Official Journal of the European Paediatric Neurology Society

A covering letter must accompany all online submissions. The senior author is responsible for ensuring that all authors have seen and approved the manuscript. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the content. The author must acknowledge in their cover letter that the work the article represents has not been submitted for publication elsewhere.

Submission of Manuscripts
The European Journal of Paediatric Neurology proceeds totally online via an electronic submission system at http://ees.elsevier.com/ejpn. You will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the various files. When submitting a manuscript online, authors need to provide an electronic version of their manuscript and any accompanying figures and tables.

The author should select from a list of scientific classifications, which will be used to help the editors select reviewers with appropriate expertise, and an article type for their manuscript. Once the uploading is done, the system automatically generates an electronic (PDF) proof, which is then used for reviewing. All correspondence, including the Editor's decision and request for revisions, will be processed through the system and will reach the corresponding author by e-mail.

Once a manuscript has successfully been submitted via the online submission system authors may track the status of their manuscript using the online submission system (details will be provided by e-mail). If your manuscript is accepted by the journal, subsequent tracking facilities are available on Elsevier's Author Gateway, using the unique reference number provided by Elsevier and corresponding author name (details will be provided by e-mail).

In case you do not have an Internet connection, please contact the Central Editorial Office for further assistance:

Professor Dr. Lieven Lagae, MD PhD
Department of Paediatric Neurology
University Hospitals of Gasthuisberg Herestraat 49
B-3000 LEUVEN
Phone: +32 16 34 38 45
Fax: +32 16 34 38 42
E-mail:ejpn@uz.kuleuven.ac.be

Ethics
The journal publishes all material relating to human investigation and animal experiments on the understanding that the design of the work has been approved by the local Ethical Committees or that it conforms to guidelines on animal care and use currently applied in the country of origin.

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

Article Types

Original articles: The main text of original articles should generally be in the format of: Abstract, Key words, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion. Authors are reminded that articles should be clear and concise and non-standard abbreviations avoided. Please provide a brief abstract and up to six key words separately.

Reviews: The Editor welcomes review articles on topics of interest to the readers of the journal. These can range from full-length, in-depth reviews (not more than 6000 words) to mini-reviews (up to 1500 words) on topics of current interest and importance. Reviews will be subjected to the usual peer review. The organization of review material is at the discretion of the author. Please provide a brief abstract and up to six key words separately.

Case studies: Only those case studies will be considered for publication if they present new scientific information or a new pathogenic mechanism.
Case studies should be concise, and preferably not exceed 1500 words with up to five references and one illustration. They should be in the format of Introduction, Case Study and Discussion. Please include a short abstract and up to six key words.

Rapid communications: Short manuscripts containing results of unusual scientific interest and importance may be submitted as rapid communications. These papers will appear in the next available issue after acceptance. These communications must not exceed four journal pages (2500 words including figures, tables and references). The format is the same as for full papers. Such communications should be accompanied by a separate, brief statement, setting out the authors' reasons for requesting accelerated rapid rather than regular (rapid) publication.

Letters to the Editor: Letters containing critical comment on papers recently published in the European Journal of Paediatric Neurology will be considered for publication in the correspondence section. Letters should not exceed one printed page (1000 words including references, one table or one figure). At the Editor's discretion, a letter may be sent to authors of the original paper for comment and both letter and reply may be published together. Letters should have a heading and no abbreviations.

Book reviews: Readers interested in reviewing books for the Journal should write direct to the Book Reviews Editor, Dr Ewa Posner: Department of Paediatric Neurology, Sir James Spence Institute of Child Health, The Royal Victoria Infirmary, Queen Victoria Road, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 4LP, E-mail: ebposner@doctors.org.uk

Gene tables: Any readers wishing to contribute new data to a gene table or construct a new gene table should contact the Editor-in-Chief.

Manuscript preparation

Each of the following sections should begin on a new page and all pages should be numbered serially.

(i) Title page;
(ii) Abstract and key words;
(iii) Main text in the format previously described;
(iv) Acknowledgements;
(v) References;
(vi) Tables;
(vii) Legends for illustrations.


Title
The title page should give:

(i) the title of the article;
(ii) the authors' names (first name, middle initial and last name of each author) and institutes of origin;
(iii) the name, address, telephone and fax number and e-mail address of the author responsible for correspondence;
(iv) the category for which the manuscript is being submitted (original article, review, case study, rapid communication);
(v) a short title of not more than 50 characters for each page (running head).

Abstracts
The abstract should not exceed 250 words and should describe the background, the aims, the methods, the results and the conclusions reached. It should contain no abbreviations (other than those in common use) and no references.

Reference Format
To increase the visibility of the European Journal of Paediatric Neurology, we ask that your manuscript makes a reference to at least one scientifically relevant and recently published paper in the European Journal of Paediatric Neurology

Unpublished communications should be cited in the text in parentheses. In the text, references should be numbered consecutively as bold superscripts if possible but in parentheses if this is not possible. They should appear in the order in which they are first cited in the text and listed in numerical order at the end of the article. The sequence for a journal article should be author(s), title of paper, journal name abbreviated as in Index Medicus (written in full if no abbreviation quoted), year of publication, volume number, first and last pages. Include all authors up to five names; if there are six or more, include the first three and then et al. The sequence for a book is: chapter author(s), chapter title, editor(s) or compiler(s), booktitle, edition number, place of publication, publishers' name, year of publication, first and last pages (if relevant).

Example 1:
23. Siddenvall R, Forsgren L, Heijbel J. Prevalence and characteristics of epilepsy in children in Northern Sweden. Seizure 1996; 5: 139-146.

Example 2:
24. Wallace SJ. Neurology. In: Addy, DP (ed) Investigations in Paediatrics. London: WB Saunders Company Limited, 1994: 135-147.

Figures and Photographs
Figures and Photographs of good quality should be submitted online as a separate file. Please use a lettering that remains clearly readable even after reduction to about 66%. For every figure or photograph, a legend should be provided. All authors wishing to use illustrations already published must first obtain the permission of the author and publisher and/or copyright holders and give precise reference to the original work. This permission must include the right to publish in electronic media.

Tables
Tables should be numbered in series and must be cited in the text in sequence. Each table, with an appropriate brief legend, comprehensible without reference to the text, should be typed on a separate page and uploaded online. Tables should be kept as simple as possible and wherever possible a graphical representation used instead. For footnotes use superscripts 'a', 'b', 'c', etc, not asterisks or other symbols.

Please refer to the generic Elsevier artwork instructions: http://authors.elsevier.com/locate/artwork/

Keywords
Up to six keywords should be given for indexing.

Acknowledgements
The acknowledgement page, should specify acknowledgement of technical help and sources of financial and material support.

Units & Abbreviations
The decimal point and not a comma should be used, e.g. 6.89 not 6,89. A space rather than a comma should follow thousands and multiples thereof, e.g. 10 000 not 10,000. Measurements of length, height, weight and volume should be reported in metric units (metre, kilogram, litre). Temperatures should be given in degrees Celsius and blood pressures in millimetres of mercury or kPa with the alternative unit in parentheses. All other measurements including laboratory measurements should be reported in the metric system in terms of the International System of Units (SI). Authors should avoid the use of abbreviations. Terms which are mentioned frequently may be abbreviated only if this does not detract from reader comprehension. The abbreviation should be defined after the first use of the term. No abbreviations should be used in the abstract other than those in common use. When quoting from specific materials or proprietary drugs, authors must state in parentheses the name and address of the manufacturer. Generic names should be used if possible.

Colour reproduction
The European Journal of Paediatric Neurology is now also included in a new initiative from Elsevier: 'Colourful e-Products'. Through this initiative, figures that appear in black & white in print can appear in colour, online, in ScienceDirect at http://www.sciencedirect.com. There is no extra charge for authors who participate.

For colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. Please indicate your preference for colour in print or on the Web only. Because of technical complications which can arise by 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 versions of all the colour illustrations. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see http://authors.elsevier.com/locate/artwork.

Copyright Transfer
Upon acceptance of an article, you will be asked to transfer copyright (for more information on copyright see http://authors.elsevier.com/locate/authorsrights. This transfer will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included in the submission, 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's Rights Department, Philadelphia, PA, USA: phone (+1) 215 238 7869, fax (+1) 215 238 2239, e-mail healthpermissions@elsevier.com.

Requests for materials from other Elsevier publications may also be completed on-line via the Elsevier homepage http://www.elsevier.com/locate/permissions

Proofs
Proofs will be sent by email and the corresponding author will be asked to return them within 24 hours of receipt, preferably by email. If an author does not have an email address, the proofs will be sent by post. The publication time offered for manuscripts submitted to the journal is subject to the author proofs being returned in the time requested and the date of publication of the next scheduled issue. The publisher reserves the right to charge authors the cost of changes made to text or figures at proof stage when such changes are extensive. No charge will, of course, be made for correction of errors made during the editorial process or by the printer.

Offprints
Authors submitting a manuscript do so on the understanding that the contribution is to this journal only. If it is accepted for publication, exclusive copyright in the paper and illustration shall be assigned to the European Paediatric Neurology Society. The publisher will supply 25 offprints of each paper. Further offprints may be ordered at extra cost using forms supplied with the proofs.