The official journal of the Neurosurgical Society of Australasia, the Australian and New Zealand Association of Neurologists, the Australian and New Zealand Society for Neuropathology, the Taiwan Neurosurgical Society, and the Asian/Australian Society of Neurological Surgeons

Instructions to Authors Journal of Clinical Neuroscience. Online Submission of manuscripts

Submission to Journal of Clinical Neuroscience proceeds online. When submitting a manuscript, full instructions for uploading data and files etc. are given on the Elsevier Editorial System (EES) website:


http://ees.elsevier.com/jocn/


You will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the various files. During the submission process, authors need to provide an electronic version of their manuscript and a separate electronic version of their abstract. The author should select a set of classifications from a list, and a category designation for their manuscript (original articles, editorial correspondence, case reports, notices and suggestions for review articles,etc.) 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 done by e-mail.


It is the responsibility of the authors to create the proper files as instructed above for the electronically submitted manuscript. No hardcopy manuscripts or illustrations are to be sent to the Editor unless specifically requested.


A paper is accepted for publication on the understanding that it has not been previously published, except in abstract form, and that it is not simultaneously under consideration by any other journal. A paper must be accompanied by a covering letter signed by all authors. If accepted, the manuscript shall not be published elsewhere in the same form, in either the same or another language, without the consent of the authors and Publisher.


Papers that contain the results of human and/or animal studies will only be accepted for publication if it is made clear that a high standard of ethics was applied in carrying out the investigations. In the case of invasive studies of humans and animals, papers should include a statement that the research protocol was approved by the appropriate local ethics committee.


The Editor reserves the right to make editorial and literary corrections. Any opinions expressed or policies advocated do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the Editor, the Neurosurgical Society of Australasia, or the Publisher.


Copyright In order for us to ensure maximum dissemination and copyright protection of material published in the Journal, copyright must be explicitly transferred from authors(s) to Publisher.
A copy of the copyright transfer agreement will be sent to the principal author, and must be signed by all authors before any paper can be published.

We assure you that no limitation will be put on your personal freedom to use material contained in the paper without requesting permission, provided acknowledgment is made to the Journal as the original source of publication.

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

Preparing manuscripts These instructions are in accordance with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors: Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals.
Br Med J 1991; 302(67-72).


Instructions for typing:


Allow at least 3 cm margin all round. Set your line spacing to double space. Do not justify your text - allow it to run ragged on the right-hand margin. Many word processing packages have the justification mode automatically turned on and this must be turned off. Turn off the automatic hyphenation option. Only use hyphens when they are part of a word. Never use the letter 'I' for the number 1. Never use the letter 'O' for the number 0. Never use the carriage return (enter) at the end of lines within a paragraph. Use the carriage return only at the end of paragraphs or after a heading. Use normal type for headings. Capitalize the first letter of the word only. Headings should be ranged to the left hand margin and not centred. Code your headings on the printout only by labelling them (1) for a major heading or (2) for a minor heading. Do not underline headings. Do not type them in bold or italic, or type a colon or full stop after them. Please use single quotation marks. Only use double quotation marks for quotes within quotes. If your PC has italics, use sparingly. You may underline words if you want to indicate italics and this is not available on your word processor. Always insert a space between a number and a unit, e.g. 5 mm. Do not indent lists. However, if preparing a list within a list, use a tab, not a space to indent the sublist. Bullets, numbers, alphabet characters or dashes may be used but please use rationally and consistently.


Manuscript organization
Case Reports should not exceed 1000 words including references and up to a maximum of three (3) figures.
Clinical Studies should not exceed 4000 words including references.
Laboratory Studies should not exceed 3000 words including references.
Reviews should not exceed 5000 words including references.
Short Communication should not exceed 800 words and a maximum of two (2) figures.
Technical Note should not exceed 2500 words including references.


Papers should be set out as follows, with each section beginning on a separate sheet: title page, abstract, text, acknowledgements, references, tables, captions to illustrations.
Title page:The title page should give the following information: (1) title of the article; (2) initial and name of each author, with highest academic degrees(s); (3) name and address of the department or institution to which the work should be attributed; (4) name, address, telephone/fax number and e-mail address of the author responsible for correspondence and to whom requests for off prints should be sent and (5) sources of support in the form of grants.

Abstracts: This should consist of not more than 150 words summarising the contents of the article. Below the abstract provide 3-7 key words that will assist in cross-indexing the article. Whenever possible use terms from the MeSH list of Index Medicus.


Text: Headings should be appropriate to the nature of the paper. In general those for experimental papers should follow the usual conventions. Other papers can be subdivided as the author desires; the use of headings enhances readability.

Do not use 'he', 'his' etc. where the sex of the person is unknown; say 'the patient' etc. Avoid inelegant alternatives such as 'he/she'. Patients should not be automatically designated as 'she' or doctors as 'he'.


References: Please note that the journal follows the Vancouver reference style. The accuracy of references is the responsibility of the author. References should be entered consecutively by Arabic numerals in parentheses in the text. The reference list should be listed in numerical order on a separate sheet in double or triple spacing. References to journals should include the author's name and initials (list all authors when six or fewer; when seven or more, list only the first three and add et al.), full title of paper, journal's title abbreviated, using Index Medicus abbreviations, year of publication, volume number, first and last page numbers.


For example: Monstein H J, Pedersen K, Haahr P M. Modulation of cholecystokinin (CCK) gene-expression in a human neuroblastoma cell line: effects of serum on enhanced CCK and c-FOS mRNA expression. Neuropeptides 1992; 23:107-13. References to books should be set out as follows: Eadie M J. Drug therapy in neurology. 1st ed. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 1992: 344.


When citing a Churchill Livingstone journal, include the digital object identifier (DOI), if noted, from the article's title page. Please note the following examples:

Nanduri and Zimniak P (1999) Arch Biochem Biophys 362:167-174, doi: 10.1054/abbi.1998.1009

Tables: Tables should be presented in a separate file. Use only one tab (not spaces) to separate each column in a table. Do not worry about the alignment of columns on the screen, but if you wish to lay the table out on the hard copy, set each tab as needed. Each table should be presented on a separate page and should contain only horizontal rules. Do not submit tables as photographs.

Care should be taken to ensure that all units are included.

A short descriptive title should appear above each table and any footnotes, suitably identified, should appear below. Ensure that each table is cited in the text.


Figures:

Figures of good quality should be submitted online as separate files. The lettering should be large enough to permit photographic reduction. The legend should be typed on a page separate from the figure. If there are multiple figures, the legends should be compiled together on one (1) page (or more if necessary).


Please note that it is the responsibility of authors to produce and supply artwork at their own cost. For more information, please refer to the (electronic) artwork instructions http://www.authors.elsevier.com/artwork

Colourful e-Products: 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) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version.


Colour Reproduction Reproduction in colour will have to be approved by the Editor. A limited number of colour figures may be printed in the journal without cost, at the discretion of the Editor, who will make the judgement based on the academic necessity of the colour illustrations. Otherwise 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://authors.elsevier.com/artwork.


Preparation of Supplementary Data (Multimedia Components) Elsevier now accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer the author additional possibilities to publish supporting figures, tables, 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). In order to ensure that your submitted material is directly usable, please ensure the data is provided in one of our recommended file formats. For more detailed instructions please go to http://www.authors.elsevier.com/artwork


Patient confidentiality: Unless you have written permission from the patient (or, where applicable, the next of kin), personal details of patients included in any part of the article and in any supplementary materials (including all ilustrations and videos) must be removed before submission. For further information see http://www.elsevier.com/patientphotographs.

Studies on patients or volunteers require ethics committee approval and informed consent, which should be documented in your paper. If you wish to include images of patients or case details in an Elsevier publication, you will need to adhere to the following requirements:
In order to comply with data protection and privacy rules, each individual who appears in any video, recording, photograph or case report must be made aware in advance of the fact that such photographs are being taken or such video, recording or report is being made and of all of the purposes for which you wish to use them and that individual (or next of kin in the case of children) must give his/her explicit written concent. If such consent is made subject to any conditions (for example, adopting measures to prevent personal identification of the person concerned), Elsevier must be made aware of all such conditions. Written consents must be provided to Elsevier on request.
The author is responsible for obtaining all necessary consents from patients for (i) the performance of any medical procedure involved, as well as (ii) a release permitting our use of the relevant material. It is our insurers' preference that we do not have any direct contractual relationship with the patients themselves.

Permission to reproduce borrowed illustrations or tables or identifiable clinical photographs: Written permission to reproduce borrowed material must be obtained from the original publishers and authors, and submitted with the typescript. Borrowed material should be acknowledged in the captions in this style: 'Reproduced by the kind permission of (publishers) from (reference)'.


Proofs One set of page proofs in PDF format 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). Elsevier now sends PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe Reader version 7 available free from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Instructions on how to annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs.


If you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) and return 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. Therefore, it is important to ensure that all of your corrections are sent back to us in one communication within 48 hours: 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.


Contact details for question arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, are provided when an article is accepted for publication


Proprietary Names Proprietary names of drugs, instruments etc. should be indicated by the use of initial capital letters.


Abbreviations and Units All measurements should be expressed in metric units. For more detailed recommendations, authors may consult Baron DN, Clarke HMcK. Units, Symbols and Abbreviations: A Guide for Medical and Scientific Authors, 6th edition, London, RSM Press, 2008 or USA equivalent.


Offprints The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail. 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.

Author Enquiries For general Author Information and Tracking your Article during the editorial process, please visit www.elsevier.com/authors


Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, are provided after registration of an article for publication.