Journal of Neurochemistry

Experiments should be carried out in accordance with the Guidelines laid down by the relevant National Agency. An according statement needs to be included into the methods (see here). Editors reserve the right to reject papers if there is doubt whether appropriate procedures were followed.

(b) The Chief Editors of JNC expect corresponding authors to refer to the ‘ARRIVE’ guidelines for reporting research (www.nc3rs.org.uk/ARRIVE) before submission of a manuscript. While the guidelines refer to animal experiments, most of the elements are common to all forms of research communication and adherence will strengthen the transparency and completeness of reporting.

(c)  Journal of Neurochemistry uses iThenticate plagiarism software as part of the editorial process for manuscripts approaching acceptance. The software identifies matching text in different documents, which can highlight possible cases of plagiarism for the editorial office to investigate further. By submitting their manuscript to this journal authors accept that their manuscript may be screened for plagiarism against their own and others’ previously published works.

(d) The corresponding author takes responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole, from inception to published article. It is assumed that all authors have seen and approved the submission.

4.2 Authorship

Authorship on a manuscript submitted to Journal of Neurochemistry should be based on the following criteria defined by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors:

1) substantial contribution to conception and design, data acquisition, analysis or interpretation;

2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and

3) final approval of the version to be published.

If not all criteria are met, contributors should be listed with their respective contribution in the Acknowledgments instead.

4.3 Ethical violations: Definitions and sanctions

Any (suspected) ethical violation, error or mistake - as per the definitions below - reported for a manuscript submitted to or published in Journal of Neurochemistry will be investigated by the Editorial Board. Depending on the kind and severity of the reported problem, the following measures may be taken:

Retraction: A publication identified as having such significant concerns that the veracity of the described findings are unsafe or in doubt. A paper would only be retracted after consultation/agreement between the Chief Editor/Publication Committee, the authors and the publisher, and usually following formal investigation by the institution where the work was carried out and/or a national body.

Corrigendum: A significant error discovered after publication, and shown with its correction on a separate sheet. A solution usually initiated by the authors, with the approval of the publication committee and the publishers.

Erratum: Listing of a relatively minor error in a published work by tacit agreement between the authors, the publication committee, and the publishers.

(i) Data fabrication or plagiarism of data from others

For any work submitted to or already accepted in Journal of Neurochemistry for publication, fabricating or plagiarizing data from others will carry a ban on future submissions for up to the maximum of 8 years.

(ii) Duplicate publication and self-plagiarism

In the case of discernible duplicate publication/self-plagiarism the earliest version will stand as the publication of record and the editors of later versions will be responsible for applying sanctions against authors (below). In the case of duplicate submission/self-plagiarism the editors will not proceed with manuscript review, will inform each other, and apply appropriate sanctions:

Duplicate submission will carry a ban on future submissions for up to 2 years. Self-plagiarism of text, undisclosed conflict or ethical issues will carry anything from a reprimand up to a 2 year ban on submission.

For any work already accepted for publication in Journal of Neurochemistry, a ban on future submissions for up to the maximum of 8 years will be imposed.

5. New scientific/technological developments

Publication of descriptions of new recombinant nucleic acid or monoclonal antibody preparations will be on the understanding that the authors are willing to supply samples of such materials in response to reasonable scientific requests.

II. MANUSCRIPT REQUIREMENTS

1. Length restrictions

(a) Original Article manuscripts that are judged to be longer than 10 journal pages (including figures and tables) will be returned to the authors for shortening without review, unless valid justification is provided. 10 journal pages is equivalent to 10,000 words which must however be reduced proportionately to allow for figures and tables (which on average fill half a page/equal 500 words each). Ancillary data should be published online only as supporting information.

(b) Short Communications are limited to 4 printed pages including a maximum of 4 figures and/or tables. There will be no supplemental material. Otherwise, they should follow the same style guideline as described in the following.

(c) Manuscripts should not be numbered in series, but subtitles are acceptable.

2. Layout

Manuscripts should be 1.5 to double-spaced throughout and with margins at least 2.5 cm wide. Pages should be numbered in succession, the title page being page 1. They should contain the following sections:

(a) Title page

The title page includes title, authors names, author affiliations, laboratory of origin, address, telephone and fax numbers, and must include the email address of the person to whom proofs and reprint requests should be addressed, and any necessary footnotes, including one defining abbreviations used in the text (see section III.6).

(b) Abstract

The abstract should not exceed 200 words. Only the abbreviations allowed without definition (see section III.6) may be used in the abstract. Authors should also provide up to 6 keywords, and a running title not exceeding 45 characters in length.

Authors shall pay particular attention to the title and abstract of their manuscript to optimize these for A&I keyword searches, see http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/seo.asp; Editors reserve the right to suggest modification. The title should be concise, appealing to readers and reflect the most important or novel aspect of the manuscript. The abstract should clearly state the objectives of the described study.

(c) Introduction

Exhaustive reviews of the literature should be avoided. The introduction should clearly state the objectives of the described study.

(d) Methods (go back to Ethical Considerations)

All studies using human or animal subjects should include an explicit statement identifying the Institution or Review Committee which approved the study. The Materials and Methods section must briefly but explicitly state measures which were taken to minimize pain or discomfort. 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, and that the study conforms with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki), printed in the British Medical Journal (18 July 1964). Authors should make a statement in the Methods section that the ARRIVE guidelines have been followed. Special chemicals etc. with their sources should be grouped under a separate subheading Materials. Procedures should be given in sufficient detail to permit the repetition of the work by others. Published procedures should be summarized and must be referenced, but should not described in detail unless they have been substantially modified. If the procedures used are described in detail in articles that are in press, copies of such unpublished articles must accompany the submitted manuscript. Methods should contain a discrete section for statistics as well as a description of how subjects were allocated to groups/how trials were randomized/blinded if applicable.

(e) Results

The findings should be described without discussion of their significance. Experimental conclusions should normally be based on an adequate number of observations with statistical analysis of variance and the significance of differences. For figure and table requirements see section II, 4.Please see also section III for further information. Data should be presented as clearly defined mean values with some measure of their dispersion (e.g. standard deviation or standard error, and range) and an indication, with appropriate symbols, of the statistical significance of differences from control values (e.g. *p<).

(f) Discussion: The significance of the findings should be assessed in relation to the status of the field.

(g) Acknowledgements/ Conflicts of interest disclosure

Journal of Neurochemistry requires that all authors disclose any potential sources of conflict of interest.  Any interest or relationship, financial or otherwise, that might be perceived as influencing an author’s objectivity is considered a potential source of conflict of interest. These must be disclosed when directly relevant or indirectly related to the work that the authors describe in their manuscript. Potential sources of conflict of interest include but are not limited to patent or stock ownership, membership of a company board of directors, membership of an advisory board or committee for a company, and consultancy for or receipt of speaker’s fees from a company. The existence of a conflict of interest does not preclude publication in this journal. Any conflict of interest needs to be stated in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript.

If the authors have no conflict of interest to declare, they must also state this in the Acknowledgements.

It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to review this policy with all authors and to collectively list in the cover letter to the Editor-in-Chief, in the manuscript (under the Acknowledgment section), and in the online submission system ALL pertinent commercial and other relationships. For further information on what should be declared please also see the BMJ declaration and corresponding BMJ editorial - Beyond conflict of interest (BMJ 1998;317:291 - 2).

(h) References

In the text, cite references by names of authors and year of publication. In the reference section, references should be listed in alphabetical order, except for papers by three or more authors, which should be grouped in chronological order after any other papers by the first author. Names of all co-authors must be given followed by the year of publication, full title of the paper, name of the Journal (see below) and first and last page numbers. The J Neurochem reference style for EndNote® can be downloaded from http://endnote.com/downloads/style/journal-neurochemistry, or from http://authorservices.wiley.com/jendnotes/#j. Journal titles should be abbreviated in accordance with the List of Journals Indexed in Index Medicus (Superintendent of Documents, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402, USA, DHEW Publication No. 95-267).

Examples:

Journal article: Semenova M. M., Maki-Hokkonen A. M., Cao J., Komarovski V., Forsberg K. M., Koistinaho M., Coffey E. T. and Courtney M. J. (2007) Rho mediates calcium-dependent activation of p38alpha and subsequent excitotoxic cell death. Nat. Neurosci. 10, 436-443.

Book chapter: Feenstra M. G. P. (2000) Dopamine and noradrenaline release in the prefrontal cortex in relation to unconditioned and conditioned stress and reward, in Progress in Brain Research, (Uylings H. B. M., Van Eden C. G., De Bruin J. P. C., Feenstra M. G. P. and Pennartz C. M. A., eds), Vol. 126, pp. 133-163. Elsevier Science B. V., Amsterdam.

Book: Paxinos G. and Watson C. (1982) The Rat Brain in Stereotaxic Coordinates. Academic Press, San Diego.

Book in series: Di Chiara G. and Gessa G. L., eds (1981) Advances in Biochemical Psychopharmacology, Vol. 27: Glutamate as a Neurotransmitter. Raven Press, New York.

Unpublished experiments, papers in preparation, etc., may be mentioned only in the text; they must not be included in the list of References.

A paper that has been accepted for publication 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. If reference is made to papers in press (or submitted), such items must be uploaded online and labelled as 'supporting document, for information'.

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, giving name of communicator.

(i) Figure legends should be concise and allow to understand the figure without referring to the text.

3. Supporting information

Supporting information is peer-reviewed material directly relevant to the conclusions of an article that cannot be included in the published version owing to space or format constraints. It is posted on JNC's web site and linked to the article when the article is published and may consist of additional text, figures, tables, multimedia files or datasets. The published article must be complete and self-explanatory without the supplementary information. Supporting information should enhance, but not be essential to, a reader's understanding of the paper. Supporting Information should be cited within the article text, and a descriptive legend should be included. It is published as supplied by the author, and a proof is not made available prior to publication; for these reasons, authors should provide any Supporting Information in the desired final format.

For further information on recommended file types and requirements for submission, please visit: http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/suppinfo.asp

Wherever possible authors should ensure that multiple instances and formats of supporting information (tables, figures and appendices) are contained within one, single submitted document (PDF file wherever possible). Supporting information such as video clips can be made available in the online Journal, and can be submitted online with RTF manuscripts [complete instructions can be found in the author center of the journal's ScholarOne site and here].

4. Figures and Tables

Figures and Tables should be constructed so that they, together with their captions and legends, will be intelligible with minimal reference to the text. Use the table function of a word processor rather than tabs and spaces.

Only in exceptional cases may the same data be published in a Table and a Figure.

Figures and figure legends

(a) Each Figure must be accompanied by an explanatory but concise legend listed at the end of the manuscript before the figures. Authors should explain all symbols used in the figure sheet for each legend. Follow the instructions for submitting figures with RTF manuscripts. Tags should be inserted to indicate where each figure is to be placed in the manuscript. Color artwork in JNC is published free of charge to the author, both online and in print.

 (b) The Publisher guarantees to reproduce electron micrographs to the satisfaction of the author. Figures should normally be about twice the final size; in no case should the dimensions exceed 20 x 30 cm. All lettering should be large enough to be legible when reduced to single-column size. Authors are requested to use scale bars on micrographs.

(c) Data may be presented in bar graphs where appropriate. However, three-dimensional presentation is acceptable only for data with three variants.

(d) Figures must be planned so as to avoid wasted white space. It is not necessary for the scale on a coordinate to start at 0.

(e) When a manuscript has been accepted or when a revision is requested, you will be asked to upload high-resolution figures to ScholarOne Manuscripts. It is encouraged to upload text and figures in the final requested format also for initial submission. Vector graphics (e.g. line artwork) may be uploaded in Encapsulated Postscript Format (EPS), PDF, or Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) with at least 300 dpi resolution at appropriate size. Vector graphics in metafile (.WMF) or pict (.PCT) format should be embedded within the body of the text file. At this stage, the corresponding author should submit documentation or explanation of any image enhancement used. The editors reserve the right to request submission of original unprocessed data from authors should questions arise about the appropriateness of any image enhancement. Authors are encouraged to suggest images that might be used on the journal cover.

Tables

(f) Each table should be on a separate page. Reference to footnotes should be made with superscript lowercase letters.

(g) Each column of a Table should carry an appropriate heading.

(h) The units of measurement must be indicated clearly in the column headings of a Table or the coordinates of a Figure. If the unit of measurement is the same for all the data in a Table, it may be given in the caption or in a line to be printed immediately below the Table.

5. Copyright Transfer Agreement

If your paper is accepted, the author identified as the formal corresponding author for the paper will receive an email prompting them to login into Author Services; where via the Wiley Author Licensing Service (WALS) they will be able to complete the license agreement on behalf of all authors on the paper.

For authors signing the copyright transfer agreement

If the OnlineOpen option is not selected the corresponding author will be presented with the copyright transfer agreement (CTA) to sign. The terms and conditions of the CTA can be previewed in the samples associated with the Copyright FAQs below:

CTA Terms and Conditions http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/faqs_copyright.asp

6. OnlineOpen / Open Access

OnlineOpen is available to authors of articles who wish to make their article open access. With OnlineOpen the author, their funding agency, or institution pays a fee to ensure that the article is made available to non-subscribers upon publication via Wiley Online Library, as well as deposited in PubMed Central and PMC mirror sites. In addition to publication online via Wiley Online Library, authors of OnlineOpen articles are permitted to post the final, published PDF of their article on a website, institutional repository, or other free public server, immediately on publication.

If you want your article to be open access please choose the appropriate licence agreement when you log in to Wiley’s Author Services system. Click on ‘Make my article OnlineOpen’ and choose the appropriate license by clicking on ‘Sign license agreement now’ when you log in to Wiley’s Author Services system.

For authors choosing OnlineOpen

 If the OnlineOpen option is selected the corresponding author will have a choice of the following Creative Commons License Open Access Agreements (OAA):

Creative Commons Attribution License OAA
Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License OAA
Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial -NoDerivs License OAA

To preview the terms and conditions of these open access agreements please visit the Copyright FAQs hosted on Wiley Author Services http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/faqs_copyright.asp and visit http://www.wileyopenaccess.com/details/content/12f25db4c87/Copyright--License.html.

If you select the OnlineOpen option and your research is funded by The Wellcome Trust and members of the Research Councils UK (RCUK) you will be given the opportunity to publish your article under a CC-BY license supporting you in complying with Wellcome Trust and Research Councils UK requirements. For more information on this policy and the Journal’s compliant self-archiving policy please visit: http://www.wiley.com/go/funderstatement.

III. MISCELLANEOUS

1. Footnotes

Footnotes to the text should be used sparingly, should be indicated by superscript numbers, and typed with corresponding numbers on a separate sheet.

2. Drug names

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.

3. Enzymes

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 shall be used, e.g. full name: Acetyl-CoA, choline O-acetyltransferase (EC 2.3.1.6), trivial name: choline acetyltransferase not choline acetylase. For this information the author should refer to Enzyme Nomenclature (1992), Academic Press, San Diego and London. (Units of enzyme activity should be defined in terms of the rate of the reaction catalyzed under specified conditions.) The official Système Internationale (SI) unit is the katal, i.e. mol of substrate transformed (or product formed)/s. However, it may be expressed in other terms, provided clear definitions are given, e.g. µmol/s or µmol/min.

4. Solutions

Although SI recommends concentrations to be expressed as mol/L rather than M and that % (wt/vol) and % (vol/vol) should be given as g/L and mL/L, respectively, the use of M, % (wt/vol), and % (vol/vol) will be allowed. N is not permitted. Fractional concentrations should be expressed in decimal form.

5. Centrifugation

Centrifugation conditions should be expressed in terms of g and time; not in revolutions per minute.

6. Abbreviations and Symbols

(a) The use of abbreviations should be restricted to the Système Internationale (SI) units, see Biochem. J. (1978) 169, 1-27, and a minimum of other generally accepted terms [see (b)]. Excessive use of abbreviations in the text is discouraged.

(b) The following abbreviations may be used without definition.

(c) Other abbreviations may be used sparingly and defined in a footnote on the title page, as well as at their first mention in text. Recommended forms of abbreviation to be used with definition are as follows:

(d) Abbreviations should not be used in titles and running titles.

7. Nomenclature

Authors should follow the nomenclature recommended by the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (IUPHAR) and the IUPAC-IUB Joint Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature. For references to these rules see Biochemical Nomenclature and Related Documents 2nd edit. (1992), available from Portland Press Ltd., 59 Portland Place, London W1N 3AJ, UK or Portland Press Inc., PO Box 2191, Chapel Hill, NC 27515-2191, USA.

8. Protein Sequences

Protein sequences, which have been determined by direct sequencing of the protein, must be submitted to SWISS-PROT at the EMBL Outstation - The European Bioinformatics Institute. Please note that we do not provide accession numbers, IN ADVANCE, for protein sequences that are the result of translation of nucleic acid sequences. These translations will automatically be forwarded to us from the EMBL nucleotide database and are assigned SWISS-PROT accession numbers on incorporation into TrEMBL.

Results from characterization experiments should also be submitted to SWISS-PROT at the EBI. This can include such information as function, subcellular location, subunit etc.

Contact information: SWISS-PROT Submissions, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SD, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1223 494400; Fax: +44 (0)1223 494472. Email: datasubs@ebi.ac.uk (for sequence admissions) update@ebi.ac.uk (for characterization information) Website: www.ebi.ac.uk

IV. REVISIONS

Authors should provide a point-by-point reply with specific reference to the comments of editors and referees, indicating all changes introduced to the revision. The revised manuscript should clearly show changes (highlighted/marked up version). When submitting a REVISED manuscript, a form is provided online with boxes for comments to the Editor and for referees. These comments MUST be submitted BEFORE the revised manuscript is uploaded [instructions are provided on the online submission site ScholarOne http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jneurochem].

When submitting a revision, please upload separately the text of the manuscript and the figures. Please save vector graphics (e.g. line artwork) in Encapsulated Postscript Format (EPS), and bitmap files (e.g. halftones) in Tagged Image File Format (TIFF). Ideally vector graphics that have been saved in metafile (.WMF) or pict (.PCT) format should be embedded within the body of the text file. See http://authorservices.wiley.com/submit_illust.asp for detailed information on our digital illustration standards.

V. ACCEPTANCE

1. Proofs

All information about the proofs will be sent to the author submitting the paper and corrected proofs must be returned promptly. This will allow correction of typesetters and similar errors. Authors will be sent an email alerting them that proofs are available to download from our secure designated author website. Authors who fail to download the proofs will be sent their proofs via email as an Acrobat PDF (portable document format) file. Therefore, the corresponding author should supply their email address when they submit their manuscript. The email server must be able to accept attachments up to 4 MB in size. Acrobat Reader will be required in order to read this file. This software can be downloaded (free of charge) from the following Web site: http://get.adobe.com/uk/reader/

To assure prompt publication, proofs should be returned not more than 3 working days after receipt. Corrections should be restricted to typesetter errors and completion of in press references.

Substantial alterations to proofs may delay publication and also be charged to authors.

2. Offprints

Free access to the final PDF offprint of your paper will be available via author services only. Authors may therefore sign up for author services if they would like to access their article PDF offprint and enjoy the many other benefits this service offers. Paper offprints may be ordered at prices quoted on the order form, which accompanies proofs, provided that the form is returned with the proofs. The cost is more if the order form arrives too late for the main print run. Offprints are normally dispatched within three weeks of publication of the issue in which the paper appears. The publisher may be contacted if offprints do not arrive. Offprints are sent by surface mail.

3. Digitisation of JNC

Wiley-Blackwell and The International Society for Neurochemistry have digitised the entire run of JNC back to volume one, issue one.The back files, which have been defined as all of those issues published before 1997, will be sold to libraries as part of Wiley-Blackwell's Publishing's Legacy Sales Programme and hosted on the Wiley Online Library.

4. Accepted Articles (“Early Online”)

Journal of Neurochemistry offers Accepted Articles. Accepted Articles have been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but have not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process. Accepted Articles are published online a few days after final acceptance, appear in PDF format only, are given a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), which allows them to be cited and tracked, and are indexed by PubMed. A completed copyright form is required before a manuscript can be processed as an Accepted Article. Graphics are placed at the end of the PDF and may be compressed to reduce download time of the PDF. Once the manuscript has been through the production process (approximately 30 days) the article is removed from the Accepted Articles area and published as normal.

5. Inquiries concerning papers in press

All inquiries concerning the status of manuscripts accepted for publication should be directed to: Production Editors, Journal of Neurochemistry, Wiley-Blackwell, 101 George Street, Edinburgh EH2 3ES, UK (email: jnc@wiley.com)

6. Online production tracking

This is now available for articles through Wiley-Blackwell's Author Services. Author Services enables authors to track their article - once it has been accepted - through the production process to publication online and in print. Authors can check the status of their articles online and choose to receive automated emails at key stages of production. The author will receive an email with a unique link that enables them to register and have their article automatically added to the system. Please ensure that a complete email address is provided when submitting the manuscript. Visit http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/ for more details on online production tracking and for a wealth of resources including FAQs and tips on article preparation, submission and more.

7. NIH-funded authors and Journal of Neurochemistry

The NIH mandates grantees to deposit their peer-reviewed author manuscripts in PubMed Central, to be made publicly available within 12 months of publication. The NIH mandate applies to all articles based on research that has been wholly or partially funded by the NIH and that are accepted for publication on or after April 7, 2008. In order to help authors comply with the NIH mandate, for papers accepted for publication in Journal of Neurochemistry, Wiley-Blackwell will post the accepted manuscript (incorporating all amendments made during peer review, but prior to the publisher's copy-editing and typesetting) of articles by NIH grant-holders to PubMed Central at the point of acceptance by the journal. This version will then be made publicly available in PubMed Central 12 months after publication. Following the deposit Wiley-Blackwell authors will receive further communications from the NIH with respect to the submission. For further information, see here.

If authors wish to make their final published article openly accessible and without a 12 month embargo, they can choose to publish via the OnlineOpen service.

Wellcome and HHMI grantees can find out further information here.