Experimental Neurology publishes the results and conclusions of original research in neuroscience with a particular emphasis on novel findings in neural development, regeneration, plasticity, and transplantation. Emphasis is also placed on basic mechanisms underlying or related to neurological disorders. Although the journal does not consider case reports for publication, information that bridges basic and clinical questions is of a high priority. Brief communications of important new data and scholarly reviews of important topics are encouraged. Manuscripts in other areas of neuroscience will be considered if they show relevance to the primary mission of the journal.

The Neuroscience Peer Review Consortium

Experimental Neurologyis 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 Experimental Neurology and indicate that the referees' reports from the first journal be made available to the Editors of Experimental Neurology.

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 Experimental Neurology. If an author does not wish for this to happen, the manuscript can be submitted to Experimental Neurology 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 Experimental Neurology's specification and submit the paper to Experimental Neurology 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 Experimental Neurology the title of the first journal submitted to and the manuscript ID that was given by that journal. The editorial office of Experimental Neurology will request the referees' reports from the first journal.

The Editors of Experimental Neurology 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.

US National Institutes of Health (NIH) voluntary posting (" Public Access") policy

Elsevier facilitates author response to the NIH voluntary posting request (referred to as the NIH "Public Access Policy"; see http://www.nih.gov/about/publicaccess/index.htm) by posting the peer-reviewed author's manuscript directly to PubMed Central on request from the author, 12 months after formal publication. Upon notification from Elsevier of acceptance, we will ask you to confirm via e-mail (by e-mailing us at NIHauthorrequest@elsevier.com) that your work has received NIH funding and that you intend to respond to the NIH policy request, along with your NIH award number to facilitate processing. Upon such confirmation, Elsevier will submit to PubMed Central on your behalf a version of your manuscript that will include peer-review comments, for posting 12 months after formal publication. This will ensure that you will have responded fully to the NIH request policy. There will be no need for you to post your manuscript directly with PubMed Central, and any such posting is prohibited.

Exceptions: It is the policy of Elsevier that authors need not obtain permission in the following cases only: (1) to use their original figures or tables in their future works; (2) to make copies of their papers for use in their classroom teaching; and (3) to include their papers as part of their dissertations.

Submission of Manuscripts

Experimental Neurology manuscripts may be submitted using the journal's online submission and review Web site at http://www.ees.elsevier.com/yexnr/. To use this submission route, please go to the Web site and upload your article and its associated artwork. A PDF is generated and the reviewing process is carried out using that PDF. All correspondence between editors, authors, and reviewers is performed on this system, and paper copies are no longer required. There are no submission fees or page charges. Each manuscript should be accompanied by a letter outlining the basic findings of the paper and their significance.

When human subjects are used, manuscripts must be accompanied by a statement that the experiments were undertaken with the understanding and written consent of each subject, with the approval of the appropriate local ethics committee, and in compliance with national legislation and the Code of Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm
When experimental animals are used, the materials and methods section must clearly indicate that adequate measures were taken to minimise pain or discomfort, and that the experiments were conducted in accordance with international standards on animal welfare as well as being compliant with local and national regulations. Studies are expected to be compliant with minimal standards as defined by the European Communities Council Directive of 24 November 1986 (86/609/EEC) http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/aw/aw_legislation/scientific/86-609-e ec_en.pdf and the National Institutes of Health Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/labrats/. Full details of any anaesthetic or analgesic dose and treatment must be given.

All manuscripts are expected to comply with contemporary standards of ethical practice in scientific publication, regarding such matters as study design and ethical approval, data probity and fabrication, authorship, declaration of conflict of interest, plagiarism and redundant publication.

For questions regarding submission, please contact:


Experimental Neurology Editorial Office
525 B Street, Suite 1900
San Diego, CA 92101-4495, USA
Telephone: (619) 699-6421
Fax: (619) 699-6801
E-mail: expn@elsevier.com

Please specify the type of article (Regular, Brief Communication, or Review) and to which section the submitted article belongs. Also, please list the names and addresses of 4-6 reviewers who are familiar with the research area. Section topics include:


Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
Development
Genetic Disorders and Trophic Factors
Neural Systems
Neuroendocrine and Homeostatic Mechanisms
Neurological Disorders
Psychiatric Disorders and Substance Abuse
Regeneration and Plasticity
Transplantation and Repair

Manuscripts are accepted for editorial review with the understanding that no substantial portion of the study has been published or is under consideration for publication elsewhere and that its submission for publication has been approved by all of the authors and by the institution where the work was carried out. Manuscripts that do not meet the general criteria or standards for publication in Experimental Neurology will be immediately returned to the authors, without detailed review.

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to transfer copyright (for more information on copyright, see http://www.elsevier.com/copyright). This transfer will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. A letter will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript. A form facilitating transfer of copyright will be provided after acceptance.

If material from other copyrighted works is 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: contact Elsevier Global Rights Department, P.O. Box 800, Oxford OX5 1DX, UK; phone: (+44) 1865 843830, fax: (+44) 1865 853333, e-mail: permissions@elsevier.com.

Brief Communications. Short manuscripts of no more than 6 or 7 double-spaced typed pages and limited to 1 figure and/or table (approximately 2 printed pages) will be considered. They should have an abstract of a few sentences, but no section headings.

Critical Reviews. Authors should first communicate with the Editor-in-Chief, describing the topic and intent of potential review articles prior to submission to the journal. Reviews should emphasize emerging fields or should critically analyze existing data and questions. At the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief these reviews may be accompanied by scientific dialogue from other contributions.

Commentaries. Experimental Neurology publishes short commentaries and topical mini-reviews about issues of current importance, often related to specific studies published in the same issue of Experimental Neurology or in other journals. These commentaries will usually be solicited by the Editors, but suggestions of topics to the Editor-in-Chief are welcome.

Language Editing:

Prior to submission, authors for whom English is not their first language may find it helpful to use a language and copyediting service such as that available through http://www.elsevier.com.locate/languagepolishing or may contact authorsupport@elsevier.com for more information. Please note that Elsevier neither endorses nor takes responsibility for any products, goods or services offered by outside vendors through our services or in any advertising. For more information please refer to our Terms & Conditions http://www.elsevier.com//termsconditions.

Preparation of Manuscript

Most recommendations of the Council of Biology Editors are to be followed; consult the latest edition of the CBE Style Manual. Non-standard abbreviations should be minimal. Use numerals with standard units of measurement and for any number above nine. The metric system must be used and abbreviations made according to the International System (Standard Metric Practice Guide, American Society for Testing Materials, Philadelphia, 1970). Policy regarding publication of experiments on unanesthetized animals conforms with the standards for use of laboratory animals established by the Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources, U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Experiments in which curariform agents are used must be justified and details as to steps taken to reduce or avoid distress to the animal must be provided, particularly with regard to electrical stimulation.

Manuscripts should be double-spaced throughout. Pages should be numbered consecutively and organized as follows:

The Title page (p. 1) should contain the article title, authors' names and complete affiliations, footnotes to the title, and the address for manuscript correspondence (including e-mail address and telephone and fax numbers).The title of the paper should be brief; no longer than 100 characters in length, and should capture and communicate the key message of your research to a broader audience. To aid this, abbreviations, unless familiar to a broad audience, should be avoided.

The Abstract (p. 2) must be a single paragraph that summarizes the main findings of the paper in less than 250 words. After the abstract a list of up to 10 keywords that will be useful for indexing or searching should be included.

The Introduction should be as concise as possible, without subheadings.


Materials and methods should be sufficiently detailed to enable the experiments to be reproduced.

Results and Discussion may be combined and may be organized into subheadings.

Acknowledgments should be brief and should precede the references.

References should be cited in the text by name and date and listed alphabetically in the reference section. Only articles that have been published or are in press should be included in the references. Unpublished results or personal communications should be cited as such in the text. Please use the following style:

Cunningham, L.A., Chunyan, S., 2002. Astrocyte delivery of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor in a mouse model of Parkinson's disease. Exp. Neurol. 174, 230–242.

Mattson, M.P., 2001. Inflammation, free radicals, glycation, metabolism and apoptosis, and heavy metals. In: Hof, P.R., Mobbs, C.V. (Eds.), Functional Neurobiology of Aging. Academic Press, San Diego, pp. 349–371.

Sherman, S.M., Guillery, R.W., 2000. Exploring the Thalamus. Academic Press, San Diego.

Figures. Number figures consecutively with Arabic numerals. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.

Color Figures.

If together with your accepted article, you submit usable colour figures, then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in colour on the Web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions [Please note: Because of technical complications that can arise in converting colour figures to “grey scale” (for the printed version should you not opt for colour in print), please submit in addition usable black-and-white files corresponding to all the colour illustrations].

Authors should note that a request to revert from full colour to colour only in the electronic publication at the stage of typesetting and proof correction, will require separate editorial agreement, with possible re-review if necessary, and may significantly delay publication of your manuscript

Color figures for exclusive use as cover illustrations may be submitted by authors who are also submitting a manuscript for consideration. These figures do not need to relate to the manuscript being submitted but should relate to the larger scope and focus of Experimental Neurology.

Tables should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals in order of appearance in the text. Type each table double-spaced on a separate page with a short title typed directly above and with essential footnotes below.

GenBank/DNA Sequence Linking. Authors wishing to enable other scientists to use the accession numbers cited in their papers via links to these sources should type this information in the following manner:

For each and every accession number cited in an article, authors should type the accession number in bold, underlined text . Letters in the accession number should always be capitalized (see example below). This combination of letters and format will enable Elsevier's typesetters to recognize the relevant texts as accession numbers and add the required link to GenBank's sequences.

Example: GenBank accession nos. AI631510 , AI631511 , AI632198 , and BF223228 ), a B-cell tumor from a chronic lymphatic leukemia (GenBank accession no. BE675048 ), and a T-cell lymphoma (GenBank accession no. AA361117 ).

Authors are encouraged to check accession numbers used very carefully. An error in a letter or number can result in a dead link.

In the final version of the printed article, the accession number text will not appear bold or underlined. In the final version of the electronic copy, the accession number text will be linked to the appropriate source in the NCBI databases, enabling readers to go directly to that source from the article.

Preparation of Supplementary Material

Elsevier now accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer additional possibilities for publishing supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, high-resolution images, background datasets, sound clips, and more. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect ( http://www.sciencedirect.com). 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. Please note, however, that supplementary material will not appear in the printed journal. Files can be stored on 3.5-inch diskette, ZIP disk, or CD (either MS-DOS or Macintosh). For more detailed instructions, please contact the Editorial Office (phone: (619) 699-6421; fax: (619) 699-6801; e-mail: expn@elsevier.com).

Proofs

PDF proofs will be sent to the corresponding author. To avoid delay in publication, only necessary changes should be made, and corrections should be returned promptly. Authors will be charged for alterations that exceed 10% of the total cost of composition.

Offprints:

The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a pdf offprint.

Author Enquiries

For enquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission where available) please visit the Elsevier website at http://www.elsevier.com/authors. The Elsevier website also provides the facility to track accepted articles and set up e-mail alerts to inform you of when an article's status has changed, as well as detailed artwork guidelines, copyright information, frequently asked questions, and more. Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, are provided after registration of an article for publication.

Disclaimer:

Whilst every effort is made by the publishers and editorial board to see that no inaccurate or misleading data, opinion or statement appears in this journal, they wish to make it clear that the data and opinions appearing in the articles and advertisements herein are the sole responsibility of the contributor or advertiser concerned. Accordingly, the publishers, the editorial board and editors and their respective employees, officers and agents accept no responsibility or liability whatsoever for the consequences of any inaccurate or misleading data, opinion or statement.