An International Journal under the editorial direction of IBRO

I.GENERAL
II. SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS
III. PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPTS

I.GENERAL


1. Neuroscience publishes original research on any aspect of the scientific study of the nervous system. Papers most suitable for publication are those that report new observations that directly contribute to our understanding of how the nervous system works.


2. Section Editors. With the rapid growth of neuroscience into diverse areas ranging from molecular biology to cognitive science, the accurate and fair assessments of papers for publication require the Chief and Associate Editors to seek advice from Section Editors representing all major areas of research. Section Editors suggest appropriate reviewers and also recommend an editorial decision based on the reviews. Section Editors have been appointed in the areas of Behavioral Neuroscience, Cellular, Clinical, Cognitive, Developmental, Molecular, Neuroanatomy, Neuropharmacology, Pain Mechanism, Systems Neuroscience and Sensory Systems. A special section editor has also been assigned to commission Reviews and Special Issues and another Section Editor is a special statistical consultant.


3. The Editorial Board. The international Editorial Board, which is appointed by the Publications Committee of IBRO, consists of specialists in all areas of neuroscience. Each paper is typically evaluated by at least two Editors or ad hoc reviewers. Papers are accepted by the Chief and Associate Editors in consultation with the appropriate Section Editor. The review and decision process is identical regardless of whether the Chief or Associate Editor oversees the review process. All manuscripts are subject to any modifications required by the Journal Office to conform to Journal policy.

4.The Neuroscience Peer Review Consortium

Neuroscience is a member of the Neuroscience Peer Review Consortium (NPRC). The NPRC has been formed to reduce the time expended and, in particular, the duplication of effort by, and associated burden on reviewers involved in the peer review of original neuroscience research papers. It is an alliance of neuroscience journals that have agreed to accept manuscript reviews from other Consortium journals. By reducing the number of times that a manuscript is reviewed, the Consortium will reduce the load on reviewers and Editors, and speed the publication of research results.

If a manuscript has been rejected by another journal in the Consortium, authors can now submit the manuscript to Neuroscience and indicate that the referees' reports from the first journal be made available to the Editors of Neuroscience.

N.B. Only manuscripts which were first submitted to another journal after the 1st January 2008 are eligible for the NPRC scheme.

It is the authors' decision as to whether or not to indicate that a set of referee's reports should be forwarded from the first journal to Neuroscience. If an author does not wish for this to happen, the manuscript can be submitted to Neuroscience without reference to the previous submission. No information will be exchanged between journals except at the request of authors. However, if the original referees' reports suggested that the paper is of high quality, but not suitable for the first journal, then it will often be to an author's advantage to indicate that referees' reports should be made available.

Authors should revise the original submission in accordance with the first journal's set of referee reports, reformat the paper to Neuroscience specification and submit the paper to Neuroscience with a covering letter describing the changes that have been made, and informing the Editors that they are happy for referees' reports to be forwarded from the first Consortium journal. Authors will be asked upon submission to Neuroscience the title of the first journal submitted to and the manuscript ID that was given by that journal. The editorial office of Neuroscience will request the referees' reports from the first journal.
The Editors of Neuroscience will use forwarded referees' reports at their discretion. The Editors may use the reports directly to make a decision, or they may request further reviews if they feel such are necessary.
Visit http://nprc.incf.org for a list of Consortium journals, as well as further information on the scheme.

5. Types of papers


(a) Research papers. These are full-length papers describing original research. There are no specific page limits although authors are encouraged to be as concise as possible and to use as few, high quality illustrations as necessary to adequately document their findings.


(b) Rapid Reports. These are short communications that describe outstanding new discoveries. N.B. They should follow the same layout as research papers. They will be reviewed by the appropriate Section Editor and either the Chief or Associate Editor and an initial decision will be made as to whether the paper warrants processing as a Rapid Report. The Editors will aim for a two-week time to decision once a paper is accepted as a Rapid Report. This decision will be based on whether the paper reports a particularly important series of findings that are likely to have high impact on the field. Papers of the type that are typically published in Science or Nature are sought for this category. Papers that are not deemed acceptable for review under this category will be returned to the authors.


(c) Reviews (previously know as Commentaries). These are short articles (3000-10,000 words in length), not exhaustive reviews, that are intended to either draw attention to developments in a specific area of research, to bring together observations that seem to point the field in a new direction, to give the author's personal views on a controversial topic, or to direct soundly based criticism at some widely held dogma or widely used technique in neuroscience. Reviews may also provide an historical perspective on an area of neuroscience research. Authors should make their Review understandable to a broad spectrum of neuroscientists. Potential authors are invited to submit a letter of interest to the Section Editor for Reviews and Special Issues or to the Chief or Associate Editors indicating the topic of a potential Review. Proposals for reviews or commentaries should also contain an outline of the contents, including an abstract (<200 words), a list of 10 relevant articles including 5 from the proposer's own research, and a brief statement on why now is a good time to review the topic in question. Reviews will not be accepted for editorial procesing unless pre-approved for submission.

(d)Forefront Reviews. These are invited reviews from a select list of scientists who have introduced new concepts, models, or methods in neurobiology. Forefront reviews open for expressing the author s own opinions in a rigorous way. There is no page limit and the author/authors may choose the focus of the review as long as it remains scientifically sound. The reviews will be promoted through IBRO's websites and publications, and will be highly visible in the scientific community.

(e)Special Issues.
These are published as separate volumes with prominent neuroscientists as guest editors. Special Issues are devoted to specific topics, preferably "emergent topics" that open new fields in neurobiological research. The Special Issues are used actively in the promotion of Neuroscience.
Suggestions for special issues should be sent to Dr. Ole P. Ottersen, Editor-in-Chief. They should contain an outline of the contents, including an abstract (<200 words), a list of articles with preliminary titles and contributors, and a brief statement on why now is a good time to review the topic in question.
A Special Issue should normally contain 20-25 articles, corresponding to 200-300 printed pages in total. The articles may include original data At least one of the articles (typically signed by the guest editors) should provide a general discussion of the implications of the recent advances in the field, and should attempt to identify the directions and challenges of future research.
A Special Issue is not a loose collection of topically related articles but a concerted attempt to provide an overview of the status of an emerging field. Cross references between the articles are strongly encouraged.
Manuscripts are subjected to the review process according to the same high standards of quality as regular issues of Neuroscience. The Guest Editor(s) identify reviewers and take responsibility for the further editorial handling of the manuscripts, supported by the San Diego office. As for regular papers the final decision on each article is taken by the Chief Editor. Guest Editors are offered secretarial assistance by the Oslo office.


(f) Letters to the Editors. A limited amount of space will be available for comments about important scientific points that arise out of papers previously published in Neuroscience. Such comments should be sent to the Chief or Associate Editor and they should be no longer than 1000 words excluding references. The Chief and Associate Editor reserve the right to invite replies to such comments by the authors of the original papers.


II. SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS

• Submission of any form of paper to Neuroscience implies that it represents original research not previously published, in whole or in part (except in the form of an abstract) and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere. Each manuscript should be accompanied by a signed cover letter in which the corresponding author states: "The work described has not been submitted elsewhere for publication, in whole or in part, and all the authors listed have approved the manuscript that is enclosed".


• All submissions to Neuroscience must contain experiments that conform to the ethical standards printed below. To confirm your agreement with this, you are required to include the following statement in your cover letter indicating your agreement with these standards: "I have read and have abided by the statement of ethical standards for manuscripts submitted to Neuroscience."


ETHICAL STANDARDS:

• The authors declare that all experiments on human subjects were conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki http://www.wma.net and that all procedures were carried out with the adequate understanding and written consent of the subjects.


• The authors also certify that formal approval to conduct the experiments described has been obtained from the human subjects review board of their institution and could be provided upon request.


• If the studies deal with animal experiments, the authors certify that they were carried out in accordance with the National Institute of Health Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (NIH Publications No. 80-23) revised 1996 or the UK Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 and associated guidelines, or the European Communities Council Directive of 24 November 1986 (86/609/EEC).


• The authors also certify that formal approval to conduct the experiments described has been obtained from the animal subjects review board of their institution and could be provided upon request.


• The authors further attest that all efforts were made to minimize the number of animals used and their suffering.


• If the ethical standard governing the reported research is different from those guidelines indicated above, the authors must provide information in the submission cover letter about which guidelines and oversight procedures were followed.


• The Editors reserve the right to return manuscripts in which there is any question as to the appropriate and ethical use of human or animal subjects.


• All papers must be prepared according to the instructions given in Section III. All manuscripts should be submitted through our web based submission system, Editorial Manager ( http://ees.elsevier.com/nsc/). Authors are strongly encouraged to use this web submission system. However, for those who are unable to submit via the web, please contact the Neuroscience Journal Office at neuroscience@journal-office.com 525 B Street, San Diego, CA 92101. FAX: 619-699-6855.


Main Editors:

Professor Ole Petter Ottersen: Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Department of Anatomy, Sognsvannsv 9, P O Box 1105, Blindern, NO 0317, Oslo, Norway neuroscience@journal-office.com


Dr. Stephen G. Lisberger: University of California School of Medicine, Department of Physiology, 513 Parnassus Avenue, Box 0444, San Francisco, CA 94143-0444, USA. sgl@phy.ucsf.edu

Section Editors:

(a) Behavioural Neuroscience: Dr. Joan I. Morrell, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Center for Molecular and Bahavioral Neuroscience, 197 University Ave., Newark, New Jerssey 07102, USA
(a) Behavioural Neuroscience: Dr. Geoffrey Schoenbaum, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, 655 W. Baltimore Street, Baltimore MD 21201, USA
(c) Cellular : Dr. Menahem Segal, Weizmann Institute of Science, Department of Neurobiology, Hertzl Street, Rehovot 76100, Israel
(d) Cellular : Dr. Constantino Sotelo, CNRS UMR 7102, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, 6eme etage, Bat B, Case 12, 9 Quai St. Bernard, 75005 Paris, France
(e) Clinical Neuroscience: Dr. E.C. Hirsch, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Unité Mixte de Recherche S679, Paris, France
(f) Cognitive Neuroscience: Dr. Jerome N. Sanes, Department of Neuroscience, Alpert Medical School at Brown University, Box GL-N, Providence, RI 02912, USA
(g) Developmental Neuroscience: Weimin Zhong, Dept. of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University, P.O. Box 208103 New Haven, CT 06520-8103, USA
(h) Molecular Neuroscience: L. Kaczmarek, Dept. of Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, ul. Pasteura 3, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland
(i) Neuroanatomy: Dr. M. Witter, Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Centre for the Biology of Memory, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Address: Olav Kyrres gate 9, NTNU, 7489 Trondheim, Norway
(j) Neuropharmacology: Dr. Yoland Smith, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, 954 Gatewood Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA
(k) Systems Neuroscience: Dr. Miles Herkenham, Bethesda, MD, USA
(l) Systems Neuroscience: Dr. Asla Pitkanen, University Kuopio, Al Virtanen Institute, PO Box 1627 FIN-70211, Kuopio, Finland
(m) Systems Neuroscience: Dr. Minoru Kimura, Division of Neurophysiology, Graduate School, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine Kawaramachi-Hirokoji, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto, 602-8566 Japan
(n) Pain Mechanisms: Dr. Linda S. Sorkin, Department of Anesthesiology, University of California at San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0818, USA
(o) Sensory Systems: Dr. Richard Weinberg, University of North Carolina, Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, CB 7090, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
(p) Statistical Consultant: Dr. Viktorie Vlachova, Department of Cellular Neurophysiology, Institute of Physiology AS CR, Videnska 1083, 14220 prague 4, Czech Republic


• Cover illustrations. Authors are encouraged to submit visually and scientifically interesting figure(s) representative of their data, though not necessarily as they appear in the manuscript, for potential cover illustrations. The use of cover illustrations is at the discretion of the Editors only those related to articles accepted for publication will be considered. At the end of each year, all published covers will automatically qualify to take part in a competition for the year's best cover illustration, and will be judged on their aesthetic value and scientific interest. The winner will receive US$ 500 from Elsevier.


• Illustrations for the cover should be related to the author's submitted article, but would not necessarily be included in the paper. We invite authors to produce exciting graphical images that represent the subject matter of their accepted article. Cover art should be sent to:
Neuroscience Journal Office
525 B Street, Suite 1900
San Diego
CA 92101
U.S.A

• When art is submitted, please insure that the manuscript reference number is included on all materials. Covers should be submitted in digital format. Cover art should be formatted for the entire 8 1/2 X 11 inch cover and should be submitted in a resolution of at least 300 dpi. Covers can be submitted as TIFF, Photoshop, JPEG or Powerpoint formats.


III. PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPTS

1. Organization

(a) All manuscripts must be typewritten with double-spacing throughout and with margins at least 2.5 cm wide. Pages should be numbered in succession, the title page being no. 1.


(b) The title page should include the title, the authors' names and affiliations, full contact details (address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address) of the corresponding author, any necessary footnotes, and the appropriate Section Editor to whom the manuscript should be sent for handling.


(c) A comprehensive list of abbreviations used in the main text should be put on a separate page that follows the title page.


(d) Each paper must begin with a brief Abstract of no more than 300 words. The abstract should summarize the goals of the research and the results obtained. The abstract should conclude with a final statement summarizing the major conclusions in such a way that the implications of the work to the field would be clear to a general neuroscience reader. Abbreviations must be kept to a minimum in the abstract.

(e) Authors are asked to include a maximum of six key words (not used in the title) at the foot of the abstract.

(f) Preparation of Research Papers:



Research papers should be organized in the following four main sections:
(i) Introduction. This should provide the scientific rationale for the research that is reported. The heading "Introduction" should be omitted and no results should be presented.
(ii) Experimental procedures. Procedures used in the research should be described in sufficient detail to permit the replication of the work by others. Previously published procedures should be referenced and briefly summarized. The source of all materials, including animals and human tissue, must be provided. The location of each supplier should be detailed on first use in the text.
(iii) Results. This section presents findings without discussion of their significance. Subsections should be used in order to present results in an organized fashion.
(iv) Discussion. This section presents the authors' interpretations of their findings and an assessment of their significance in relation to previous work. Avoid repetition of material presented in the Results section.


(g) Preparation of Rapid Reports:

Rapid Reports are short reports of original research focused on an outstanding finding whose importance means that it will be of interest to scientists in all areas of neuroscience. They do not normally exceed 3 pages of Neuroscience, and have no more than 30 references. They begin with a fully referenced paragraph of not more than 180 words, aimed at a broad audience of neuroscientists. This paragraph contains a summary of the background and rationale for the work, followed by a one-sentence statement of the main conclusions starting "We have found that ?" or equivalent phrase. The rest of the text is typically about 1,500 words long, starting with a further brief paragraph of introductory material if the author requires it, not repeating information in the summary paragraph. Any discussion at the end of the text should be as succinct as possible. Letters typically have 3 or 4 small figures. Word counts refer to the text of the paper. References, title, author list and acknowledgements are not included in total word counts.


(h) Preparation of Reviews:

Reviews should have an introductory section, followed by several information presentation sections and then end with a conclusion section. Section headings should be used to organize the presentation of information.


(i) Other features of manuscript preparation

i. Personal Communications may be used only when written authorization from the communicator is submitted with the original manuscript; they may be mentioned only in the text and in the following form: (G. H Orwell, Department of Psychiatry, University of Washington, personal communication)
ii. Unpublished or submitted experiments by one of the authors may be mentioned only in the text, not in the References. Initials, as well as surnames, must be given for authors whose unpublished experiments are quoted: (M.L. King, unpublished observations)
iii. Acknowledgements. It is the corresponding author's responsibility to insure that individuals who are acknowledged for assistance or for providing comments on the manuscript are agreeable to being acknowledged in this way.
iv. References. The reference list should be included at the end of the main text. A paper which has been accepted for publication but which has not appeared may be cited in the reference list with the abbreviated name of the journal followed by the words "in press".
v. Tables and figures should be included on separate pages placed at the end of the manuscript. Their desired approximate locations should be indicated in the text. Each figure must be accompanied by an explanatory legend in a separate section entitled Figure Legends. In general, tables and figures should be constructed so that they, together with their captions and legends, will be intelligible with minimal reference to the main text.


2. Style

(a) Manuscripts should be written in English in a concise and understandable style. Technical jargon or "laboratory slang'' should not be used. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that the manuscript is written in a style that is grammatically correct and free of spelling or other typographical errors. The Editorial Office reserves the right to revise the wording of manuscripts accepted for publication in Neuroscience.


(b) The excessive use of abbreviations in the text is strongly discouraged. In order to aid communication between scientists of different disciplines, authors should only use abbreviations sparingly and should always define the abbreviation when first used in the text by placing it in parentheses after the full term, e.g. acetylcholinesterase (AChE). The abbreviations should then be used consistently thereafter and appear at least twice in the text.


(c) Symbols for physical units should be restricted to the Systems Internationale (S.I.) Units.


(d) Drug names should be the official or approved names; trade names or common names may be given in brackets where the drug is first mentioned. The manufacturer's name must be given. The doses of the drugs should be given as unit weight/unit body weight, e.g. mmol/kg or mg/kg.


(e) Authors must be consistent in the style of their figures. This includes, but is not restricted to, the use of symbols and lettering size, type, style and positioning on the figures.


3. Reference format

(a) In the text, references should be quoted as the name of the first author and year in chronological order. Multiple authors are indicated by "et al.", except when there are only two authors, in which case both names are written. For example, The pattern of the pathology instead represents a synaptically connected network of neurons (Braak and Braak, 1991; Morris, 1997). This hypothesis was recently proposed by Nagy et al. (1997).


(b) The reference list should be on a separate page at the end of the manuscript, in alphabetical order and arranged as follows: authors' names and initials, year, title of the article, abbreviated title of the journal, volume, first and last page numbers. Journal titles should be abbreviated according to the rules adopted in the fourth edition of the World List of Scientific Periodicals (Butterworths, 1965). Note that first and last pages are given in full. For example, Nagy ZA, Esiri MM, Cato A-M, Smith AD (1997), Cell cycle markers in the hippocampus in Alzheimer's disease. Acta Neuropath 94:6-15.


(c) References to books should include the authors' names and initials, year, title of book, volume, publisher, place of publication and page numbers. Where relevant, the title of a paper within a book, and the editor's name(s) should be given. For example, Morris JH (1997) Alzheimer's disease. In: The neuropathology of dementia, vol. 2 (Esiri MM, Morris JH, eds), pp 70-121 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.


4. Presentation of data in tables or figures

(a) It is the policy of Neuroscience to publish high-quality half-tone (black and white or color plates) and line art illustrations. Authors must submit high-quality original figures. New procedures are now in place to place to evaluate the quality of illustrations at several stages during the review process. If the quality of illustrations is deemed unacceptable, authors will be requested to create new illustrations prior to review or acceptance of the paper. Color plates or line drawings will be charged to the authors. For color reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article; typically, pricing per image is Euro 295.00 (approx. USD 400). Color figures will appear in color on the Web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) at no additional charge.


(b) Preparation of figures
Please refer to the detailed guide on electronic artwork submission which is available at: http://authors.elsevier.com/artwork
Files should be submitted in the following formats: TIFF, EPS or PDF. TIFF and PDF files should be supplied at the following minimum resolutions:
Line artwork = 1000 dpi;
Halftone artwork = 300 dpi (without lettering) and 500 dpi (with lettering);
Color artwork = 300 dpi (without lettering) and 500 dpi (with lettering);
Combination artwork = (line/tone) = 500 dpi
MS Office files (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) are also accepted provided the artwork placed into MS Office applications is at the appropriate minimum resolution as above. Color images should be provided in CMYK colorspace.


Authors must clearly describe in the Experimental Methods section all manipulations made to digital data that were collected as images, and images which have been scanned and printed for publication.