to be the functional SNP.

(2) How is your study powered? This question should be addressed whether the study is positive or negative. In general, for dichotomous traits one should aim at reasonable numbers (cases and controls each of 500 is a good rule of thumb). These numbers can usually be achieved through collaboration.

(3) Is your study a hypothesis-generating or a hypothesis-testing study? Does it inform as to mechanism? In general, reviewers and editors are very wary of effects that purport to be only present in young onset cases, or in males etc. A clear negative study has value. Digging around in data to generate positive findings does the field a disservice.

(4) Have your sample series been used in other studies? Clearly these should always be referenced so the audience can assess how much risk may have been reported to have been found in any sample series.

(5) Are there online data sources in which you can also assess your SNPs? There are now online resources of case control series for Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and brain gene expression. The number of these resources is increasing all the time: any association studies for which there is already data should reference and include these data, perhaps as secondary sample series.

These are not rules, but guidelines.

NB: The full text of Genetic Reports manuscripts submitted after November 30th 2010, if accepted, will be published as e-pub only. The full text of such manuscripts will appear online within 40-50 days of acceptance, with the abstract appearing in the next available print edition as well. The abstract in print will contain appropriate reference to the complete e-pub manuscript.

Biomarker Reports. As a journal devoted to aging and neurobiology, Neurobiology of Aging uses certain criteria for evaluating priority for publishing work on biomarkers. These include more than one of the following criteria:
(1) Novelty of the biomarker and relationship to disease mechanisms.
(2) The potential of the marker (based on evidence in the literature or in the manuscript) for directly revealing insight into disease mechanisms.
(3) The clinical potential of the marker for differential diagnosis or prediction of disease progression (based on data in the manuscript).
(4) The reliability of the supporting data based on size of the sample studied and statistical validation.

STYLE OF MANUSCRIPT

General form. (1) Manuscripts should be typed doublespacedwith wide margins. Pages should be numbered.Computer generated illustrations must be of the high qualityof professional line drawings or they will not be accepted.(2) The title page should contain: title of paper;author(s); laboratory or institution of origin with city, state,zip code, and country; complete address for mailing proofs;telephone, fax number, and e-mail address (when available,the e-mail address will appear in the correspondence footnoteof the published article). (3) References, footnotes, andlegends for illustrations should be typed on separate pages,double spaced. (4) Illustrations should be identified withfigure number and author(s) name; when necessary the topshould be clearly marked. (5) Each table should be typed ona separate page and double spaced. (6) All dimensions andmeasurements must be specified in the metric system.Standard nomenclature, abbreviations and symbols, as specifiedby Royal Society Conference of Editors. Metrication inScientific Journals, Am. Scient. 56:159-164;1968, shouldbe used throughout. (7) Italics should not be used for thepurpose of emphasis.

Length of paper. The Editors insist upon clear, concisestatements of facts and conclusions. Regular manuscriptsshould be no longer that 10 printed journal pages (30doubled-spaced pages, including references, figures andtables) and should include only the most essential figuresand tables. Brief Communications should be restricted toeight double-spaced pages (including references, figuresand tables) and should not present more than one figure andone table, or two figures, or two tables. Fragmentation ofmaterial into numerous short reports is discouraged.

Negative Results. Negative Results will be published as onejournal page (3 double-spaced typed manuscript pages),with supplementary material to be posted at the journal website. The 3 double-spaced pages should include a briefabstract, a brief introduction, a few sentences of methods,core data and discussion of the data. If room allows, anabbreviated reference list with the most critical referencesshould also be included in these 3 double-spaces pages.

Supplementary material for the web site should include amore detailed introduction, more details of the methods, thecomplete reference list and any additional data. The supplementarymaterial should be sufficient to convince the interestedreader of the validity and reliability of the results. Itshould be made clear which material is for printing in thejournal and which is supplementary material for the website. Since the net effect of a Negative Result is to discouragerepetition, the standards for acceptance as a Negative Resultwill be highly demanding (see Announcement "Negativeresults can be valuable", Neurobiol. Aging 25(10):iii;2004).

Title. The title should not be longer than 85 characters,including spaces between words. Only the first word of thetitle should be capitalized.

Author names and affiliations. Where the family name maybe ambiguous (e.g., a double name), please indicate thisclearly. Present the Authors' affiliation addresses (where theactual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliationswith a lower-case superscript letter immediately afterthe Author's name and in front of the appropriate address.Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, includingthe country name, and, if available, the e-mail address ofeach Author.

Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who is willing tohandle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication,also post-publication. Ensure that telephone andfax numbers (with country and area code) are providedin addition to the e-mail address and the complete postaladdress.

Present/permanent address. If an Author has moved sincethe work described in the article was done, or was visitingat the time, a "Present address" (or "Permanent address")may be indicated as a footnote to that Author's name. Theaddress at which the Author actually did the work must beretained as the main, affiliation address. Superscript Arabicnumerals are used for such footnotes.

Abstract. Each paper submitted must be accompanied by anabstract, which does not exceed 170 words and must besuitable for use by abstracting journals. References shouldtherefore be avoided, but if essential, they must be cited in full,without reference to the reference list.

A list of from 3—12 (or more) keywords or short phrasessuitable for indexing terms should be typed at the bottom ofthe abstract page accompanying the manuscript. Theseterms will be printed with the paper following the abstract.

Drugs. Proprietary (trademarked) names should becapitalized. The chemical name should precede the trade,popular name, or abbreviation of a drug the first time itoccurs.

Headings. All headings should be numbered, for example,1. Introduction, 2. Methods, 2.1. Study population, etc.Capitalize the first word only for all headings.

Footnotes. If more than one author, the correspondingauthor should be indicated with an asterisk. If there is morethan one affiliation, use a superior letter for each one. Usesuperior numbers for any other footnotes to authors' names,such as a current address. Text footnotes should not be used;the material should be incorporated into the text. Table footnotes:see Tables (b).

Acknowledgements. Place acknowledgements and sourceof funding, including information on grants received, beforethe references, in a separate section, and not as a footnote onthe title page.

Disclosure statement for authors. At the end of theAcknowledgements, under a subheading "DisclosureStatement", all authors must: (a) Disclose any actual orpotential conlficts of interest including any financial,personal or other relationships with other people or organizationswithin three years of beginning the work submittedthat could inappropriately influence (bias) their work.Examples of potential conflicts of interest which should bedisclosed include employment, consultancies, stockownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. If there areno actual or potential conflicts of interest, please statethis. Should a significant conflict of interest be present, theEditors reserve the right to reject the article on that basis.Sources of funding should be noted in acknowledgements.(b) When applicable, provide statements verifying thatappropriate approval and procedures were used concerninghuman subjects and animals.

References:

Responsibility for the accuracy of bibliographic citationslies entirely with the Authors.

Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is alsopresent in the reference list (and vice versa). Any referencescited in the abstract must be given in full. Unpublishedresults and personal communications are not recommendedin the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. Ifthese references are included in the reference list theyshould follow the standard reference style of the journal andshould include a substitution of the publication date witheither "Unpublished results" or "Personal communication".Citation of a reference as "in press" implies that the item hasbeen accepted for publication.

Citations in the text. All citations in the text should bereferred to using Author(s) surname(s) and the year ofpublication:

1. Single Author: the Author's surname (without initials,unless there is ambiguity) and the year of publication;
2. Two Authors: both Author's surnames and the year ofpublication;
3. Three or more Authors: first Author's surname followedby "et al." and the year of publication.Citations may be made directly or parenthetically. Groupsof references should be listed first alphabetically, thenchronologically.Examples: "as demonstrated (Allan, 1996a, 1996b, 1999;Allan and Jones, 1995). Kramer et al. (2000) have recentlyshown..."

Reference list. References should be arranged first alphabeticallyand then further sorted chronologically if necessary.Include the names of all authors. More than one referencefrom the same Author(s) in the same year must beidentified by the letters "a", "b", "c", etc., placed after theyear of publication. The order of information should bename, year, title, journal, volume, pages.

Examples:
Reference to a journal publication:
Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J.A.J., Lupton, R.A., 2000. Theart of writing a scientific article. J. Sci. Commun. 163, 51-59.
Reference to a book:
Strunk Jr., W., White, E.B., 1979. The Elements of Style,third ed. Macmillan, New York.
Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
Mettam, G.R., Adams, L.B., 1999. How to prepare an electronicversion of your article, in: Jones, B.S., Smith , R.Z.(Eds.), Introduction to the Electronic Age. E-PublishingInc., New York, pp. 281-304.

Use of the Digital Object Identifier (DOI). The digital objectidentifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronicdocuments. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numericcharacter string which is assigned to a document by thepublisher upon the initial electronic publication. Theassigned DOI never changes. Therefore, it is an ideal mediumfor citing a document, particularly 'Articles in press'because they have not yet received their full bibliographicinformation. The correct format for citing a DOI is shown asfollows (example taken from a document in the journalPhysics Letters B):
doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2003.10.071

When you use the DOI to create URL hyperlinks todocuments on the web, they are guaranteed never to change.

Citing and listing of Web references. As a minimum, thefull URL should be given. Any further information, ifknown (Author names, dates, reference to a source publication,etc.), should also be given. Web references can belisted separately (e.g., after the reference list) under adifferent heading if desired, or can be included in thereference list.

Illustrations. (a) Prepare for use in a single column widthwhenever possible. (b) All drawings for reduction to a givensize should be drawn and lettered to the same scale. (c) Allillustrations should be referred to as figures and numberedin Arabic numerals. (d) Lettering should be proportionate tothe size of the illustrations if it is to be legible after reduction.Lettering should be sized so that its smallest elements(subscripts or superscripts) will be readable when reduced.(e) When possible all lettering should be within the frameworkof the illustration; likewise the key to symbols shouldbe on the face of the chart. The following standard symbolsshould be used as they are easily available to the printer: (f)Actual magnification of all photomicrographs should begiven. Dimension scale should be indicated. (g) Illustrationsshould be submitted in black and white unless color reproductionis requested.

Color illustrations. Please make sure that artwork files arein an acceptable format (TIFF, EPS or MS Office files) andwith the correct resolution. If, together with your acceptedarticle, you submit usable color figures then Elsevier willensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appearin color on the Web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites)regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproducedin color in the printed version. The 2006 price forcolor figures is US$650 for the first figure and US$100 foreach additional figure. Please indicate your preference forcolor in print or on the Web only. For further information onthe preparation of electronic artwork, please see http://authors.elsevier.com/artwork .

Please note: Because of technical complications which canarise by converting color figures to "grey scale" (for theprinted version should you not opt for color in print) pleasesubmit in addition usable black and white versions of all thecolor illustrations.

Tables. (a) Each table should have a brief heading; explanatorymatter should be in footnotes, not as part of the title.(b) Table footnotes should be indicated in the body of thetable in order of their appearance with superscript lowercaseletters. Statistical measures should be indicated withsymbols: *, **, etc. (c) Tables must not duplicate materialin text or illustrations. (d) Vertical rules should be omitted.(e) Short or abbreviated column heads should be used. (f)Statistical measures of variation, SD, SE, etc., should beidentified.

Formulas and equations. Structural chemical formulas,process flow-diagrams, and complicated mathematicalexpressions should be kept to a minimum. Usually chemicalformulas and flow-diagrams should be provided for reproductionas line cuts.

All subscripts, superscripts, Greek letters, and unusual charactersmust be clearly identified.168 Instructions to Authors/Neurobiology of Aging 28 (2007) 166-69

Anesthesia. In describing surgical procedures on animals,the type and dosage of the anesthetic agent should be specified.Curarizing agents are not anesthetics; if these wereused, evidence must be provided that anesthesia of suitablegrade and duration was employed.

Preparation of supplementary data. Elsevier now acceptselectronic supplementary material (e-components) to supportand enhance your scientific research. Supplementaryfiles offer the Author additional possibilities to publish supportingapplications, total array data, movies, animationsequences, high-resolution images, background datasets,sound clips and more. Supplementary files supplied will bepublished online alongside the electronic version of yourarticle in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect: http://www.sciencedirect.com . In order to ensure that yoursubmitted material is directly usable, please ensure that datais provided in one of our recommended file formats.Authors should submit the material in electronic formattogether with the article and supply a concise and descriptivecaption for each file. For more detailed instructionsplease visit our artwork instruction pages at the AuthorGateway at http://authors.elsevier.com/artwork .This journal requires electronic submission and supplementarydata files can be uploaded via the Author Gateway pageof this journal via http://authors.elsevier.com .

Proofs. Corrections to the proofs must be restricted to printer'serrors only. Elsevier will do everything possible to get yourarticle corrected and published as quickly and accurately aspossible. Therefore, it is important to ensure that all of yourcorrections are sent back to us in one communication.Subsequent corrections will not be possible, so pleaseensure your first sending is complete.

The Publisher reserves the right to proceed with publicationif corrections are not communicated.Return corrections within 48 hours (2 days) of receipt of theproofs. Should there be no corrections, please confirm this.

Reprints. Each author will receive with his galley proofs areprint order form which must be completed and returnedwith the proofs.

Copyright. Publications are copyrighted for the protectionof the authors and the publisher. A Transfer of CopyrightAgreement will be sent to the author who submits the manuscript.The form must be completed and returned to thepublisher before the article can be published.

AUTHOR ENQUIRIES

For enquiries relating to the submission of articles pleasevisit Elsevier's Author Gateway at http://authors.elsevier .com . The Author Gateway also provides the facility to trackaccepted articles and set up e-mail alerts to inform you ofwhen an article's status has changed, as well as detailed artworkguidelines, copyright information, frequently askedquestions and more. Contact details for questions arisingafter acceptance of an article, especially those relating toproofs, are provided after registration of an article for publication.

Updated Novermber 2010