The Journal of cellular and molecular neuroscience

I. General

Neurochemistry International is devoted to the rapid publication of outstanding original articles and timely reviews in neurochemistry. Manuscripts on a broad range of topics will be considered, including molecular and cellular neurochemistry, neuropharmacology and genetic aspects of CNS function, neuroimmunology, metabolism as well as the neurochemistry of neurological and psychiatric disorders of the CNS.


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.

1. Types of communication
(a) Papers reporting original research are considered for publication provided that they describe significant, new and carefully confirmed findings and that adequate experimental details are given. All papers must be prepared according to the instructions given in Section III.
(b) Rapid Communications are those reporting original research and which are considered of such importance that publication is necessary within the shortest possible time. These papers should be between 1000 and 4000 words in length, and will be published within 10 weeks of acceptance. When submitting a manuscript for publication as a rapid communication, authors should include a brief statement justifying the reason for its inclusion in the rapid publication section of the journal.
(c) Short Communications - manuscripts of length up to a maximum of 3,000 words (including figure legends but not references), with no more than 1 figure and 1 table or 2 of either, will be considered for publication. Articles must be written in English, contain original experimental results, and should be complete in all respects. The layout and style should adhere strictly to the instructions given below and, in particular, the literature reference style (no more than 15 references).
(d) Reviews on a specific topic of neurochemistry written at the invitation of the Editors-in-Chief or submitted directly by any author will be considered. These need not only be exhaustive reviews, but can also be shorter articles intended either to draw attention to developments in a specific field for workers in other scientific disciplines, or to bring together observations over a wide area which seem to point 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. Authors should always endeavour to make their reviews understandable to neuroscientists of other disciplines.

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.

Online Submission:

Neurochemistry International manuscripts may be submitted using the journal's online submission and review Web site at http://www.ees.elsevier.com/nci. 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.

2. Submission.


To help ensure that papers are reviewed by the most suitable referees, authors can use their covering letter to provide a list of up to five candidate referees (including names, addresses, fax and e-mail) who do not have conflict of interest in the research being submitted. The Editors reserve the right to choose different referees from the ones suggested.


3. Refereeing. Every manuscript received by the Editors-in-Chief will be refereed by at least two specialists (who may or may not be members of the Editorial Advisory Board). The final decision on the acceptance of a manuscript will lie with the Editors-in-Chief and/or the Associate Editors, who will act on the advice of the referees.

4. Submission of manuscripts to Neurochemistry International will be held to imply that they represent original research not previously published (except in the form of an abstract or preliminary report) and that they are not being considered for publication elsewhere in similar form, in any language, without the consent of the publishers.

5. Authors are encouraged to submit a computer disk containing the final version of the papers along with the final manuscript to the office of the appropriate Editor-in-Chief. Please observe the following criteria:
(a) Send only hard copy (i.e. no disk) when first submitting your paper.
(b) When your paper has been refereed, revised if necessary and accepted, send a disk containing the final version with the final hard copy. Make sure that the disk and the hard copy match exactly.
(c) Specify what software was used, including which release, e.g. WordPerfect 5.1.
(d) Specify what computer was used (either IBM-compatible PC or Apple Macintosh).
(e) Include the text file and separate table and illustration files, if available.
(f) The file should follow the general instructions on style/arrangement and, in particular, the reference style of this journal as given in the Instructions to Authors.
(g) The file should be one and a half or double spaced and should use the wrap-around end of line feature, i.e. no returns at the end of each line. All textual elements should begin flush left; no paragraph indents. Place two returns after every element such as title, headings, paragraphs, figure and table call-outs.
(h) Keep a back-up disk for reference and safety.

6.Offprints: The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with free e-offprints, in the form of 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.
Additional paper offprints can be ordered by the authors. An order form with prices will be sent to the corresponding author.

Copyright:

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to Transfer copyright. This transfer will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. 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 pre-printed forms for use by authors in these cases: contact Elsevier Rights Department, P.O. Box 800, Oxford, OX5 1DX, UK, phone: (+44) 1865 843830, fax: (+44) 1865 853333, e-mail: permissions@elsevier.com. Requests may also be completed online via the Elsevier home page ( http://www.elsevier.com/locate/permissions )

Colour 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.

7. Proofs Proofs will be sent to the author (first-named author if no corresponding author is identified on multi-authored papers) by PDF wherever possible and should be returned within 48 hours of receipt, preferably by e-mail. Corrections should be restricted to typesetting errors; any other amendments made may be charged to the author. Any queries should be answered in full. Elsevier will do everything possible to get your article corrected and published as quickly and accurately as possible, Therefore, it is important that all of your corrections are returned to us in one all-inclusive e-mail or fax. Subsequent additional corrections will not be possible, so please ensure that your first communication is complete. Should you choose to mail your corrections, please return them to: Log-in Department, Elsevier, Stover Court, Bampfylde Street, Exeter, Devon, EX1 2AH, UK.


II. Experimental Procedures

All experiments on human subjects should be conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Manuscripts must be accompanied by a statement that all procedures were carried out with the adequate understanding and written consent of the subjects.

All animal experiments should be carried out in accordance with the U.K. Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act, 1986 and associated guidelines, the European Communities Council Directive of 24 November 1986 (86/609/EEC) or the National Institutes of Health guide for the care and use of Laboratory animals (NIH Publications No. 80-23, revised 1978).

Manuscripts should be accompanied by a statement that all efforts were made to minimize animal suffering, to reduce the number of animals used, and to utilize alternatives to in vivo techniques, if available.

Authors are advised to consult "A fair press for animals" [New Scientist (1992) 1816: 18-30] before preparing their manuscript.

The Editors-in-Chief reserve the right to reject papers if there is doubt whether suitable procedures have been used.

III. Manuscript requirements

1. Form
(a) Manuscripts should be typewritten with one and a half or double spacing throughout and with margins at least 2.5 cm wide. If possible, A4 size (210 x 297 mm) paper should be used. Four copies of each manuscript should be submitted to facilitate reviewing by referees. It is only necessary to send photocopies of diagrams, or rough prints of halftones, with the third and fourth copies.
(b) Each manuscript must have a title page which includes only the title, the authors' names, the laboratory or origin, the name and address of the person to whom proofs should be mailed, including a Fax number and e-mail address where possible, and any necessary footnotes. 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. Original manuscripts and diagrams are discarded 1 month after publication unless the Publisher is requested to return original material to the author. Corrections to the proof should be restricted to printer's errors. Substantial alterations may be charged to the author. Please note that authors are urged to check their proofs carefully before return, since late corrections to any articles cannot be guaranteed for inclusion in the printed journal.
(c) The title should be as short as is consistent with clarity. Papers should not be numbered in series, but sub-titles are accepted.
(d) A running title, not to exceed 56 letters and spaces, should be included on a separate sheet.
(e) Pages should be numbered in succession, the title page being page 1.
(f) Tables and figures should be on separate pages placed at the end of the manuscript. Their desired approximate locations should be indicated in the margin of the text.
(g) Footnotes to the text should be used sparingly; where they must be used their locations should be indicated by superscript numbers, and they should be typed with corresponding numbers on a separate sheet. In Tables, reference to footnotes should be made by the symbols *, †, ‡, §, ||, ¶ in that order.
(h) Greek characters should be clearly identified.
(i) Isotopic specifications should conform to the IUPAC system [Biochem. J. (1975) 145, 1-20].
(j) Drug names should be the official or approved names: trade names or common names may be given in brackets where the drug is rst 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. Concentrations should be given in terms of molarity, e.g. nM or μM, or as unit weight/volume solution, stating whether the weight refers to the salt or the active component of the drug. The molecular weight, inclusive of water of crystallization, should be stated if doses are given as unit weight.
(k) The IUB Enzyme Commission (EC) number must be quoted with the full name of the enzyme when it is first mentioned in the text. Subsequently the accepted trivial name should be used, e.g. Full name: Acetyl-CoA: choline O-acetyl transferase (EC 2.3.1.6.) Trivial name: Choline acetyltransferase not choline acetylase. For this information the author should refer to Enzyme Nomenclature (1973), Elsevier, Amsterdam and the supplement in Biochim. Biophys. Acta (1976) 429, 1-45.

2. Style
(a) Manuscripts should be concisely written in English in a readily understandable style. Technical jargon, 'laboratory slang' or words not denied in dictionaries should not be used. Abbreviations should be avoided unless they conform to the instructions under sub-section 6. They must not be used as a short form for experimental procedures or for concepts.
(b) Redundant words, phrases, and sentences should not be used. For example, the captions of Tables and Figures, with or without paraphrasing, should not be repeated in the text. The Editors reserve the right to revise the wording of manuscripts accepted for publication in Neurochemistry International.
Authors should familiarize themselves with the format and style of recently published papers.

3. Organization
(a) Each paper must begin with a brief Abstract. It should not exceed 300 words. The first paragraph of the abstract should summarize the results obtained, the final paragraph should summarize the major conclusions in such a way that a reader not familiar with the techniques used can see any implications for his area of neuroscience. Abbreviations must not be used in the Abstract.
(b) The remaining text of all papers, however short, should be organized in the following four main sections:
(i) An introductory statement should first 'set the scene' for a non-specialist and then continue with the specific reasons for undertaking the investigation. Exhaustive reviews of the literature should be avoided and no attempt should be made to indicate the results obtained. The heading 'Introduction' should be omitted.
(ii) Experimental procedures. Procedures used should be given in sufficient detail to permit the repetition of the work by others. However, published procedures should only be briefly summarized and only described in detail if they have been substantially modified. Special chemicals, drugs, etc. with their sources of supply should be grouped under a separate subheading Materials.
(iii) Results. In this section findings should be described without discussion of their significance. Sub-sections should be used in order to clarify the expression of the results.
(iv) Discussion. In this section the authors' interpretations of their findings should be accompanied by an assessment of their significance in relation to previous work. Repetition of material given under 'Results' should be avoided. Sub-sections should be used wherever possible and sub-sections dealing with technical or highly specialized matter should be clearly separated from the rest of the text so that they can be printed in small type.

4. Presentation of data in tables or figures
(a) In general, tables and figures should be so constructed that they, together with their captions and legends, will be intelligible with minimal reference to the text.
(b) Each figure must be accompanied by a caption and explanatory legend typed on a separate sheet.
(c) Care should be taken to present data in a precise manner. For example, histograms should not be used when the data can equally well be given in a Table.
(d) Figures:
(i) Each figure must have its number, the authors' names and 'Neurochemistry International' written lightly on the reverse side.
(ii) Line drawings should be on white card or paper. Where possible, illustrations should be submitted in a form suitable for direct reproduction. Delay in publication is inevitable if figures require redrawing. Line drawings should normally be about twice the final size; in no case should the dimensions exceed 20 x 30 cm.
(iii) Symbols on graphs, etc. should be inserted by the author using the following standard characters:
^ • ˘ ˘ [] [] X +


Supplementary material:

Electronic supplementary material is now accepted to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer the author additional possibilities to publish 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. In order to ensure that your submitted material is directly usable, please ensure that data is provided 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 Corporate Website at http://www.elsevier.com/authors.

5. References
(a) In the text, references should be quoted by giving author's name, followed by the year of publication in parentheses. For more than two authors, the name of the first author is given followed by the words 'et al.'.
(b) The reference list should be typed separately at the end of the manuscript in alphabetical order and arranged as follows: author's name and initials, year, title of the article, full journal title, volume, first and last page numbers.
For example:
Betz, H., Becker, C.-M., 1988. The mammalian glycine receptor: biology and structure of a neuronal chloride channel protein. Neurochemistry International 13, 137-146.
References to books should include the author's name and initials, year, title of book, volume, page numbers, publisher and place of publication. Where relevant, the title of a paper within a book, and the editor's names, should be given.
For example:
Baker, P. F., 1972. The sodium pump in animal tissues and its role in the control of cellular metabolism and function. In: Hopkin, L. E. (Ed.) Metabolic Pathways. Vol. 6, Academic Press, New York, pp. 243-268.
(c) Unpublished experiments may be mentioned only in the text; they must not be included in the list of References; initials as well as surnames must be given for authors whose unpublished experiments are quoted.
(d) A paper which has been accepted for publication but which has not appeared may be cited in the References with the abbreviated name of the Journal followed by the words 'In press'. The date of acceptance of each such paper should be indicated when the manuscript is submitted to Neurochemistry International.
(e) Personal communications may only be used when written authorization from the communicator is submitted with the original manuscript: they may only be mentioned in the text.

6. Abbreviations
(a) Symbols for physical units should be restricted to the Système Internationale (S.I.) Units. Examples of commonly used symbols can be found in Biochem J. (1975) 145, 1-20 and more detailed description, in Quantities, Units and Symbols (1971) The Royal Society, London.
(b) The excessive use of abbreviations in the text is strongly discouraged. In particular, awkward and unfamiliar abbreviations and those intended to express concepts or experimental techniques will not be permitted. 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 by placing it in parentheses after the full term, e.g. Acetylcholinesterase (AChE).

7. Chemical and biochemical nomenclature
As far as possible authors should follow the conventions used in The Biochemical Journal. See Biochem J. (1975) 145, 1-20.

Author enquiries: For enquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission where available) please visit this journal's EES page. You can track accepted articles at http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle and set up e-mail alerts to inform you of when an article's status has changed, as well as 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.