Instructions to Authors

Scope

The Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology is the official journal of the American Association of Neuropathologists, Inc. (AANP). The journal publishes peer-reviewed studies on neuropathology and experimental neuroscience, book reviews, letters, and Association news, covering a broad spectrum of fields in basic neuroscience with an emphasis on human neurological diseases. It is written by and for neuropathologists, neurologists, neurosurgeons, pathologists, psychiatrists, and basic neuroscientists from around the world. Publication has been continuous since 1942.

Manuscript Submission

All manuscripts are submitted and reviewed online via the journal's submission site. New authors should create an account prior to submitting a manuscript for consideration. Questions about submitting to the journal should be sent to the Editorial Office at [email protected].

How to Increase Your Article's Impact and Exposure

JNEN Author Resource Guide

Manuscript Categories

Original Articles
A submitted manuscript must be an original contribution not previously published (except as an abstract or preliminary report), must not be under consideration for publication elsewhere, and, if accepted, must not be published elsewhere in similar form, in any language, without the consent of the JNEN. Each person listed as an author is expected to have participated in the study to a significant extent. Although the editors and referees make every effort to ensure the validity of published manuscripts and accuracy of citations, the final responsibility rests with the authors, not with the Journal, its editors, or the publisher.

Review Articles
Reviews should provide a comprehensive and scholarly account of a topic that has direct relevance to readers of the JNEN and that has not recently been covered in the literature. Normally these are authored by individuals who have themselves made a significant contribution to the original literature on the topic under review and are acknowledged authorities in the field. Meta-analyses and systematic reviews of the literature are not considered either as original articles or reviews. A pre-submission inquiry to the JNEN Editorial Office is required for Reviews. An abstract, outline and key references should be sent to the Editorial Office ([email protected]).

Editorials
Unsolicited editorials are not accepted.

Book Reviews
The Editor-in-Chief assigns Book Reviews.

Letters to the Editor / Brief Reports
Brief manuscripts, (e.g. a report of a single novel or unique case), should be submitted as a Letter to Editor with an upper limit of five double-spaced text pages. The letter should not include distinct sections such as an Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results or Discussion. Figures, tables, and references (up to 15), if included, must fit within these constraints. A maximum of either two figures or one figure and one table may be included. Supplementary data files should not be included. Only reports deemed to be of high scientific value and potential widespread interest to the JNEN readership will be considered for publication. Letters may also be submitted to comment on articles published in the Journal or on specific aspects of neuropathology following these guidelines.

Errata and Corrigenda
Any significant error will be corrected and an erratum published online and in the print publication. Please inform the Editorial Office as soon as you identify the error and provide details of the paper including authorship, title and manuscript number.

Preparation of Manuscript

Language editing, if your first language is not English, to ensure that the academic content of your paper is fully understood by journal editors and reviewers is optional. Language editing does not guarantee that your manuscript will be accepted for publication. Further information on this service. Several specialist language editing companies offer similar services and you can also use any of these. Authors are liable for all costs associated with such services.

Format and Style Guidelines

Manuscripts that do not adhere to the following instructions will be returned to the corresponding author for technical revision before undergoing peer review.

Title page

Include on the title page (a) complete manuscript title (running head title no longer than 50 characters, including letters and spaces); (b) authors' full names, highest academic degrees, and affiliations; (c) name and address for one author who will be responsible for correspondence, including e-mail address; (d) all sources of support, including pharmaceutical and industry support, that require acknowledgment; and (e) declaration of any conflict of interest(s). Written justification of the role of each author is required. The title page must also include disclosure of funding received for this work from any of the following organizations: National Institutes of Health (NIH); Wellcome Trust; Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI); and other(s).

Unstructured abstract and key words

In a single paragraph (200 words or less), state the purpose, findings, and conclusions of the work. The abstract must be factual and comprehensive. Limit the use of abbreviations and acronyms, and avoid general statements (e.g. "the significance of the results is discussed"). List a maximum of seven key words or phrases.

Text

Organize the manuscript into four main headings: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion.

Style

Pattern manuscript style after the American Medical Association Manual of Style (11th edition) and Stedman's Medical Dictionary (27th edition), and use Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (11th edition) to style the references. Refer to drugs and therapeutic agents by their accepted generic or chemical names, and do not abbreviate them. Use code numbers only when a generic name is not yet available. In that case, supply the chemical name and a figure giving the chemical structure of the drug is required. Capitalize copyright or trade names of drugs and place in parentheses after the name of the drug. Provide in parentheses the names and locations (city and state in USA; city and country outside USA) of manufacturers of drugs, supplies, or equipment cited in a manuscript as they are required to comply with trademark law. Express units of measure in the metric system, and temperatures in degrees Celsius. Write conventional units as SI units, as appropriate.

Acknowledgments

List only persons who have made substantive contributions. Acknowledge material from other publications and submit written permission from the owner of the copyright to reprint any portion or figure with the manuscript.

Crossref Funding Data Registry

In order to meet your funding requirements authors are required to name their funding sources, or state if there are none, during the submission process. For further information on this process or to find out more about CHORUS, visit the CHORUS initiative.

Abbreviations

Define abbreviations at first mention in text and in each table and figure legend. For a list of standard abbreviations, consult the Council of Biology Editors Style Guide (available from the Council of Science Editors, 9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20814) or other standard sources. Write out the full term for each abbreviation at its first use unless it is a standard unit of measure.

References

The authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references. Key the references (double-spaced) at the end of the manuscript. Cite the references in text in the order of appearance. Give text citation by number in parentheses. Avoid claims of priority and allusions to uncompleted work. State new hypotheses if warranted, but clearly label them as such. Do not cite a submitted manuscript until it has been officially accepted. A work that has been accepted for publication but not yet published may be cited as a reference “in press.” If there are more than three authors, name only the first three authors and then use et al. Refer to the List of Journals Indexed in Index Medicus for abbreviations of journal names, or access the list. References that do not conform to the Journal's formatting requirements may be returned to the author. Sample references are given below:

Journal article

1. Rand NS, Dawson JM, Julio SF, et al. In vivo macrophage recruitment by murine intervertebral disc cells. J Spinal Disord 2001;14:339--42

Book chapter

2. Todd VR. Visual information analysis: Frame of reference for visual perception. In: Kramer P, Hinojosa J, eds. Frames of Reference for Pediatric Occupational Therapy. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 1999:205–56

Entire book

3. Kellman RM, Marentette LJ. Atlas of Craniomaxillofacial Fixation. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 1999

Paper in conference proceedings or abstracts

4. Moossy J. Anatomy and pathology of the vertebrobasilar system. In: Berguer R, Bauer RB, eds. Vertebrobasilar arterial occlusive disease. Medical and surgical management. Papers from the First International Conference on Vertebrobasilar Occlusive Vascular Disease, held in Detroit, MI, November 8 & 9, 1982. Raven Press, 1984:1--13

Abstract

5. Sung JH, Manivel JC. Macrophages in ischemic infarcts of human brain. (Abstract) J Neuropathol Exp Neurol 1989;48:342

Software

6. Epi Info [computer program]. Version 6. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 1994

Online journals

7. Friedman SA. Preeclampsia: A review of the role of prostaglandins. Obstet Gynecol [serial online]. January 1988;71:22-37. Available from: BRS Information Technologies, Accessed December 15, 1990

Database

8. CANCERNET-PDQ [database online]. National Cancer Institute; 1996. Updated March 29, 1996

World Wide Web

9. Gostin LO. Drug use and HIV/AIDS [JAMA HIV/AIDS Web site]. June 1, 1996. Available at: http://www.ama-assn.org/special/hiv/ethics. Accessed June 26, 1997

Gene Nomenclature

Authors should use approved gene nomenclature where this is available. Authors proposing a new gene nomenclature should contact the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee.

For human genes, please use symbols approved by the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC). HGNC nomenclature can be queried. The species listed below all have gene nomenclature committees. Please use the nomenclature they have approved by searching for gene symbols at the following links:

Mouse 
Rat
Gene symbols and names in all other mammals (and usually all vertebrates) should follow the same nomenclature as the human gene. 

It can be difficult for readers to determine whether authors are referring to a gene or its corresponding protein, therefore it is important to use accepted conventions for gene and protein symbols. Symbols for genes should be italicized (IGF1), whereas symbols for proteins are not italicized (IGF1). Gene names that are written out in full are not italicized (insulin-like growth factor 1).

Tables

Create tables using the table creating and editing feature of your word processing software. Do not use Excel or comparable spreadsheet programs. The entire table should be in editable Word format, i.e., do not paste a spreadsheet or picture into a Word document. Each table should be in a separate file and include the table title, appropriate column heads, and an explanatory legend. Define all symbols and abbreviations used. Identify statistical measures of variations such as SD and SEM. Omit internal horizontal and vertical lines. Do not embed tables within the body of the manuscript.

Figures

Figures must be submitted in digital format. Please supply line artwork (vector graphics) in Adobe Illustrator Artwork (AI), Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) or Tagged Image Format (TIFF) format, 1200 dots per inch (dpi), and bitmap files (halftone or photographic images) in TIFF format, 300 dpi for halftones and color; 600 dpi for combinations. Do not send native file formats.

All illustrations should be able to be reduced to 50–66% of their original size with no loss of clarity or legibility. Figures should be numbered consecutively as they appear in the text. Supply legends for all figures. They should be brief and specific, and appear on a separate manuscript page after the references. If a figure has been previously published, permission must be received in writing for its use regardless of authorship or publisher. Acknowledgment of the original source must be included at the end of the legend.

Upload figures consecutively to the Editorial Manager web site and enter figure numbers consecutively in the Description field when uploading the files. NOTE: Reviewers cannot view original files, only the PDF created by the online system. Therefore, make sure all figures and tables (including Supplementary Data) are correctly transposed to the PDF before final submission. Contact the Managing Editor if you encounter problems.

For useful information on preparing your figures for publication, visit OUP's Author Resource Centre on Figures.

Figure accessibility and alt text

Incorporating alt text (alternative text) when submitting your paper helps to foster inclusivity and accessibility. Good alt text ensures that individuals with visual impairments or those using screen readers can comprehend the content and context of your figures. The aim of alt text is to provide concise and informative descriptions of your figure so that all readers have access to the same level of information and understanding, and that all can engage with and benefit from the visual elements integral to scholarly content. Including alt text demonstrates a commitment to accessibility and enhances the overall impact and reach of your work.  

Alt text is applicable to all images, figures, illustrations, and photographs. 

Alt text is only accessible via e-reader and so it won’t appear as part of the typeset article. 

Detailed guidance on how to draft and submit alt text. 

Supplementary Data

Submit all material to be considered as Supplementary Data online at the same time as the main manuscript. Ensure that it is referred to in the manuscript at an appropriate point in the text. Supplementary data will be available online only and will not be copyedited, so ensure that it is clearly and succinctly presented, and that the style conforms to the rest of the paper. Each supplemental figure should have the legend incorporated in the figure file, not the main text. Also ensure that the presentation will work on any Internet browser. It is not recommended for the files to be more than 2 MB each, although exceptions can be made at the Editorial Office's discretion. For those wishing to use Dryad, please use the following text under the heading Supplementary Material when linking to data hosted on Dryad in the article: Data available from the Dryad Digital Repository: http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.[NNNN].

Availability of Data and Materials

Where ethically feasible, the Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology strongly encourages authors to make all data and software code on which the conclusions of the paper rely available to readers. We suggest that data be presented in the main manuscript or additional supporting files, or deposited in a public repository whenever possible. For information on general repositories for all data types, and a list of recommended repositories by subject area, please see Choosing where to archive your data.

Data Citation

The Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology supports the Force 11 Data Citation Principles and requires that all publicly available datasets be fully referenced in the reference list with an accession number or unique identifier such as a digital object identifier (DOI). Data citations should include the minimum information recommended by DataCite:

• [dataset]* Authors, Year, Title, Publisher (repository or archive name), Identifier

*The inclusion of the [dataset] tag at the beginning of the citation helps us to correctly identify and tag the citation. This tag will be removed from the citation published in the reference list.

Preprint Policy

Authors retain the right to make an Author’s Original Version (preprint) available through various channels, and this does not prevent submission to the journal. For further information see our Online Licensing, Copyright and Permissions policies. If accepted, the authors are required to update the status of any preprint, including your published paper’s DOI, as described on our Author Self-Archiving policy page.

Peer Review Process

Each manuscript is reviewed by at least two referees invited by the Editor or Associate Editors. In the cover letter of submission, authors may suggest the names (include addresses, phone, and fax numbers) of three potential referees. Authors may also request that certain persons not be used as referees. The Editor-in-Chief will try to honor these requests. The cover letter should contain a statement that all authors have seen and approved the manuscript. Any conflict of interest of any of the authors should also be disclosed. When necessary, the authors should state that they have adhered to the standards of their institution's committee on human subject experimentation, or the National Research Council's Guide for the care and use of laboratory animals. All portions of a manuscript may be edited at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief. If a manuscript is returned for revision, the revised manuscript must be returned to the Editorial Office within two (2) months of the date it was returned to the authors; otherwise, it will be treated as a new submission. Authors should contact the Editorial Office regarding any delays.

For information on the journal's review process or a manuscript's progress, please contact the Managing Editor at [email protected].

Page Charges

Page charges will be waived for articles with authors who have paid their dues as Active Members of the American Association of Neuropathologists (AANP) at the time of submission of their article to the JNEN. Authors who are Active AANP members should be designated in the cover letter at the time of the manuscript submission. If the Active Member is not the corresponding author, the Active Member's email address should also be provided in the cover letter. Authors of original articles accepted for publication but not Active Members of the AANP will be charged $100 per page. Authors of invited review articles and autobiographies are exempt from any page charges.

Copyright & Permissions

It is a condition of publication that authors assign exclusive copyright to the American Association of Neuropathologists, Inc. In assigning copyright, authors may use their own material in other publications, provided that JNEN is acknowledged as the original place of publication, and both the Editor and Oxford University Press are notified in writing and in advance.

Third-party copyright
In order to reproduce any third party material, including tables, figures, or images, in an article authors must obtain permission from the copyright holder and be compliant with any requirements the copyright holder may have pertaining to this reuse. When seeking to reproduce any kind of third party material authors should request the following:

• non-exclusive rights to reproduce the material in the specified article and journal;
• print and electronic rights, preferably for use in any form or medium;
• the right to use the material for the life of the work; and
• world-wide English-language rights.

Permissions
Authors may use their own figures in other publications provided that the original paper in JNEN is cited. It is particularly important to clear permission for use in both the print and online versions of the journal. We are not able to accept permissions which carry a time limit because we retain journal articles as part of our online journal archive.

Further guidelines on clearing permissions.

Self-archiving policy
For information about this journal's policy, please visit our Author Self-Archiving policy page.

Ethical Guidelines

Authors should observe high standards with respect to publication ethics as set out by the Commission on Publication Ethics (COPE). Falsification or fabrication of data, plagiarism, including duplicate publication of the authors' own work without proper citation, and misappropriation of the work are all unacceptable practices. Any cases of ethical misconduct are treated very seriously and will be dealt with in accordance with the COPE guidelines.

Conflict of interest: Oxford University Press requires declaration of any conflict of interest upon submission online. If the manuscript is published, conflict of interest information will be communicated in a statement in the published paper. Authors must disclose all financial support, including “ghost” writing (ghost authorship is not allowed; all authors substantially contributing to the writing must be mentioned as authors on the title page), and any other sources of potential bias or conflict of interest (e.g., expert testimony, device or process ownership or financial interest, pharmaceutical stock ownership, consultancy, advisory board membership, relevant patents, or research funding, etc.). Disclosure/Conflict of interest information must be included after the Corresponding Author contact information on the title page in bold. The name of each contributing author and any potential conflict of interest for each author for the previous 2 years should be listed.

Examples:

• Potential conflicts of interest. S.A. and K.H. are shareholders in Loke Diagnostics (Aarhus, Denmark).
• Potential conflicts of interest. The author has served as consultant to and has received research grants from all of the manufacturers of the lipid formulations of amphotericin.
• Potential conflicts of interest. E.H.P. has been a consultant to Fujisawa Healthcare, Inc., Gilead Sciences, Novartis, and GlaxoSmithKline and is a member of the speakers' bureaus for Pharmacia and Novartis. J.A.S. has received research funding from Bayer and Pharmacia, has been a consultant for Bayer and Pfizer, and has been on the speakers' bureau for Pfizer and Ortho McNeil.

If no potential conflict exists, the phrase "No conflict" should appear after the author's name. If the article is accepted for publication, the disclosures will be published on the article opening page.

Animal experiments: For reporting experiments involving animals, the Materials and Methods section should state whether the institution's, or a national research council's guide for, or any national law on the care and use of laboratory animals was followed. (See International Committee of Medical Journal Editors [ICMJE]. Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals.)

Human subjects: When reporting on human subjects, the Methods section should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional or regional) and with the Helsinki Declaration (1964, amended most recently in 2008) of the World Medical Association. The name of the authorizing body should be stated in the paper. The Methods section should include a statement that the patient's written consent was obtained and any information, including illustrations, should be as anonymized as far as possible. Patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers should not be used in the text or in illustrative material.

Statement of informed consent: Patients have a right to privacy that should not be infringed without informed consent. Identifying information, including patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that a patient who is identifiable be shown the manuscript to be published. Authors should identify individuals who provide writing assistance and disclose the funding source for this assistance. Identifying details should be omitted if they are not essential. Complete anonymity is difficult to achieve, however, and informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt. For example, masking the eye region in photographs of patients is inadequate protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning and editors should so note.

Neither symbolic figures such as Camille Noûs nor natural language processing tools driven by artificial intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT qualify as authors, and OUP will screen for them in author lists. The use of AI (for example, to help generate content, write code, or analyze data) must be disclosed both in cover letters to editors and in the Methods or Acknowledgements section of manuscripts.

For more information on publishing ethics and for OUP's Statement on Publication Ethics please visit this page.

Open Access

JNEN offers the option of publishing under either a standard licence or an open access licence. Please note that some funders require open access publication as a condition of funding. If you are unsure whether you are required to publish open access, please do clarify any such requirements with your funder or institution.

Should you wish to publish your article open access, you should select your choice of open access licence in our online system after your article has been accepted for publication. You will need to pay an open access charge to publish under an open access licence.

Details of the open access licences and open access charges. 

OUP has a growing number of Read and Publish agreements with institutions and consortia which provide funding for open access publishing. This means authors from participating institutions can publish open access, and the institution may pay the charge. Find out if your institution is participating.

Please note that you may be eligible for a discount to the open access charge based on society membership. Authors may be asked to prove eligibility for the member discount.

Advance Access

Please see Advance Access for a list of recently published papers. Advance Access enables us to publish accepted papers online soon after they have been proofed.
New papers are put into Advance Access at regular intervals and are then taken off the page once they have been paginated, at which point the issue into which they are incorporated will be posted online. Abstracts and titles are searchable and accessible within the journal's web pages, the archive and PubMed. Appearance in Advance Access constitutes publication. The official publication date appears beneath the title of each manuscript article just before its digital object identifier (DOI).

Free link to online article

On publication of your article, you will receive a URL, giving you access to the published article on the Journal website, and information on use of this link.