Guide for Authors
Neuroscience publishes the results of 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. Any paper, however short, will be considered for publication provided that it reports
significant, new and carefully confirmed findings with full experimental details.
Neuroscience does not have page or figure
restrictions, and authors are encouraged to write complete papers that contain all the data necessary to present their findings persuasively.
Editorial Organisation
The Chief and Associate Editors seek advice from Section Editors representing all major areas
of research:
- Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
- Cognitive, Behavioral, and Systems Neuroscience
- Neurodegeneration,
Neuroprotection and Disease-Oriented Neuroscience
- Pain Mechanisms and Sensory Neuroscience
- Regeneration, Repair, and
Developmental Neuroscience
Section Editors suggest appropriate reviewers and also recommend an editorial decision based
on the reviews.
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.
Stephen G. Lisberger, Dept. of Physiology, University
of California School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA, USA;
sgl@phy.ucsf.edu
Etienne C. Hirsch, Institut National
de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Unité Mixte de Recherche S975, Paris, France;
etienne.hirsch@upmc.fr
Section Editors (and specialties)
Claudia Bagni (molecular models of brain diseases), Dept. of Molecular
and Developmental Genetics, Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Eleanor Coffey (molecular neuroscience), Turku
Centre for Biotechnology, Åbo Akademi University and University of Turku, Turku, Finland
Julie Fudge (systems neuroscience,
functional neuroanatomy), School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA
Liisa Galea (behavioral
neuroendocrinology, cognition, stress, aging), Dept. of Psychology University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Robert
F. Hevner (development, stem cells, repair), University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
Tadashi Isa (Systems neuroscience),
Dept. Of Developmental Physiology, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Okazaki, Japan
Marlies Knipper (sensory
neuroscience), Dept. of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Tubingen Hearing Research Centre, Tübingen, Germany
Heiko Luhman (cellular neuroscience), Johannes-Gutenberg-Universitat Mainz, Mainz, Germany
Stéphane Oliet (cellular neuroscience),
Dept of Neuroscience, Institut Francois Magendie, Bordeaux, France
Jerome Sanes (cognitive neuroscience, motor control),
Dept. of Neuroscience, Alpert Medical School at Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
Rainald Schmidt-Kastner (neuroprotection),
C.E. Schmidt College of Medicine, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA
Geoffrey Schoenbaum (behavioral neuroscience,
learning and memory), Dept. of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
Susan
Sesack (pharmacology, drugs of abuse, behavior), Dept. of Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, USA
Linda
Sorkin (pain mechanisms), Dept. of Anesthesiology, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
Günther Sperk
(molecular/cellular approaches to systems and disease), Dept. Of Pharmacology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
Menno
Witter (neuroanatomy, hippocampus), Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Centre for the Biology of Memory, Norwegian University
of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
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 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.
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. Former rapid reports
that describe outstanding new discoveries fall under this category and should follow the same layout as research papers. All papers are
handled rapidly.
(b)
Reviews (previously known as
Commentaries). These are short articles (3,000 to 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 processing unless
pre-approved for submission.
(c)
Neuroscience Forefront Reviews. These are invited reviews from a select list of scientists
who have introduced new concepts, models, or methods in neurobiology. Forefront Reviews enable the authors to express their 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.
(d)
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.
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.
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.
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.
Suggestions for special issues should be sent
to Prof. Stephen Lisberger, Editor-in-Chief, at sgl@phy.ucsf.edu. 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.
Page charges
This journal has no page charges.
Ethics in Publishing
For information on
Ethics in Publishing
and Ethical guidelines for journal publication see
http://www.elsevier.com/publishingethics and
http://www.elsevier.com/ethicalguidelines
All submissions to
Neuroscience must contain experiments that conform to the ethical standards printed below. To confirm
their agreement with this, authors are required to include the following statement in their cover letter indicating their agreement with
these standards: "I have read and have abided by the statement of ethical standards for manuscripts submitted to Neuroscience." A list
of ethical standards is
not required in the cover letter.
Policy and ethics
The
authors declare that all experiments on human subjects were conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki
http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/index.html
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.
Conflict of interest
All authors are requested
to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial, personal or other relationships with other people or
organizations within three years of beginning the submitted work that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence,
their work. See also
http://www.elsevier.com/conflictsofinterest.
Submission declaration
Submission
of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published
lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors
and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published
elsewhere including electronically in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the copyright-holder.
Contributors
Each author is required to declare his or her individual contribution to the article: all authors
must have materially participated in the research and/or article preparation, so roles for all authors should be described. The statement
that all authors have approved the final article should be true and included in the disclosure.
Addition, deletion, or rearrangement
of author names in the authorship of accepted manuscripts
Before the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue Requests to add or remove an author, or to rearrange the author names, must be sent to the Journal Manager from the corresponding
author of the accepted manuscript and must include:
- The reason the name should be added or removed or the author names rearranged.
- Written confirmation (email, fax, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the
case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed.
Requests that
are not sent by the corresponding author will be forwarded by the Journal Manager to the corresponding author, who must follow the procedure
as described above. Note that:
- Journal Managers will inform the Journal Editors of any such requests.
- Publication of
the accepted manuscript in an online issue is suspended until authorship has been agreed.
After the accepted manuscript
is published in an online issue
Any requests to add, delete, or rearrange author names in an article published in an online
issue will follow the same policies as noted above and result in a corrigendum.
Changes to authorship
This
policy concerns the addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the authorship of accepted manuscripts:
Before the
accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Requests to add or remove an author, or to rearrange the author names, must
be sent to the Journal Manager from the corresponding author of the accepted manuscript and must include: (a) the reason the name should
be added or removed, or the author names rearranged and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, fax, letter) from all authors that they agree
with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author
being added or removed. Requests that are not sent by the corresponding author will be forwarded by the Journal Manager to the corresponding
author, who must follow the procedure as described above. Note that: (1) Journal Managers will inform the Journal Editors of any such
requests and (2) publication of the accepted manuscript in an online issue is suspended until authorship has been agreed.
After
the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Any requests to add, delete, or rearrange author names in an article published
in an online issue will follow the same policies as noted above and result in a corrigendum.
Copyright
Upon
acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (for more information on this and copyright
see
http://www.elsevier.com/copyright). Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information.
An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement'
form or a link to the online version of this agreement.
Subscribers may reproduce tables of contents or prepare lists of articles
including abstracts for internal circulation within their institutions. Permission of the Publisher is required for resale or distribution
outside the institution and for all other derivative works, including compilations and translations (please consult
http://www.elsevier.com/permissions).
If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit
the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases: please consult
http://www.elsevier.com/permissions.
Retained author rights
As an author you (or your employer or institution) retain certain rights; for details
you are referred to:
http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights.
Role of the funding source
You
are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly
describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing
of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement then this
should be stated. Please see
http://www.elsevier.com/funding.
Funding body agreements and
policies
Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors whose articles appear in journals
published by Elsevier, to comply with potential manuscript archiving requirements as specified as conditions of their grant awards. To
learn more about existing agreements and policies please visit
http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies.
Open access
This journal offers you the option of making your article freely available to all via the ScienceDirect
platform. To prevent any conflict of interest, you can only make this choice after receiving notification that your article has been
accepted for publication. The fee of $3,000 excludes taxes and other potential author fees such as color charges. In some cases, institutions
and funding bodies have entered into agreement with Elsevier to meet these fees on behalf of their authors. Details of these agreements
are available at
http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies. Authors of accepted articles, who wish to take advantage of this
option, should complete and submit the order form (available at
http://www.elsevier.com/locate/openaccessform.pdf). Whatever
access option you choose, you retain many rights as an author, including the right to post a revised personal version of your article
on your own website. More information can be found here:
http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights.
Language
and language services
Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture
of these). Authors who require information about language editing and copyediting services pre- and post-submission please visit
http://webshop.elsevier.com/languageservices or our customer support
site at
http://support.elsevier.com
for more information.
Submission
Submission to this journal proceeds totally online and
you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of your files. The system automatically converts source files to a single
PDF file of the article, which is used in the peer-review process. Please note that even though manuscript source files are converted
to PDF files at submission for the review process, these source files are needed for further processing after acceptance. All correspondence,
including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, takes place by e-mail removing the need for a paper trail.
Submission address
Please submit your article via
http://ees.elsevier.com/nsc.
Authors
are strongly encouraged to use this Web-based submission system. However, for those who are unable to submit via the Web, please contact
neuroscience@journal-office.com or
Neuroscience Editorial Office, 525 B Street, Suite 1800, San Diego, CA
92101, USA; FAX: 619-699-6859.
Referees
Please submit, with the manuscript, the names, addresses
and e-mail addresses of three potential referees. Note that the editor retains the sole right to decide whether or not the suggested
reviewers are used.
Additional information
All manuscripts are subject to any modifications
required by the Editorial Office to conform to Journal policy.
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 (see specific instructions for submission of cover art under
PREPARATION / Color Artwork below). The use
of illustrations for journal covers 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 be considered in a competition for the year's best cover
illustration, and will be judged on their aesthetic value and scientific interest. The author(s) of the winning image will receive US$
500 from Elsevier.
Use of wordprocessing software
It
is important that the file be saved in the native format of the wordprocessor used. The text should be in single-column format. Keep
the layout of the text as simple as possible. Most formatting codes will be removed and replaced on processing the article. In particular,
do not use the wordprocessor's options to justify text or to hyphenate words. However, do use bold face, italics, subscripts, superscripts
etc. When preparing tables, if you are using a table grid, use only one grid for each individual table and not a grid for each row. If
no grid is used, use tabs, not spaces, to align columns. The electronic text should be prepared in a way very similar to that of conventional
manuscripts (see also the Guide to Publishing with Elsevier:
http://www.elsevier.com/guidepublication). Note that source
files of figures, tables and text graphics will be required whether or not you embed your figures in the text. See also the section on
Electronic artwork.
To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the 'spell-check' and 'grammar-check' functions of
your wordprocessor.
Article structure
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.
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.
The Editorial Office reserves the right to revise the wording of manuscripts accepted for
publication in the journal.
Subdivision
Divide your article into clearly defined and numbered
sections. Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ...), 1.2, etc. (the abstract is not included in section numbering).
Use this numbering also for internal cross-referencing: do not just refer to "the text". Any subsection may be given a brief heading.
Each heading should appear on its own separate line.
Research papers
should be organized in the following four main
sections: Introduction, Experimental Procedures, Results, Discussion
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.
Introduction
This should provide the scientific rationale
for the research that is reported. No heading "Introduction" should be used, and no results should be presented.
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. The author(s) also agree(s)
to make freely available to colleagues in academic research any clones of cells, nucleic acids, antibodies, etc. that were used in the
research reported and that are not available from commercial suppliers. Authors must clearly describe all manipulations made to digital
data that were collected as images, and images which have been scanned and printed for publication.
Results
This
section presents findings without discussion of their significance. Subsections should be used in order to present results in an organized
fashion.
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.
The Results and Discussion sections may
not be combined.
Conclusions
The main conclusions
of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of the Discussion section.
Glossary
Please supply, as a separate list, the definitions of field-specific terms used in your article.
Appendices
If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc. Formulae and equations
in appendices should be given separate numbering: Eq. (A.1), Eq. (A.2), etc.; in a subsequent appendix, Eq. (B.1) and so on. Similarly
for tables and figures: Table A.1; Fig. A.1, etc.
Essential title page information
•
Title.
Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae
where possible.
•
Author names and affiliations.
Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g., a double name),
please indicate this clearly. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all
affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide
the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name and, if available, the e-mail address of each author.
•
Corresponding author.
Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also
post-publication.
Ensure that telephone and fax numbers (with country and area code) are provided in addition to the e-mail address
and the complete postal address. Contact details must be kept up to date by the corresponding author.
•
Present/permanent
address.
If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a 'Present address'
(or 'Permanent address') may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work
must be retained as the main, affiliation address. Superscript Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes.
Abstract
A
concise and factual abstract is required. The abstract should state briefly (in less than 300 words) the purpose of the research and
the principal 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. An abstract is often presented separately
from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. For this reason, References should be avoided, but if essential, then cite the author(s)
and year(s). Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention
in the abstract itself.
Graphical abstract
A Graphical abstract is optional and should summarize
the contents of the article in a concise, pictorial form designed to capture the attention of a wide readership online. Authors must
provide images that clearly represent the work described in the article. Graphical abstracts should be submitted as a separate file in
the online submission system. Image size: Please provide an image with a minimum of 531 × 1328 pixels (h × w) or proportionally
more. The image should be readable at a size of 5 × 13 cm using a regular screen resolution of 96 dpi. Preferred file types: TIFF,
EPS, PDF or MS Office files. See
http://www.elsevier.com/graphicalabstracts for examples.
Authors can make use of Elsevier's
Illustration and Enhancement service to ensure the best presentation of their images also in accordance with all technical requirements:
Illustration Service.
Highlights
Highlights are mandatory for this journal. They consist of a short collection of bullet points
that convey the core findings of the article and should be submitted in a separate file in the online submission system. Please use 'Highlights'
in the file name and include 3 to 5 bullet points (maximum 85 characters, including spaces, per bullet point). See
http://www.elsevier.com/highlights
for examples.
Keywords
Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 6 keywords,
using American spelling and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of'). Be sparing with
abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.
Abbreviations
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. A comprehensive list of the abbreviations used should be
put on a separate page that follows the title page.
Acknowledgements
Collate acknowledgements
in a separate section at the end of the article before the references and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote
to the title or otherwise. List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing
assistance or proof reading the article, etc.). 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.
Units
Follow
internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the international system of units (SI). If other units are mentioned, please give
their equivalent in SI.
Nomenclature and units
Follow internationally accepted rules and
conventions: use the international system of units (SI). If other quantities are mentioned, give their equivalent in SI. You are urged
to consult IUGS: Nomenclature for geological time scales/rock names:
http://www.iugs.org/for further information.
Symbols
for physical units should be restricted to the Systems Internationale (S.I.) Units. 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.
Database linking
Elsevier
aims at connecting online articles with external databases which are useful in their respective research communities. If your article
contains relevant unique identifiers or accession numbers (bioinformatics) linking to information on entities (genes, proteins, diseases,
etc.) or structures deposited in public databases, then please indicate those entities according to the standard explained below.
Authors
should explicitly mention the
database abbreviation (as mentioned below) together with the actual database number, bearing in
mind that an error in a letter or number can result in a dead link in the online version of the article.
Please use the following
format:
Database ID: xxxx
Links can be provided in your online article to the following databases (examples of citations are
given in parentheses):
•
ASTM: ASTM Standards Database (ASTM ID: G63)
•
CCDC: Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC ID: AI631510)
•
GenBank: Genetic sequence database at the National Center for
Biotechnology Information (NCBI) (GenBank ID: BA123456)
•
GEO:
Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO ID: GSE27196; GEO ID: GPL5366; GEO ID: GSM9853)
•
MI:
EMBL-EBI OLS Molecular Interaction Ontology (MI ID: 0218)
•
MINT:
Molecular INTeractions database (MINT ID: 6166710)
•
NCBI Taxonomy:
NCBI Taxonomy Browser (NCBI Taxonomy ID: 48184)
•
NCT: ClinicalTrials.gov
(NCT ID: NCT00222573)
•
OMIM: Online Mendelian Inheritance
in Man (OMIM ID: 601240)
•
PDB: Worldwide Protein Data
Bank (PDB ID: 1TUP)
•
TAIR: The Arabidopsis Information Resource
database (TAIR ID: AT1G01020)
•
UniProt: Universal Protein Resource
Knowledgebase (UniProt ID: Q9H0H5)
Artwork
Electronic artwork
•
Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
• Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
• Provide captions to illustrations separately.
• Produce images near to the desired size of the printed version.
•
Submit each figure as a separate file.
A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on our website:
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions
You are urged to visit this site; some excerpts from the detailed information are given here.
Formats
Regardless
of the application used, when your electronic artwork is finalised, please "save as" or convert the images to one of the following formats
(note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below):
EPS: Vector drawings.
Embed the font or save the text as "graphics".
TIFF: color or grayscale photographs (halftones): always use a minimum of 300 dpi.
TIFF: Bitmapped line drawings: use a minimum of 1000 dpi.
TIFF: Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (color or grayscale): a
minimum of 500 dpi is required.
DOC, XLS or PPT: If your electronic artwork is created in any of these Microsoft Office applications
please supply "as is".
• Do
not supply embedded graphics in your wordprocessor (spreadsheet, presentation) document;
• Do
not supply files that are optimised for screen use (like GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); the resolution is too low;
•
Do
not supply files that are too low in resolution;
• Do
not submit graphics that are disproportionately large
for the content.
Color artwork
Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable
format (TIFF, EPS or MS Office files) and with the correct resolution. If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable color
figures then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in color on the Web (e.g., ScienceDirect and
other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in color in the printed version.
For color reproduction
in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. Please indicate
your preference for color: in print or on the Web only. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
Please note: Because of technical complications which can arise by converting
color figures to 'gray scale' (for the printed version should you not opt for color in print) please submit in addition usable black
and white versions of all the color illustrations.
Cover art
Illustrations to be considered
for the cover should be related to the authors' submittedC article and be representative of their data, but need not necessarily be as
they appear in the manuscript. Cover art should be formatted to occupy the entire 8.5 X 11 inch cover and should be submitted in digital
format (TIFF, Photoshop, JPEG or Powerpoint) with a resolution of at least 300 dpi. Please also include a descriptive text with your
cover art submission. The files should be uploaded to a specified FTP site. Please contact the
Editorial Office at neuroscience@journal-office.com
for instructions. For authors who wish to postal mail a CD with the cover art, please send it to: Neuroscience Editorial Office, 525
B Street, Suite 1700, San Diego, CA 92101, U.S.A. Please ensure that the manuscript reference number is included on all materials.
Figure captions
Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply captions separately, not attached to the
figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (
not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep text in
the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.
Text graphics
Text
graphics may be embedded in the text at the appropriate position. Further, high-resolution graphics files must be provided separately
whether or not the graphics are embedded. See further under Electronic artwork.
Tables
Number
tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Place footnotes to tables below the table body and indicate them
with superscript lowercase letters. Avoid vertical rules. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in tables
do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article.
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". See Reference Style below.
Citation in text
Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list
(and vice versa). Any references cited in the abstract must be given in full. Unpublished results and personal communications are not
recommended in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. If these references are included in the reference list they should
follow the standard reference style of the journal and should include a substitution of the publication date with either 'Unpublished
results' or 'Personal communication'. Citation of a reference as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication.
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). 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).
Web references
As a minimum, the full URL should be given and the date when the reference was last accessed.
Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Web references
can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list.
Reference to arXiv
As with unpublished results and personal communications, references to arXiv documents
are not recommended in the reference list. Please make every effort to obtain the full reference of the published version of an arXiv
document. If a reference to an arXiv document must be included in the references list it should follow the standard reference style of
the journal and should include a substitution of the volume and page numbers with 'arXiv:YYMM.NNNN' or 'arXiv:arch-ive/YYMMNNN' for articles
submitted to arXiv before April 2007.
References in a special issue
Please ensure that the
words 'this issue' are added to any references in the list (and any citations in the text) to other articles in the same Special Issue.
Reference style
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).
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.
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.
Journal abbreviations source
Journal names should be abbreviated according to
Index
Medicus journal abbreviations:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lji.html;
List of title word abbreviations:
http://www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php;
CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service):
http://www.cas.org/sent.html.
Video data
Elsevier
accepts video material and animation sequences to support and enhance your scientific research. Authors who have video or animation files
that they wish to submit with their article are strongly encouraged to include these within the body of the article. This can be done
in the same way as a figure or table by referring to the video or animation content and noting in the body text where it should be placed.
All submitted files should be properly labeled so that they directly relate to the video file's content. In order to ensure that your
video or animation material is directly usable, please provide the files in one of our recommended file formats with a preferred maximum
size of 50 MB. Video and animation files supplied will be published online in the electronic version of your article in Elsevier Web
products, including ScienceDirect:
http://www.sciencedirect.com. Please supply 'stills' with your files: you can choose
any frame from the video or animation or make a separate image. These will be used instead of standard icons and will personalize the
link to your video data. For more detailed instructions please visit our video instruction pages at
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
Note: since video and animation cannot be embedded in the print version of the journal, please provide text for both the electronic and
the print version for the portions of the article that refer to this content.
Supplementary data
Neuroscience
accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer the author additional
possibilities to publish supporting applications, sound clips, videos, and other formats that cannot yet be embedded in our standard
PDF files Elsevier accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files supplied
will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect:
www.sciencedirect.com. In order to ensure that your submitted material is directly usable, please provide the data in one of our recommended file
formats. Authors should submit the material in electronic format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption
for each file. For more detailed instructions please visit our artwork instruction pages at
www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
For Neuroscience, authors are allowed to post supplementary material for review, but for publication supplementary material
will be restricted to formats that cannot be published in the standard form of a PDF, such as movies.
Submission
checklist
It is hoped that this list will be useful during the final checking of an article prior to sending it to the
journal's Editor for review. Please consult this Guide for Authors for further details of any item.
Ensure that the following
items are present:
One Author designated as corresponding Author:
• E-mail address
• Full postal address
•
Telephone and fax numbers
All necessary files have been uploaded
• Keywords
• All figure captions
• All
tables (including title, description, footnotes)
Further considerations
• Manuscript has been "spellchecked" and "grammar-checked"
• References are in the correct format for this journal
• All references mentioned in the Reference list are cited
in the text, and vice versa
• Cover letter includes your agreement to the ethical standards:
"I have read and have abided
by the statement of ethical standards for manuscripts submitted to Neuroscience," as well as the other statement that all authors have
approved the final article.
• Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including
the Web)
• Color figures are clearly marked as being intended for color reproduction on the Web (free of charge) and in print
or to be reproduced in color on the Web (free of charge) and in black-and-white in print
• If only color on the Web is required,
black and white versions of the figures are also supplied for printing purposes
For any further information please visit our customer
support site at
http://epsupport.elsevier.com.
See
also the IBRO Website http://www.ibro.org
Use
of the Digital Object Identifier
The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic documents.
The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon the initial electronic
publication. The assigned DOI never changes. Therefore, it is an ideal medium for citing a document, particularly 'Articles in press'
because they have not yet received their full bibliographic information. The correct format for citing a DOI is shown as follows (example
taken from a document in the journal
Physics Letters B):
doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2010.09.059
When you use the DOI to
create URL hyperlinks to documents on the web, the DOIs are guaranteed never to change.
Proofs
One
set of page proofs (as PDF files) will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author (if we do not have an e-mail address then paper
proofs will be sent by post) or, a link will be provided in the e-mail so that authors can download the files themselves. Elsevier now
provides authors with PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe Reader version 7 (or higher) available
free from
http://get.adobe.com/reader. Instructions on how to annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs (also given online).
The exact system requirements are given at the Adobe site:
http://www.adobe.com/products/reader/tech-specs.html.
If
you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) and return them
to Elsevier in an e-mail. Please list your corrections quoting line number. If, for any reason, this is not possible, then mark the corrections
and any other comments (including replies to the Query Form) on a printout of your proof and return by fax, or scan the pages and e-mail,
or by post. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures.
Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor.
We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately – please let us have all your corrections within
48 hours. It is important to ensure that all corrections are sent back to us in one communication: please check carefully before replying,
as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. Note that Elsevier may proceed
with the publication of your article if no response is received.
Offprints
The corresponding
author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail or, alternatively, 25 free paper offprints. If the corresponding
author opts for paper offprints, this preference must be indicated via the offprint order form which is sent once the article is accepted
for publication. Additional paper offprints can also be ordered via this form for an extra charge. The PDF file is a watermarked version
of the published article and includes a cover sheet with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions
of use.
See also the IBRO Website www.ibro.org
For
inquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission) please visit this journal's homepage. Contact details
for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, will be provided by the publisher. You can
track accepted articles at
http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle. You can also check our Author FAQs (
http://www.elsevier.com/authorFAQ)
and/or contact Customer Support via
http://support.elsevier.com.
