Neurology®
The Official Journal of the American Academy of Neurology
The mission of Neurology® is to provide neurologists with outstanding peer-reviewed articles, editorials, and reviews to enhance patient care, education, clinical research, and professionalism. Our vision is to be the premier peer-reviewed journal for clinical neurologists. We publish reports of original research, guidelines from the American Academy of Neurology, in-depth reviews of topics in neurology, and articles on a wide range of issues in neurologic practice, education, and professionalism.
Neurology is published weekly and its circulation exceeds 19,000. It is the most widely read and highly cited peer-reviewed neurology journal.
Authorship and Contributorship
Neurology defines an author as a person who has made a substantive intellectual contribution to the submitted manuscript. A substantive contribution includes one or more of the following:
- Design or conceptualization of the study
- OR analysis or interpretation of the data
- OR drafting or revising the manuscript for intellectual content
Professional writers employed by pharmaceutical companies or other academic, governmental, or commercial entities who have drafted or revised the intellectual content of the paper must be included as authors.
It is the responsibility of the authors of a manuscript to designate the corresponding author, determine author order, and decide which persons in the study are authors and which are contributors according to Neurology's criteria.
- Manuscripts submitted for publication must list all Authors, including the person who drafted the original manuscript. The Journal considers ghostwriting (undisclosed authorship) unethical; all authorship needs to be disclosed.
- All those qualifying for authorship must give final approval of the version to be published and take responsibility for the conduct of the research.
- All those qualifying for authorship must indicate their contributions to
the article on the Authorship Agreement form.
- One author, the Principal Investigator or Guarantor, must
have access to all the data and take responsibility for the data, accuracy
of the data analysis, and the conduct of the research.
- One author, the Corresponding Author, must be responsible for all communications with the Journal throughout the review process, including ensuring that all Authors have approved the final submitted version, revised versions before they are submitted, and the final accepted version of the manuscript. The Corresponding Author is also responsible for determining which members in a study attributed to a Group meet criteria for authorship. The Corresponding Author also takes responsibility for listing Co-investigators (who do not qualify for authorship) in a "Co-investigators" Appendix and Contributors (who do not qualify for authorship) in the Acknowledgment Section with their roles and contributions in parentheses. When the study represents the work of a study group, use “on behalf of” or “for” before the name of the study group in the byline unless all members of the group have qualified for authorship as stated above.
- All Authors must complete the Authorship Agreement Form and the Disclosure Agreement Form if the submitted manuscript is invited for revision after peer review. All Authors must also sign Copyright Transfer Agreement forms before a manuscript is accepted for publication. If the Author's employer is the federal government, the Author must indicate this in the appropriate place on the Copyright Transfer Form.
- Multi-center trials attributed to corporate or multiple authors of a Study Group must list all Authors qualifying according to the criteria above in the author byline OR in an "Additional Authors" Appendix along with their disclosure information.
- If the bylined Author list is longer than the Author column on the first page of the published article will accommodate, the authors whose names do not fit will be listed in the "Additional Authors" Appendix. A listing of author disclosures that do not fit in the Disclosure footnote on the first page of the published article will also be included in a Disclaimer section at the end of the article.
- Acting as a Co-investigator or study coordinator for a multi-center study does not constitute authorship. Contributions such as supporting the study, contributing materials or patients, general supervision of study personnel, technical assistance, or collecting data do not constitute authorship.
- "Guest" or "honorary" authorship based solely on position (e.g., research supervisor, department head) is not permitted.
Co-Investigators (Non-Authors) and Contributors (Non-Authors)
Neurology defines a Co-Investigator as a person who does not meet the criteria for authorship of a study, but who acted as a co-investigator or study coordinator for a multi-center trial. Neurology defines a Contributor as a person who does not meet the criteria for authorship of the study, but who has contributed in other ways, such as collection of data; technical assistance; acquisition of funding; supervision of personnel; contribution of drugs, reagents, equipment, or patients; or editing the manuscript for non-intellectual content.
- Co-investigators for multi-center trials who do not meet the criteria for Authorship must be listed in a "Co-investigator Appendix" that includes each person's affiliation and role.
- Contributors who do not meet the criteria for Authorship must be listed in the Acknowledgment section that includes each person's affiliation and contributions.
- Disclosures for Co-investigators and Contributors are not published. Although Co-investigators and Contributors are not required to submit disclosures, the Corresponding Author should be aware of any disclosures that they may have.
- Co-Investigator names are indexed by PubMed; Contributors are listed in the acknowledgment, but not indexed by PubMed.
Changes in Authorship after Submission
Any change in authorship status after submission must be requested by the Corresponding Author in a letter of explanation and approved by the author whose status is being changed and all other authors of the manuscript.
Conflict of Interest and Disclosure
Neurology complies with the position of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors on "Conflict of Interest." Conflict of interest for authors is defined as "financial and other conflicts of interest that might bias their work." In addition, Neurology has adopted the American Academy of Neurology's Conflict of Interest and Disclosure Policy. This policy requires complete disclosure from all authors of all financial relationships or other competing interests that could be perceived as biasing the study whether or not this support was related to the subject of the manuscript. All authors' financial relationships (and those of their "immediate family members") from the past two years must be disclosed regardless of whether these relationships are related to the study described in the submitted manuscript. If the study period of the submitted manuscript exceeded two years, financial relationships relevant to the topic must also be disclosed.
Authorship and Disclosure Agreements
All those qualifying for authorship are required to submit Authorship and Disclosure Agreement Forms after the revision has been submitted. Each author will receive email notification and directions for accessing and completing the forms on the Web site at the appropriate time. The Corresponding Author is responsible for ensuring that all authors complete these agreements. Members of a Group who are Co-investigators or Contributors and do not fulfill the authorship requirements above are not required to fill out these agreements. Click here for a list of all items to be included when filling out the online disclosure forms. Failure to reveal all pertinent information constitutes a fraudulent submission and may cause a published paper to be retracted and the authors to be prohibited from further submission to Neurology. The Corresponding Author must include a section titled "Disclosure" on page 2 of the manuscript and is responsible for ensuring that the disclosures on the page proofs are consistent with those that will be made on the Authorship and Disclosure Agreement forms. If the manuscript is accepted for publication, the disclosures will be published in the Journal as they appear on page 2 of the manuscript.
Items to be included on the disclosure forms
Sample disclosure summary for page 2 of the manuscript
Clear statements of industry-sponsored research and author participation in corporate activities are required for evaluation of a manuscript. For industry-sponsored and all other research, Neurology now requires the Principal Author or Guarantor to declare in the Authorship Agreement Form that the Authors take full responsibility for the data, the analyses and interpretation, and the conduct of the research; that the Author has full access to all of the data; and that the Author has the right to publish any and all data, separate and apart from the guidance of any sponsor. These statements must be made in the cover letter.
Scientific Misconduct and Breach of Publication Ethics
- Scientific misconduct includes fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism by the authors.
- Breaches of editorial policies include failure to reveal financial conflicts of interest; omitting a deserving author or adding a non-contributing author; misrepresenting publication status in the Reference list (erroneously claiming that a paper is "In Press"); self-plagiarism without attribution; and duplicate or redundant publication.
- Redundant or duplicate publication is publication of data, tables, figures, or any other content that substantially overlaps with other material published previously or to be published in the future. This includes work published by others or any author of the manuscript submitted to Neurology. When submitting a paper, the author should make a full statement to the Editor-in-Chief in the cover letter about all submissions and previous reports (in any language) that might be regarded as redundant or duplicate publication of the same or very similar work. The author should alert the Editor-in-Chief if the work includes subjects about which a previous report has been published or about a manuscript that is under review by, submitted to, in press at, or to be submitted to or published in the future by another journal. Any such work should be referred to and referenced in the new paper and a copy of the material should be included with the submission. Abstracts presented at scientific meetings (with no press releases and not discussed in detail at a symposium) and data provided as required to clinical trial registries are not considered pre-published material.
- Plagiarism is the use of others' ideas without properly crediting the source. If authors include one or more sentences verbatim from another source, the original source must be cited and the sentence(s) put in quotation marks to avoid plagiarism.
- Embargo is the
prohibition for copyright reasons from releasing findings in a
submitted or accepted paper to the public until after the article has
been published (either online or in print). Prior to publication, authors may not release information to the press and must ensure that other organizations or institutions have been instructed of this policy. Exceptions to the embargo
policy can be made at the Editor's discretion for papers presented at
the AAN Annual Meetings or in situations in which the article describes
major medical advances deemed critical to public health. Consequences
resulting from violation of the embargo may include retraction of the
accepted paper or loss of privileges of publishing in the Journal in
the future.
Articles appearing in the print version of Neurology are embargoed for release to the public until 4:00 PM, ET, the day before the Tuesday print publication date. If the article’s abstract is chosen to be published in print in advance of the full paper, the information in the abstract along with the full articles are embargoed for release to the public until 4:00 PM, ET, the day before the abstract is published in the print issue. If the full article is chosen to be published online ahead of print, the paper and its findings are embargoed until 4:00 PM, ET, the day of online publication to www.neurology.org (Wednesdays). Credentialed representatives of the press may request further information about embargoed articles, including receiving advance copies of articles and help coordinating interviews with researchers, by contacting the American Academy of Neurology Media and Public Relations Department: Angela Babb, Media and Publications Manager at ababb{at}aan.com. Post-embargo press releases are available at http://www.aan.com/press/press/index.cfm. - Editorial action will be expected in cases of scientific misconduct and breaches of publication ethics. Editorial actions that may be taken include publication of the breach in the Journal, retraction of published articles, notification of institutional authorities, and loss of privileges of publishing in the Journal in the future.
Neurology has an Ombudsman. Appointed by the American Academy of Neurology Board of Directors, this person acts as a mediator between authors and the Editorial Office. The Ombudsman can investigate editorial process: delays in peer review, challenges to publication ethics, and cases of editorial bias. The Ombudsman will address the editorial process and will not handle complaints about the substance of editorial decisions, criticisms regarding editorial content, or accusations of scientific misconduct. The complainant should contact the Editorial Office first to resolve the problem. If the complaint is not resolved by contacting the Editorial Office, the complainant may contact the Ombudsman, Lewis P. Rowland, MD, Neurological Institute, 710 West 168th Street, Columbia University Medical Center, New York NY 10032, Phone: 212-305-8551, e-mail: lpr1{at}columbia.edu.
According to ClinicalTrials.gov, clinical trials "are generally considered to be biomedical or health-related research studies in human beings that follow a pre-defined protocol. ClinicalTrials.gov includes both interventional and observational types of studies. Interventional studies are those in which the research subjects are assigned by the investigator to a treatment or other intervention, and their outcomes are measured. Observational studies are those in which individuals are observed and their outcomes are measured by the investigators."
Authors reporting clinical trials must indicate on the title page of the manuscript the specific author who carried out the biostatistical analysis and the author's academic, governmental, or commercial affiliation.
Data resulting from a non-clinical trial should be cited with mean +/- Standard Deviation or Standard Error (with SD or SE indicated in the text or a table). If a P value is cited, the authors should indicate the statistic (e.g., 2-tailed T test, Chi square test, Fisher test).
In the Results section of the manuscript, the following evidence-based medicine statistics must be included for the manuscript to be forwarded for editorial review:
- Confidence intervals
- Numbers needed to treat
- Absolute risk reduction
Standard Protocol Approvals, Registrations, and Patient Consents
In reporting experiments on human subjects, the authors must indicate in the cover letter and in the Methods that the procedures were approved by an ethical standards committee on human experimentation (institutional or regional). Authors must comply with the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (http://www.icmje.org) with regard to patient consent for research or participation in a study. Do not use patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers anywhere in the manuscript (including figures).
In addition to the standard patient consent for participation in research, authors are responsible for obtaining patient consent-to-disclose forms for all recognizable patients in photographs, videos, or other information that may be published in the Journal, in derivative works by the AAN, or on the Journal’s Web site and providing the manuscript to the recognizable patient for review before submission. The consent-to-disclose form should indicate specific use (publication in the medical literature in print and online, with the understanding that patients and the public will have access) of the patient's information and any images in figures or videos and must contain the patient's signature or that of a legal guardian along with a statement that the patient or legal guardian has been offered the opportunity to review the identifying materials and the accompanying manuscript. Authors must fax or email a copy of the consent-to-disclose form to the Editorial office when the manuscript is submitted. The original should be retained by the guarantor or corresponding author. The consent-to-disclose form accessed from this link is recommended.
- Randomized Controlled Trials. Authors reporting the results of Phase 1, Phase 2, or Phase 3 randomized controlled trials must submit a CONSORT checklist and flow diagram available at: http://www.consort-statement.org/. Authors must also provide a flow diagram as Figure 1 of the submitted manuscript. Authors of uncontrolled, pilot trials are not required to complete the CONSORT checklist or flow diagram.
- Systematic Review or Meta-analysis. Authors reporting systematic review or meta-analysis of randomized trials must submit the QUOROM (recently renamed PRISMA) statement, which is available at: http://www.consort-statement.org. Authors reporting systematic reviews or meta-analysis of observational studies in epidemiology should provide the MOOSE statement, available at: http://www.consort-statement.org.
- Diagnostic Accuracy. Authors reporting studies of the accuracy of diagnostic tests should provide the completed STARD checklist. Authors must also provide a flow diagram as Figure 1 of the submitted manuscript. The STARD checklist is available at: http://www.stard-statement.org.
- Observational Studies. Neurology requires the STROBE checklists for cohort, case-controlled, and cross-sectional studies and all observational studies of human subjects as well as case series, pilot studies, genetic linkage studies, and retrospective data collection studies. If the detailed methods are explicitly stated in the manuscript for single case studies, STROBE is not needed. Please make note on this checklist (http://www.neurology.org/misc/strobechklist.pdf) which page numbers of the manuscript include the requested information.
Checklists can be uploaded as Supplemental/Additional Files or faxed to 651-332-8608.
Registration of Clinical Trials
Neurology requires investigators to register their clinical trials in a public trials registry and to provide the identification of the clinical trial registry and the clinical trial identification number. The National Library of Medicine provides a free registry (http://prsinfo.clinicaltrials.gov/) that meets the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) requirements. Investigators are required to register at or prior to patient enrollment. This policy has been effective for any clinical trial beginning enrollment after July 1, 2005. For further information on definitions and other considerations, access (http://www.icmje.org) Section III.J. Authors must provide the clinical trial identifier number in the Methods section of the submitted article.
The Food and Drug Administration Amendment Acts of 2007 require mandatory results reporting for clinical trials. (See http://prsinfo.clinicaltrials.gov/fdaaa.html.) Neurology, following the ICMJE policy, will not consider results posted in the same clinical trials registry in which the primary registration resides to be previous publication if the results are presented in the form of a brief, structured (<500 words) abstract or table. The authors should alert the Editor in the cover letter at submission that the review of the manuscript should be accelerated if possible.
Effective January 15, 2009, authors submitting Articles to Neurology that report on clinical therapeutic intervention studies (clinical trial or use of medication, procedure, maneuver, or change in patient environment intended to benefit the patient) must state in the Abstract and Methods the primary research question(s) and the classification of level of evidence assigned to each question based on the AAN classification scheme requirements. Authors of Clinical/Scientific Notes that report on clinical therapeutic intervention studies must state the primary research question and level of evidence at the end of the manuscript. Authors will initially assign a level of evidence and the final level will be adjudicated by an independent team prior to publication. For more information, access the following articles and the editorial on the use of classification of levels of evidence published in Neurology:
- French J, Gronseth G. Lost in a jungle of evidence: we need a compass. Neurology 2008;71:1634 –1638.
- Gronseth G, French J. Practice parameters and technology assessments: what they are, what they are not, and why you should care. Neurology 2008;71:1639 –1643.
- Gross RA, Johnston KC. Levels of evidence: taking Neurology® to the next level. Neurology 2008;72:8 –10.
Authors must submit written permission from the copyright owner (usually the publisher) to use direct quotations, tables, or illustrations that have appeared in copyright form elsewhere, along with complete details about the source. Any permissions fees that might be required by the copyright owner are the responsibility of the authors requesting use of the borrowed material, not the responsibility of Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins. To request permissions to use content from Neurology, access the Copyright Clearance Center at www.copyright.com and enter Neurology in the ‘Get Permissions’ field on the upper right of the screen.
Use of Generic and Proprietary Drugs and Devices
At first mention of a drug or device in a manuscript, authors must state the generic name with the proprietary name in parentheses along with the name, city, and state of the manufacturer. In subsequent mentions, the generic name should be used. Clinical/Scientific notes only need to list the generic name unless the paper compares two medications.
- Authors of genetic association studies must consider whether their results are likely to be considered of sufficient power and interest to warrant publication. Neurology follows the guidelines outlined by authorities in the genetics research field (Neurology 2001 57:1153-1154 and Nature Genetics 2005:1217-1223). Calculations of statistical significance must make appropriate corrections for multiple testing. After such correction, the (experiment-wise) significance level must not exceed 0.01 and should preferably be smaller than that limit.
- For standard pedigree symbols and nomenclature, please refer to the established guidelines (Am J Hum Genet 1995 56:745-52). Authors should also follow the mutation nomenclature rules of the Human Genome Variation Society (www.hgvs.org). In addition, authors reporting such sequence variants of a gene should submit it to the gene-specific mutation database before the manuscript is submitted to confirm its accuracy.
- Methodological information such as primer sequences or PCR conditions should be submitted with the main manuscript as Supplemental Data.
- Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium (HWE) values must be calculated and reported in population genetic studies submitted to Neurology.
NIH-Funded Studies and Public Access
For manuscripts accepted by Neurology on or after April 7, 2008: As stated in Neurology's copyright transfer form, Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins (LWW), publisher of Neurology, will submit an electronic version, on behalf of the authors, of the final published article of any study funded by NIH (or in which any of the authors are funded by NIH) to PubMed Central (PMC) for publication 12 months after print or online publication (whichever is first) in Neurology. The authorization is a non-exclusive license only for the purpose stated in the NIH Public Access Policy; Academy Enterprises, Inc. (AEI) reserves all rights not specifically granted in this non-exclusive license. Further information on the NIH Public Access Policy is available at: http://publicaccess.nih.gov/For manuscripts accepted by Neurology prior to April 7, 2008: AEI authorizes NIH-funded investigators to submit an electronic version of their final, accepted manuscript to PubMed Central for publication no earlier than twelve months after print or online publication in Neurology. LWW will not submit these articles to PMC. This authorization is a non-exclusive license only for the purpose stated in the NIH Public Access Policy as it existed before April 7, 2008 (see 70 Federal Register 6899-6900 dated February 9, 2005): AEI reserves all rights not specifically granted in this non-exclusive license.
Specifications for Manuscript Categories (See expanded descriptions following table)
| Manuscript Type | Word Count (excluding abstracts, tables, figure legends, references) | Abstract | References | Total Figures/Tables |
| Scientific Contributions | ||||
| Articles | ≤ 3000 + supplemental material online (additional references and ≤ 3 figures/tables) | ≤ 250 | ≤ 40 | ≤ 5 |
| Articles (Smaller scope studies) | ≤ 1250 | ≤ 250 | ≤ 10 | ≤ 3 |
| Clinical/Scientific Notes | ≤ 750 | None | ≤ 7 | ≤ 1 |
| Correspondence | ≤ 400 | None | ≤ 5 | None |
| NeuroImages, Video NeuroImages | ≤ 100, ≤ 50 in legend | None | ≤ 2 | ≤ 2 |
| Special Categories | ||||
| Views & Reviews | ≤ 3500 | ≤ 250 | ≤ 60 | ≤ 6 |
| Contemporary Issues in Neurologic Practice (Education, Clinical Research, Professionalism) | ≤ 3500 | ≤ 250 | ≤ 40 | ≤ 5 |
| Historical Neurology | ≤ 2000 | ≤ 250 (optional) | ≤ 30 | ≤ 2 |
| Neurology Clinical Pathological Conferences | ≤ 2000 | NA | ≤ 20 | ≤ 4 |
| Other Features | ||||
| Reflections /Humanities | ≤ 2000 | NA | NA | ≤ 1 |
| Teaching NeuroImages (Resident & Fellow Section) | ≤ 100 | None | ≤ 2 | ≤ 2 |
| Resident & Fellow Section | 750-1000 | Optional | ≤ 10 | ≤1 unless approved to show a sequence |
Articles are full-length reports of original research. These include large-scale pivotal trials of new therapies (randomized clinical trials). According to ClinicalTrials.gov, clinical trials "are generally considered to be biomedical or health-related research studies in human beings that follow a pre-defined protocol. ClinicalTrials.gov includes both interventional and observational types of studies. Interventional studies are those in which the research subjects are assigned by the investigator to a treatment or other intervention, and their outcomes are measured. Observational studies are those in which individuals are observed and their outcomes are measured by the investigators." Specifications:
- Maximum of 3000 words (not including abstract, figure legends, table legends, references).This length equals about 15 double-spaced manuscript pages.
- Structured Abstract containing Objectives, Methods, Results, and Conclusions, maximum 250 words.
- Limit of 40 references. The best references should be included rather than duplicative citations for single points. Citations to non-peer reviewed work should be avoided. If additional references are deemed important, they can be published online as supplemental data. Review articles may have up to 60 references.
- Limit of 5 figures and tables total. Up to 3 additional figures or tables can be published online. Tables should not repeat data in the text.
- If a table is longer than two double-spaced manuscript pages (including the legend), it will be published online as supplementary material.
- Figure legends must explain what is represented in the figure rather than repeating results, methods, and conclusions.
- If Methods contain widely available, detailed protocols, appropriate portions may be posted online only at the Editor's discretion.
Articles (Smaller Scope Studies)
Neurology will consider smaller (e.g., 10-50 patients), uncontrolled, nonrandomized, or unblinded clinical trials as Articles. This category includes preliminary observations or pilot studies or presentation of one or a few informative cases. These manuscripts should be uploaded under "Article" in the Neurology tracking system. Editors will make final decisions regarding length of these articles. Specifications:
- Maximum of 1250 words, excluding references
- Structured abstract, maximum of 250 words
- No more than 10 references
- Maximum of 3 tables or figures
Clinical/Scientific Notes are abbreviated reports on cases or preliminary studies. Specifications:
- Maximum of 750 words, excluding references
- No abstract (the title serves as abstract)
- No more than 1 table or figure
- No more than 7 references
Correspondence is restricted to comments about published articles. The goal of this section is to encourage an exchange between the writer and author that further clarifies the published article's methods, results, or conclusions. Correspondence must be submitted within four weeks of the article's publication. Neurology does not consider letters pertaining to published Correspondence. Specifications:
- Maximum of 400 words
- No more than 5 references. Reference 1 should be the article to which the correspondence refers.
- No more than 5 authors listed
- Readers wishing to submit Correspondence should access the online version of the article at www.neurology.org and click on "Correspondence: Submit a Response" in the box on the right-hand side of the opening page. Accepted comments will usually be posted within 21 days of acceptance. Correspondence will be edited for content and clarity. Posted comments will be considered for subsequent print publication in the Correspondence section of Neurology. Note that if Correspondence is chosen for subsequent print publication, the letter writer will not see page proofs. Online-only Correspondence is not indexed by PubMed.
Authors of Correspondence sent to Neurology should keep the following statement from the Uniform Requirements for Medical Journal Editors regarding Correspondence in mind:
"Although editors have the prerogative to sift out correspondence material that is irrelevant, uninteresting, or lacking in cogency, they have a responsibility to allow a range of opinion to be expressed. The correspondence column should not be used merely to promote the journal's or the editors' point of view. In all instances, editors must make an effort to screen out discourteous, inaccurate, or libelous statements, and should not allow ad hominem arguments intended to discredit opinions or findings."
Views & Reviews are either a review or an opinion statement that
provides a summary of the most important recent information on a topic.
If the Review summarizes recommendations for practice, use the word
"Recommendations" in the title rather than "Guidelines." (Guidelines
published in the Journal are created from the American Academy of Neurology's established process.)
Specifications:
- Maximum of 3500 words, excluding references
- Abstract (structured optional), maximum 250 words
- Maximum of 60 references (additional may be added as online supplementary material). They should cite the most important papers in the field. Neurology welcomes inquiries on Views & Reviews content or format and will consider manuscripts proposing a Hypothesis only if written by an acknowledged contributor to the field.
- No more than 6 tables and/or figures
Contemporary Issues of Neurologic Practice
Contemporary Issues of Neurologic Practice are articles related to the contemporary practice of neurology in the United States. Specifications:
- Maximum of 3500 words, excluding references
- Abstract (structured optional), maximum 250 words
- Maximum of 40 references
- No more than 5 figures and/or tables
- Maximum length of 2000 words
- Abstract, maximum length 250 words (structured abstract is optional).
- Maximum of 30 references.
- No more than 2 tables and/or figures.
Neurology Clinical Pathological Conference
Neurology Clinical Pathological Conferences present interesting patient cases, both unusual and common, where neuropathological confirmation is an important element of diagnosis and provides insight for our readership. The submission should be organized into the following headings: Case Presentation, Neurologic Examination, Investigations (including neuroimaging), and Neuropathologic Findings. If the submission is accepted for review, an expert discussant will be selected by the Editor in Chief of Neurology. The expert discussant assesses the case material (excluding pathological findings) blinded to the final diagnosis. A presumptive clinical diagnosis is arrived at by the expert discussant following a detailed discussion of a focused differential diagnosis from the material provided. Submissions are not accepted without diagnostic neuropathological material and will be rejected without review. Neuropathological material may need to be sent for review by our neuropathologist for confirmation. Submitters should review past Neurology Clinical Pathological Conferences for representative cases, style, format, and length of the included sections. References are only provided by the expert discussant and not in the original submission. Requirements: Detailed clinical history including past history, social history, family history, medications, etc.; descriptive detailed neurological examination and important clinical findings; detailed laboratory investigation results (even if normal) with normal laboratory values included; journal-ready figures complete with legends for neuroimaging; and journal-ready neuropathology figures complete with legends. Specifications:
- Maximum of 2000 words, excluding references
- Maximum of 20 references (supplied by the discussant)
- No more than 4 figures and/or tables
Reflections: Neurology and the Humanities
Reflections: Neurology and the Humanities submissions may be in the form of poetry or prose. Many neurologists are talented writers. 'Reflections' is intended as a venue for them. Its purpose is to encourage creative writing about topics of interest to neurologists. There are no hard and fast rules about subject matter, but items that illustrate facets of the profession of neurology, particularly if written from a new perspective, are preferred. The quality of the writing style will be as important as the content. Submissions may be fiction or non-fiction. Privacy rules apply. Accepted, published submissions to Reflections are eligible for the Annual AAN Creative Expression of Human Values in Neurology Award. Published submissions are reviewed at the end of December each year. The Award is then presented the following year at the Annual AAN Meeting. Consult the Awards Section of the AAN website for details. Only authors who are members of the AAN can be considered for the Award.
- Maximum length of 2000 words
- Must reference if published elsewhere
NeuroImages are interesting, previously unpublished photomicrographs, patient photographs, neuroradiologic images, or other pictorial material. Authors submitting in this category do so with the understanding that, if accepted, their NeuroImage may appear only in the online journal. Preference for acceptance will be given to well written, superbly illustrated novel examples from neurological practice. Particularly clear examples of established observations may be considered for the online Resident and Fellow section of the Journal. Specifications:
- No more than two figures
- A title of 96 characters maximum (including spaces and punctuation)
- A legend of 50 words or less
- A case summary of 100 words or less
- No more than 2 references
Video NeuroImages have the same requirements as NeuroImages except they are accompanied by a video. Authors should submit Video NeuroImages according to the requirements listed in the Video Format section. These submissions should portray activity (e.g., seizure activity, movement disorders, tics). Print readers will be alerted that the online version contains the full-length video.
- No more than two figures
- A title of 96 characters maximum (including spaces and punctuation)
- A legend of 50 words or less
- A case summary of 100 words or less
- No more than 2 references
The Resident and Fellow Section is a primarily online-only feature that serves the resident and fellow readership. Trainees and others involved in neurology education (e.g., program directors) are encouraged to submit articles for the Section under several new specific categories. Click here for a list of topics. In addition to the new categories, we continue to welcome submission of education research, training videos, teaching NeuroImages, and other articles about educational topics. The length restrictions listed below apply to all categories in the Resident and Fellow section except Teaching NeuroImages. Teaching NeuroImages should adhere to the same specifications as NeuroImages. Papers submitted for this Section will undergo the same thorough peer review process as all Neurology submissions, and it is anticipated they will reflect the same high level of quality. While most submissions will be published on-line, exceptional papers may be published in print. The Resident and Fellow category (e.g., Clinical Reasoning) must be mentioned in the cover letter of the submission.
Specifications:
- Length appropriate, generally 750-1000 words
- Longer with pre-approval by Section Editor
- No more than 10 references
- No more than 1 table and/or figure unless approved by the Editor to show a sequence
- Teaching NeuroImages: Same as for NeuroImages
The Editors of Neurology do not consider previously rejected manuscripts.
- Authorship Agreement from ALL Authors: Authors will be prompted to complete these after a revision is submitted. Click here to see an example of an Author Agreement Form.
- Disclosure Agreement from ALL Authors: Authors will be notified of the address to access this online form after publication revision is submitted. Click here to see an example of an Author Disclosure Form; click here to see the list of items needed to fill out the form.
- Copyright Transfer Agreement: All authors must sign copyright transfer agreements if an article is to be accepted for publication and will be prompted to complete these before final acceptance of the manuscript. Note: The online form will become available in late 2009. Until then, all authors must sign the copyright form available from this link. Reseachers should review the contracts with their institutions or funding groups to determine whether works created during the study are considered to be prepared as part of their duties or not part of their duties as an employee; separate signature lines appear on the copyright form for each of these situations.
- Forms for the following guidelines if applicable:
CONSORT Statement : Applicable only for authors reporting the results of Phase 1, Phase 2 or Phase 3 randomized controlled trials
QUOROM Statement: Applicable only for authors reporting systematic review or meta-analysis of randomized trials.
STARD Statement: Applicable only for authors reporting diagnostic accuracy.
MOOSE Statement: Applicable only for authors conducting systematic reviews or meta-analysis of observational studies in epidemiology.
STROBE Statement: Applicable only for authors reporting case-controlled, cohort, and cross-sectional observational studies and all observational studies of human subjects as well as case series, pilot studies, genetic linkage studies, and retrospective data collection studies.
Please indicate the assigned manuscript number on all submitted forms. This number is provided to the corresponding author at the conclusion of uploading the manuscript and in the e-mail verification of a successfully uploaded manuscript.
Manuscript Submission Guidelines
Author's Checklist
For a convenient Author's Checklist of important items to include in the manuscript, click here. We recommend reading all the guidelines below before submitting a manuscript.
Manuscript submissions to Neurology should be prepared electronically and submitted in a standard word processing format; Microsoft Word is preferred. Although conversions can be made from other word processing formats and PDF files, the vagaries of the conversion process may introduce errors. Do not submit ASCII text files. The manuscript should be formatted so as to print out double-spaced at standard 8˝" x 11" or A4 (international) paper dimensions, using a 12-point font size and a default typeface (e.g., recommended fonts are Times, Times New Roman, Courier, Helvetica and Arial). Set the left margin at one inch, and the right margin at one-half inch or more. Do not justify the right margin; leave it unaligned.
Place the page number and lead author's last name in the upper right corner of each page (including the reference pages, tables, and figure legends).
Observe the following guidelines in preparing your electronic manuscript file:
- Use hard returns only at the end of paragraphs and display lines (e.g., titles, subheadings)
- Do not insert a tab, indent, or extra spaces before the beginning of a paragraph or for list entries
- Do not indent run-over lines in references
- Set line spacing at 2 (not 1.5 or 2.5)
- Turn off automatic hyphenation and justification
- Do not use automatic references
- Do not insert hard page breaks
- Take care to enter "one" (1) and lowercase "el" (l), as well as "zero" (0) and capital "oh" (O), correctly
- Key dashes as follows: Use a single hyphen with space before it for a minus sign, and a double hyphen (with space before and after) to indicate an em-dash (long dash) in text. Use only single hyphens in the references.
- Nonstandard characters (Greek letters, mathematical symbols, etc.) should be coded consistently throughout the text. Please make a list of such characters and provide a key to the codes used.
Cover Letter for New Submissions
The cover letter should include the following:
- Manuscript title
- Manuscript classification (e.g., Article, Clinical / Scientific Note)
- Notification of any redundant or duplicate publication
- A statement that one author (the principal author or guarantor) takes full responsibility for the data, the analyses and interpretation, and the conduct of the research; that the author has full access to all of the data; and that the author has the right to publish any and all data separate and apart from any sponsor.
- Author's statement of responsibility for clinical trial data and statement of the date results are required to be deposited in a clinical trials database (if applicable). It is the author’s responsibility to deposit the results into the clinical trials database. See http://prsinfo.clinicaltrials.gov/fdaaa.html.
- Indication that the Methods section includes a statement that an IRB or regional review board has approved the use of human subjects for this study
- Author's statement that permission was received from author(s) of any "personal communications" cited in the article
- Author's declaration that all authors and contributors have agreed to conditions noted on the Authorship Agreement Form
- Indication that the Author has received patient consent forms from any patient in a study and has them on file in case they are requested by the editor
- Indication that the Author has received and submitted to the Journal (by fax or email) an authorization-for-disclosure form for any figure or video of a recognizable patient and that the patient has been offered the opportunity to review the manuscript before submission
- The title should be no more than 96 characters in length, including spaces, punctuation, and subtitle. Titles should be clinically interesting and informative. They may include widely accepted abbreviations (click here for a complete list).
- Provide a word count for the paper and abstract and a character count for the title (including spaces and punctuation). Include number of references, tables, and figures.
- The title page should include the names of the authors followed by their highest academic degrees (MD, PhD) and their institutional affiliations. Authors may use either full names or initials except when there are more than four; in that case, use only initials. Include the name, address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address of the author who will be receiving correspondence and proofs and the email addresses of all other authors who qualify as authors under the Authorship Definition.
- To note common first authors, mark an asterisk following each of the common authors’ highest academic degree in the author byline. Identify the asterisk at the end of the same page and state ‘These authors contributed equally to the manuscript.’ Note that when working through the online submission process, however, only one author can be designated as the corresponding author.
- The corresponding author must specify who conducted the statistical analysis with their professional affiliation (academic, governmental, or commercial) listed.
- If applicable, the title page should indicate "Supplemental Data" below the authors' affiliations. All Supplemental Data and electronic file names should also be listed on the title page.
- Authors should choose a maximum of 5 search terms that cover the aspects of the submitted article. Click here for the list of Search Terms. Please designate the term and include the number to which it corresponds.
- Page 2: The second page (and extra pages if needed) must include study sponsorship (industry, government, or institutional) and disclosures of all authors' financial relationships. All authors' financial relationships (and those of their “immediate family members”) from the past two years must be disclosed regardless of whether these relationships are related to the study described in the submitted manuscript. If the study period of the submitted manuscript exceeded two years, financial relationships relevant to the topic must also be disclosed. The information regarding disclosures on Page 2 must coincide with the information on the Disclosure Agreement completed by those qualifying for authorship. Click here for a sample disclosure statement for Page 2. Note that the disclosure must mention any corporate sponsorship of the study first and government or institutional funding second. No dollar amounts need to be included. Authors' names and disclosures should appear in the same order as in the manuscript byline. Structure of sentences should be as similar as possible to the example. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that full disclosures appear on the submitted, revised, and final accepted manuscripts and that the page proofs reflect the disclosures listed.
Articles require structured abstracts that should not exceed 250 words (one double-spaced typed manuscript page). A structured abstract should be organized as follows:
- Objective (or background)
- Methods
- Results
- Conclusions
- Classification of Evidence (applicable for studies of therapeutic interventions)
Papers evaluated for classification of evidence must contain the section titled Classification of Evidence. In this section, please state (a) the question(s) the investigation was designed to answer, specifically identifying the patient population, intervention of interest, and relevant outcomes; (b) the class of evidence (I, II, III, or IV) as determined by AAN criteria; and (c) a brief statement of the results of the study. For example:
Classification of evidence: This interventional study provides Class I evidence that warfarin (target INR 1.7 to 2.5) is equivalent to aspirin 81 mg daily in preventing recurrent strokes during an average of 3 years of follow-up in patients aged 20 to 70 with a history of stroke (relative risk of stroke warfarin vs aspirin 0.98, 95% CIs 0.81 to 1.10).
For Views & Reviews articles, provide a 150- to 250-word abstract, structured if possible. NeuroImages and Clinical/Scientific Notes do not require an abstract.
The introduction should not be more than 250 words. Be specific and concise in stating informattion related to the study. Refrain from reiterating known information.
The Methods section or the accompanying supplemental materials must provide sufficient detail to allow replication of the study. As examples, the Methods should indicate nucleotide sequences used for RNA or DNA probes, what an antibody was made against and sources of antibodies, constructs for transgenic animals, and reagents and instruments used with the manufacturer's names and locations.
If the study reports a therapeutic intervention (clinical trial or use of medication, procedure, maneuver, or change in patient environment intended to benefit the patient), the Methods must be sufficiently detailed to allow classification of level of evidence.
In a subsection on Standard Protocol Approvals, Registrations, and Patient Consents, include the following:- A statement of approval by an ethical standards committee on human experimentation (institutional or regional) for any experiments using human subjects.
- A statement identifying the institutional or licensing committee approving experiments performed on live vertebrates and/or higher invertebrates.
- A statement that written informed consent was obtained from all patients (or guardians of patients) participating in the study (consent for research).
- A statement that authorization has been obtained for disclosure (consent-to-disclose) of any recognizable persons in photographs, videos, or other information that may be published in the Journal, in derivative works by the AAN, or on the Journal's Web site (when applicable).
- A statement, if the study reports on a clinical trial, providing the identity of the public trials registry and the clinical trial identifier number.
See sections on Clinical Trial Guidelines, Human Subjects, Registration of Clinical Trials, Genetic Studies, Permissions and Patient Consent, and Level of Evidence for more information.
Authors should examine a recent issue of Neurology to plan the appropriate layout and size when preparing their figures.
- Per Journal style, each figure has a short title above it (the detailed legend is placed under the figure). Provide a short title (15 words or less) for each figure at the beginning of the Figure Legend in the manuscript file.
- Color figures are now published with no charge to authors.
- Width of a figure should not be less than 2⅞ inches.
- Figures, including MRIs and CTs, should have white rather than black backgrounds.
- Symbols, lettering, and numbering should be sufficiently large to remain legible after a figure has been reduced to fit the width of a single column (i.e., they should measure at least 2 mm in the reduced figure).
- Use Arial type within figures, capitalizing the first letters of first words of labels only, with all other lettering in lower case. Ensure that the spacing between letters (kerning) is even (no letters closer together than the others) and that the lettering is crisp.
- Multipart figures should be labeled with capital letters A, B, C, etc. in the upper left corner of each panel. Please submit multipart figures as composite files. Panels should read from left to right.
- In graphs, standard symbols should be used for data points in the following order:
Symbols like the following are not acceptable: 
To prevent wasted space, axes should end no more than one increment
beyond the final data points. Explanatory lettering should not extend
beyond the ends of the axes. - Remove extraneous lines from graphs (only include X, Y axis).
- Figures should not include titles or patient initials. Titles should be placed in the figure legend, not on the figure itself. Abbreviation keys should be placed in the figure legend unless they fit into the confines of the figure.
- Title and Figure legends should be double-spaced and appear on a separate page of the manuscript document file.
- Internal scale markers must appear on microscopic photographs.
- Remove white type from MRIs, CTs, etc.
- Number figures (including figures to be published online only) in the order of their mention in the text.
- For supported electronic file requirements, see the section on Electronic Figure, Video, Supplemental Data Submission.
Submit tables as part of the manuscript document file. Authors should consult a recent issue of Neurology before designing tables.
- Tables should be brief and easily understood without referring to the text.
- Do not use color or shading within tables.
- Do not include patient names or initials in the tables.
- Extensive tabular data may be posted on Neurology's Web site when the article is published (see Supplemental Data/Additional Files).
- Place each table, including a title and legend (if applicable), on a separate page.
- All tables must be double-spaced.
- Number tables in the order of their mention in the text.
- References cited within a table should use numbers rather than author names.
Tables and other illustrative material submitted to Neurology should be succinct and easily interpreted by the general readership. Often lengthy data difficult to summarize in print are important to the study. These data, which may take the form of tables, figures, data, references, or appendices, can be posted on the Neurology Web site and can also be referenced in the print journal.
Authors who wish to submit detailed data to be considered with their manuscript should upload these data upon submission. The data must be in a separate electronic file rather than included in the main document.
- The online data should also be referenced within the text.
- The title page of the paper should indicate "Supplemental Data" below the authors' affiliations. All Supplemental Data and electronic file names should also be listed on the title page (e.g., Supplemental Table, electronic file name: table e-1, Supplemental Appendix, electronic file name: appendix e-2). See section on Supplemental Data/Additional Files for upload information.
If the manuscript is accepted, this supplemental data will be posted as submitted and will not be professionally copyedited or proofread. For this reason, authors should carefully review their material. Neurology will not be responsible for errors or omissions. See Supplemental Data/Additional Files for upload information.
- Cite references in numerical order according to their position in the Reference list in the text.
- List all authors when there are six or fewer; for seven or more, list only the first three and add "et al."
- Use PubMed abbreviations for journal names but eliminate U.S. cities cited in parentheses after the name of a journal.
- Use continuous pagination (e.g., 33-37, not 33-7).
- Do not reference papers that are "submitted"; these should be mentioned in the body of the text.
- Authors must provide "submitted" and "in press" manuscripts clearly labeled as such by uploading them as supplemental files with submission or faxing them to the editorial office.
- Personal communications should be mentioned in the body of the manuscript (not in the references). The author must state in writing in the cover letter of the submission that permission was obtained by the author of any personal communication cited in the article.
Neurology reference style is similar to the style described in the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (http://www.icmje.org/), with the exception that pagination should be complete. The following are sample styles for submission. See the Uniform Requirements for guidance on other reference types. The following are sample styles for submission:
- Journal article
Zangerle A, Kiechl S, Spiegel M, et al. Recanalization after thrombolysis in stroke patients: predictors and prognostic implications. Neurology 2007;68:39-44.
- Journal article published electronically ahead of print version
Shi J, Zhao C, Vollmer TL, Tyry TM, Kuniyoshi SM. APOE e4 allele is associated with cognitive impairment in patients with multiple sclerosis. Neurology Epub 2007 Apr 25
.
- Published abstract
Rocca W, Grossardt B, Ahlskog E, Bower J, De Andrade M, Maraganore D. The Mayo Clinic Cohort Study of Oophorectomy and Aging: results for dementia and cognitive impairment. Neurology 2006;66(suppl 2):A216. Abstract.
- Conference paper
Mark MH, Dickson DW, Schwarz KO, et al. Familial diffuse Lewy body disease. Presented at the 10th International Symposium on Parkinson's Disease; October 19, 1991; Tokyo.
- In press (forthcoming)
Tian D, Araki H, Stahl E, Bergelson J, Kreitman M. Signature of balancing selection in Arabidopsis. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (in press 2002).
- Letter
Gotkine, M. Vascular risk factors and cognitive decline among elderly male twins. Neurology 2007;68:1871. Letter.
- Book
Murray PR, Rosenthal KS, Kobayashi GS, Pfaller MA. Medical Microbiology, 4th ed. St Louis: Mosby; 2002. - Online book or Web site
Garrow A, Weinhouse G. Anoxic brain injury: assessment and prognosis. In: UpToDate Cardiovascular Medicine [online]. Available at: www.UpToDateInc.com. Accessed February 22, 2000.
- Online journal article
Miyamoto O, Auer RN. Hypoxia, hyperoxia, ischemia, and brain necrosis. Neurology [serial online] 2000;54:362-371. Available at: www.neurology.org. Accessed February 23, 2000.
- Monograph in electronic format
Chee M, Chiappa K. Waveguide: an EEG atlas on CD-ROM. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 1998.
Gilstrap LC 3rd, Cunningham FG, VanDorsten JP, editors. Operative Obstetrics, 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002.
Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome Alterations in Human Solid Tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The Genetic Basis of Human Cancer. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002:93-113.
- Provide information that is explanatory or statistical in nature in an Appendix.
- If the Author list is longer than the space in the Author byline area of the first page of the published paper, the Authors whose names do not fit will be listed in an Appendix. This list includes Co-investigators in multi-center trials attributed to corporate or multiple Authors if the investigators qualify as Authors according to one of the criteria under Authorship Definition.
- Co-investigators and Study Coordinators for multi-center trials who do not qualify as Authors according to one of the criteria under Authorship Definition will be listed in an Appendix titled "Co-investigators." Co-investigators will be indexed by PubMed.
- Disclosures for authors will be contained in an appendix called Disclosures at the end of the published article if these disclosures take more space than available in the disclosure section on the first page of the article.
The Acknowledgment section allows authors space to recognize and express appreciation to others (Contributors) who have contributed to the study but have not qualified as Authors or Co-investigators . In this section, list those who have collected data; provided technical assistance; acquired funding; supervised personnel; contributed drugs, reagents, equipment, or patients; or edited the manuscript for non-intellectual content. The list must include the contributors' affiliations and the specific contributions made by each.
Neurology's online submission and manuscript tracking system is Bench>Press, located at http://submit.neurology.org. At the Bench>Press home page, enter the author area and click on the ‘Submit a new manuscript’ hyperlink to begin a manuscript submission. Users must register when accessing the Bench>Press system for the first time. A password will be created that applies to all journals using the system. Once you have registered for your first Bench>Press journal, you do not need to re-register in order to use another journal's system. Simply log on with your existing email address and password.
To set up your personal Bench>Press access, click on "Create a new account." You will be asked to complete three steps:
- Email/password. Enter your email address. This is your unique user identification and will be needed to log onto the system on all occasions (as a reviewer or author). Enter a password. This will be encrypted for security reasons, and will not be known to Neurology or Bench>Press staff.
- Verification. A verification e-mail containing a URL will be emailed to you at the address you used to register. You will need to click on the URL provided in the e-mail or copy and paste it into the address field in your Web browser. This will verify your e-mail address and help to ensure that your e-mail address is not being used fraudulently.
- Profile. Once you have verified your e-mail address, you will be asked to provide a basic profile consisting of your contact information plus expertise terms. Although you may use the same e-mail address and password to access any journal using the Bench>Press system, you must create an individual profile with each journal.
Detailed HELP files are available throughout Bench>Press and can be used without stopping the submission process. If you experience problems, you may contact the Editorial Office at journal{at}neurology.org . Users are also encouraged to give us feedback on the system. A Feedback link appears on the navigation bar throughout the Bench>Press Web site: Neurology-BP-feedback{at}highwire.stanford.edu.
- At the Bench>Press home page, enter the author area and click on the "Submit a new manuscript" hyperlink. You will be presented with a series of fields for entering your manuscript information and uploading your manuscript (with tables), Image Files (figures), and supplemental/ additional files (videos, etc.)
- The system will automatically convert your files to a single PDF for reviewing purposes. You will be asked to approve the conversion before your manuscript is considered formally submitted to the journal. The conversion process can take up to 30 minutes. An e-mail message will be sent informing you when the conversion is complete. Select "Ready for you to proof" in the author area to approve your article. During conversion, the system will automatically hyperlink the references to Medline (or, if the online journal is hosted by HighWire, the journal in which the article was published). Be sure to include the heading "References" at the top of the citations and follow Neurology's Reference Style for optimum linkage.
- You may begin a submission and continue the process later by clicking on "Save/Continue" at the bottom of the screen when entering your manuscript information. This enables you to save that page or continue to the next page. If you choose not to complete the submission at that time, your manuscript will appear in the "Submissions/Revisions in progress" queue in the Author Area. If you decide not to complete the submission at all, you should choose "Withdraw." Do not submit the same paper more than once.
- Please note:
- Do not include the cover letter in the body of the manuscript. It should be copied/pasted into the designated field.
- Include the title page as the first page of the manuscript file.
- Copy and paste the abstract into the designated field if the manuscript has an abstract. The abstract should also be on page 2 of the manuscript file. Page 2 should also contain the Disclosure Agreement. Click here for an example.
- If your paper does not require an abstract, type "None."
- Do not insert a Study Group name (e.g., Parkinson Disease Working Group) in the author fields. Include only bylined author names in these fields. Study Group names should appear only on the title page of the manuscript.
Electronic Figure, Video, Supplemental Data Submission
Digital Figure Format for Review Purposes
- For maximum quality, figures should be developed as separate files in an approved format and should not be embedded in the text document. Upload each figure as a separate Image File, not as part of the manuscript file.
- Composite figures (1A, 1B, 1C, 1D) should be submitted as a single, composite file.
- JPG , PPT, PDF, and GIF files may be submitted for review purposes only. Multi-page Power Point (.ppt) files are not supported, but one slide per file is acceptable for review purposes.
- If the manuscript is invited for revision, you will be asked to upload, as supplemental files, the original figures in the program in which they were created.
- If the manuscript is accepted, EPS or TIF files for digital art will be required. Digital files must be saved at the size authors would like them to appear in print.
Digital Figure Format at Acceptance
- If the manuscript is accepted for publication, the author will be required to submit print-quality electronic files for all art that will appear in the printed article.
- If fonts are used in the artwork, they must be converted to paths or outlines or they must be embedded in the files.
- Electronic art must be submitted as either a TIF (tagged image file format) or an EPS (encapsulated postscript) file.
- Digital images must be saved at the size at which the author would like them to appear. Crop and size images properly before importing them so that further adjustment is not necessary.
- Line art (graphs, charts, pedigrees) must have a resolution of at least 1200 dpi (dots per inch).
- Half-tones (radiographs, CT scans) must have a resolution of at least 600 dpi.
- Combination half-tones (CT scan with lines or fonts) or any color photographs must have a resolution of at least 600 dpi.
- Files containing color photographs should include the word "color" in the file name. Combination color with lines or fonts should have a resolution of at least 600 dpi.
- Color art should be saved as CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) images. Art saved as RGB (red, green, blue) cannot be reproduced in print and cannot be accepted.
- Images to appear in black and white must be saved as a grayscale image (not as CMYK).
- Formats not supported include: files utilizing OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) technology to display information or embed files, .bmp, .pict, .xls, .psd, .cnv, .cdr and locked or encrypted .pdfs. Office Suite programs such as Power Point, Corel Draw, and MS Word will not be accepted for publication.
- Artwork downloaded from the Internet (JPG or GIF files) will not be accepted for publication.
- Authors who are unable to provide figures in an approved electronic format must follow the conventional submission guidelines in the Neurology Information for Authors. In some cases, hard glossies may be requested for figures if conversion or proper formatting is not possible.
- Submit videos as separate Supplemental Data with your original manuscript submission.
- A brief description of each video, titled "Video legend," should be uploaded as a separate supplemental file.
- Videos should be named in the order of their text citation (e.g., video1.mov). If a video is directly related to a figure or table, name it accordingly (e.g., Fig4video3.mov). Avoid lengthy file names.
- Preferred video formats include .wma, .mpg and .mov files. To create high-quality video for the Web at small file sizes, download the free Windows Media Encoder at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx
- Authors are responsible for obtaining patient consent-to-disclose forms for any figures of identifiable patients and should edit out any names mentioned in the recording. The consent form should indicate specific use (reproduction in the medical literature in print and online, with the understanding that patients and the public will have access) of the patient's medical information and any images and must contain the patient's signature or that of a legal guardian. The original form must be retained by the author. The author must declare in the cover letter to the Editor-in-Chief that the patient signed the consent form and provided the patient with the opportunity to review the manuscript. A copy of the form must be faxed or emailed to the Journal office. The consent form accessed from this link is recommended.
- Windows Media files can be seen by users on all computers, but the tool to create the files can only be used on Windows machines. For those authors who work on Macs, QuickTime creates good high-quality files, but authors should be careful to select options that keep file sizes small. If the author can create the video as an mpg file, this will work for all users and result in a compressed file size.
- Videos must be no larger than 10 MB. We recommend Sorenson or Cinepak compression, though other codecs may be used.
- Color depth should be kept to a minimum, using grayscale for black and white videos.
- Frame size should be limited to 450 x 375 pixels for best viewing within a browser on most monitors. If necessary, split the video into several clips.
Supplemental Data/ Additional Files
Supplemental Data are content that the author wishes to make available online if the article is accepted for publication. This material may include tables, figures, references, and appendices. Before submission, carefully review all information because it will not be read by a professional copyeditor. Neurology and the Publisher are not responsible for errors or omissions contained in data supplements. Accepted formats for Supplemental Data include (other formats are not accepted): Adobe PDF, GIF, HTML, JPG, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, and Plain text. All files may be compressed using the ZIP® compression utility. Please name your files and cite (within the manuscript text) in the following way:
- Tables: table e-1, table e-2, table e-3...
- Figures: figure e-1, figure e-2, figure e-3...
- Appendices: appendix e-1, appendix e-2, appendix e-3...
- References: e-References. Begin each reference in the list with e-1, e-2, e-3...
-
If some figures are being submitted for print and some for online-only
publication, label consecutively within the set as follows:
Figures to publish in print: Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3...
Figures to publish online: figure e-1, figure e-2, figure e-3... - Any type of data not listed here can be listed by the full name (e.g. Acknowledgement, Questionnaire) preceded by e.
Table and figure legends should be included on the same pages as the Tables/ Figures.
Additional Files are CONSORT, STARD, and MOOSE files, patient consent-to-disclose forms, or In Press articles. These are examples of documents that will not appear online if the article is published but are necessary for the review process.
When uploading Supplemental Data or Additional Files, you will be prompted to label them. Include as much information as possible in the label. "Supplemental Data table e-1" or "Supplemental Data appendix e-2", "Additional File CONSORT checklist", "Additional File In Press Ref 7" are examples of labels that are helpful in determining the purpose of the material.
Please remember that the larger the file size, the longer it will take for users to download; therefore, whenever possible, optimize your graphics files for Web publishing by reviewing the Help information included with the application in which you have saved the graphics so that you are providing the most compressed file size possible. Files should be no larger than 10 MB.
Correspondence
Correspondence cannot be submitted through Bench>Press. See Correspondence for format and submission requirements.
Authors who submit online through Bench>Press can keep track of the status of their manuscript throughout the peer-review process. Enter the Author Area and select "Manuscripts under review/check status."
- To submit a revised manuscript via Bench>Press, enter the author area and click on "Submit a revised manuscript." You will be presented with your original manuscript information, which should be edited as necessary.
- You will be required to upload your revised manuscript files (see "Submitting a Manuscript" for further details). Page 2 of a revised manuscript should be the Disclosure page. Click here for an example.
- Provide a detailed point-by-point response to the reviewers' comments. Address all concerns through revisions or a convincing rebuttal. You may upload a formatted version as a Supplemental File labeled "Response to Reviewers."
Respond to the Editor's comments in the Cover Letter. Address all concerns through revisions or a convincing rebuttal.
- All changes in the manuscript must be clearly marked. You may provide either a Tracked Changes version of the revised manuscript or a version with the changes highlighted. Upload the revised version showing the changes as a Supplemental File labeled "Revised manuscript with changes tracked" or "Revised manuscript with changes highlighted."
- If an Author is dropped or added upon revision, the Corresponding Author must explain the reason(s) in the cover letter of the revision and the Author being dropped or added must send a letter of agreement.
An invitation to write an Editorial for the journal may be requested through the Bench>Press system. Enter the Author Area and select "Invited papers." You can accept or decline the invitation online. When submitting your commissioned article, click on "Invited papers to be submitted." The procedure for submission is the same as an unsolicited article (see Submitting a Manuscript).
- Widely Accepted Abbreviations. These abbreviations may be used in the manuscript without providing definition.
- Online-Only PubMed Journal Abbreviations
- Professional Editing Help. If you are an English language learner, it may be helpful to have your manuscript reviewed by a professional editor so that you submit it in grammatically and syntactically acceptable, idiomatic English. Select this link for a list of professional editors.
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