Information for Authors -Neural Regeneration Research
What is New in 2016?
In 2016, the journal will focus on publishing the innovative changes in protection, repair, and regeneration processes after nerve injury, which will interest the readership of Neural Regeneration Research (NRR).
In addition to providing indexing in international databases, how does NRR benefit authors and readers?
What are the responsibilities and duties of NRR’s editorial board members?
What are the editorial work standards to which all NRR editors should adhere?
How should a scientific paper be prepared, and what requirements and policies should be followed?
To what specifications should the authors adhere when writing a paper?
What are the important ethical issues for NRR?
Should the first or corresponding author in each NRR paper have an ORCID identifier, and does NRR provide the service of registering an ORCID identifier for those who did not have one?
Will peer review comments for each NRR paper be present on the Publons platform?
Are the NRR’s authors encouraged to upload their original data to Figshare?
Does NRR provide immediate, online, free, and unrestricted availability of peer-reviewed papers?
Aims and Scopes
NRR (ISSN 1673-5374) is an open-access, peer-reviewed journal focusing exclusively on the exciting field of neural regeneration indexed in SCI, PUBMED and PubMed Central (PMC). In 2016, NRR is devoted to publishing the articles regarding repair, protection and regeneration after various nerve injuries (including brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerve and cranial nerve injuries and neurodegenerative diseases), the articles regarding nerve changes during repair, protection and regeneration process after intervention by different factors (including stem cells, factor, gene, drug, surgery, rehabilitation therapy, electrical stimulation, magnetic stimulation, physical therapy, and replacement therapy), and the articles that objectively and quantitatively evaluate the results of repair, protection and regeneration after nerve injury as well as the articles involving large-sized animals (such as primates) in this research field and are of translational medicine significance.
The innovative outcomes created by up-raising scientists in the field of neural regeneration are of great interest to NRR. Clinical trials with registry number and the basic research papers that include original data with DOI registry number were recommended in NRR. The perspective, highlights, commentary and invited review publications in NRR from international established scholars will provide young scholars with more insights into the development and research in the field of neural regeneration, hoping to contribute to communication and translation between basic researches and clinical studies.
Readership
NRR has a strong international focus on neural regeneration and draws attention from neuroscientists who are dedicated to neuroscience, neuroanatomy, neuropathology, neurosurgery, neurology, neurobiology, neuroimaging, neuroradiology and neurorehabilitation.
Abstracting and Indexing
Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-E)
PubMed
PubMed Central (PMC)
BIOSIS previews (BP)
Chemical Abstracts (CA)
Excerpta Medica (EM)
Index of Copurnicus (IC)
OvidSP
Chinese Science Citation Database (CSCD)
Chinese Science and Technology Paper Citation Database (CSTPCD)
SCOPUS
Editorial Board
Editor-in-Chief
Kwok-fai So, Director, GHM Institute of Neural Regeneration, Jinan University; Jessie Ho Professor in Neuroscience, Department of Ophthalmology, The University of Hong Kong, China.
Xiao-ming Xu, Professor and Mari Hulman George Chair of Neurological Surgery, Scientific Director, Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Group, Indiana University School of Medicine, USA.
Editorial Board Members
The editorial board led by Professor Kwok-fai So and Xiao-ming Xu comprises over a hundred members who are dedicated to developing a journal presenting outstanding peer-reviewed, evidence-based scholarly research in neural regeneration.
Recruitment of new editorial board members is ongoing (
Initial Submission
Cover letter
Authors are strongly encouraged to provide as much information as possible to the reviewers, including.
-Declaration that the manuscript is original, has not been submitted to or is not under consideration by another publication and has not been previously published in any language or any form, including electronic.
-Indication that all authors approve the final version of the paper and of its submission to NRR.
-Recommendation of 2 or 3 scientists as peer reviewers for your paper, including their contact information, in the same field, but worked in different scientific institutions and did not co-publish academic articles previously.
Once submitted to NRR, the paper should not be submitted to other journals within 1 month, whether it is undergoing or awaiting the paper review process.
Transfer of copyright agreement
Once your paper is successfully submitted, Copyright Transfer Agreement Form should be signed and uploaded to the editorial system.
Manuscript Type
Invited perspectives and highlights
Authors from internationally renowned laboratories who have acquired outstanding achievements are invited to write a short paper in which they provide background information that has not been previously published, offering the reasons behind their scientific hypothesis as well as answering such questions as why they chose specific animal models or patients as participants, developed a novel technique or method, used certain materials, or selected a given cell type. The invited perspectives and highlights should introduce compelling new stories about how scientists or laboratories yielded their striking thoughts or achievements, rather than simply describe their research progress or current status in the field of neural regeneration. These papers will provide readers with novel perspectives on the thoughts and insights of neural regeneration researchers.
-Word limit: 1,500–3,000 words, 1–2 authors, ≤ 8 references (use the reference style of Journal of Neuroscience), no tables and abstract, 1 figure permissive, and 2 published pages.
-Formatting guide:
Describe the objective, significance, and current status of an issue in the field of neural regeneration (1/5 the length of the text), introduce the author or the feature of the ongoing project (3/5 the length of the text), and state a hypothesis or guide the direction of this project (1/5 the length of the text).
Submit an outline for your paper before writing, and submit the manuscript within 2 months after receiving permission from the NRR editorial committee.
Invited reviews
-Word limit: 6,000 words maximum including the abstract, but excluding references, tables and figures. 8–10 published pages.
-Formatting guide:
Title: 90 characters (20 words) maximum.
Abstract: 250 words maximum, unstructured abstract.
Introduction:
Body text:
Author contributions:
Conflicts of interest:
References: use the reference style of Journal of Neuroscience.
Research Articles
-Word limit: 4,000–6,000 words maximum, 8–10 published pages.
-Formatting guide:
Title: 90 characters (20 words) maximum.
Abstract: 250 words maximum, unstructured abstract.
Graphical abstract:
Introduction: 500 words maximum.
Materials/Subjects and Methods:
Results:
Discussion: 1,000 words maximum.
Acknowledgments:
Funding:
Author contributions:
Conflicts of interest:
References: 60 minimum; 30% of cited references should have been published within the preceding 3 years; use the reference style of Journal of Neuroscience.
Imaging in Neural Regeneration
-Word limit: 1,500–2,000 words, 2 published pages.
-No abstract, 2–3 images (resolution > 300 dpi), depicting the relationship of histological injury and nerve regeneration and function; and benefiting those who work in the same research field.
-Writing specifications:
Title: 90 characters (20 words) maximum.
Body text:
Acknowledgments:
Funding:
Author contributions:
Conflicts of interest:
References: 10 maximum; use the reference style of Journal of Neuroscience.
Letters to the Editor
-A letter sent to NRR publisher about issues of concern from its readers.
-Word limit: 500–1,000 words maximum, excluding references. No abstract, tables and figures, 1 published page.
-Writing specifications:
Title: 90 characters (20 words) maximum.
Body text:
References: 5 maximum; use the reference style of Journal of Neuroscience.
For more information, please see sample articles at
Peer Review Procedure
NRR uses the online manuscript submission and peer review system Editorial Manager. Each submitted manuscript will be subjected to a strict double-blind peer review by 3–5 international peer reviewers in the same research field. The authors will receive their comments within 4 weeks after submission. The review time will be shortened to be within 7 days for the paper with comments made recently by peer reviewers of international excellent journals. According to these comments, the section editors will make a decision as to accept, reject, or request a revision or another peer review.
Acceptance and Publication
After acceptance, the authors have access to inquiries regarding the progress of their manuscript submitted online using the account number assigned to the corresponding author at any time. Generally, accepted manuscripts will be published within 3–6 months after revision; however, authors can apply for rapid publication within 2–3 months after revision if their publications meet the following conditions:
-Provincial (or above level) grant-funded innovative publications;
-With comments made recently by peer reviewers of international excellent journals;
-Basic research papers including original data with DOI register number;
-Clinical trials with Clinicaltrials.gov register number;
-First-time innovative publications.
Ethical Guidance
According to the guidelines recommended by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the authors should follow all ethical principles for medical research involving humans and experimental animals.
Requirements for ethical issues related to medical research
-Medical researchers should abide by the relevant principles for medical research involving human participants, conscientiously accept supervision from the ethical review committee, and effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of the human participants.
-Medical researchers should objectively and accurately collect human samples, data, and information, and protect the life, health, privacy, and dignity of human participants.
-When performing studies involving humans or experimental animals, medical researchers should provide accurate medical records, including adverse reactions and events, and report information regarding severe adverse reactions and events according to related regulations.
-Medical researchers should be aware of public health and laboratory biology safety, consciously abide by the requirements of related laws and regulations, and accept inspection and supervision by related organizations when performing studies regarding emerging infectious diseases and diseases with unknown etiologies or known pathogen transformation.
-Medical researchers should store, share, and destroy human or animal samples, data, or materials after study completion according to corresponding management regulations of scientific research.
-Medical researchers should respect and protect the intellectual property rights of others and abide by the confidentiality rules of science and technology when performing academic communications and being invited to review another person’s submitted research paper or topic declaration.
-When citing previously published viewpoints, data, images, results, or other data, the source should be indicated, and the use of citations, annotations, and references should be consistent with academic specifications. When using another person’s design thoughts, perspectives, experimental data, figures and tables, results and conclusions that have not been published, a written informed consent should be obtained from the authors, and acknowledgments and declarations should be openly stated.
-When publishing research papers or academic contributions, medical researchers should abide by related regulations. Medical researchers cannot be authors on a published research paper when they do not participate in conducting the research or contribute to the writing of the paper.
-Medical researchers, as supervisors or leaders of a research project, should take full responsibility for guiding students or leading members to perform scientific research and assume responsibility for dishonorable events occurring during the study or writing of scientific papers.
-The original images, data (including computer databases), records, and samples involved in producing medical research papers should be kept in a secure storage area for potential recheck. Any errors or faults appearing in medical research achievements should be admitted and corrected publicly by the medical researchers.
-When performing collaborative scientific research, medical researchers should comply with good faith duty or contract, and authorship credit for publishing research papers or books, applying for patents, and acquiring awards should be based on substantial contribution.
-Medical researchers should have a scientific attitude and social responsibility and avoid false statements and news hyperbole in academic communication, achievement generalization, and popular science propaganda. Medical researchers should treat academic criticism and questions from peer reviewers with respect.
Requirements for ethical issues related to animal experiments
-Medical researchers should abide by international guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals, the Weatherall report on the use of non-human primates in research (2006), and The National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs).
-The authors’ institutional animal care and use committee that approved the animal experiments and the associated permit number(s) should be stated in research papers.
-The methods section of NRR papers reporting results of animal research must include required ethics statements, such as “The protocol was approved by the Committee on the Ethics of Animal Experiments of the University of ABC (permit number XXXX). All surgery was performed under sodium pentobarbital anesthesia, and all efforts were made to minimize animal pain, distress, and death.” Guidelines for euthanasia methods approved by NRR for use in animal experiments is shown in Table.
-Data and methods appearing in NRR papers that are used to support conclusions should be shared for replication of the results by others. Original experimental data or DOI numbers registered in international databases should be provided upon submission to facilitate reference by peer reviewers and other readers.
-Original data from studies involving genes, proteins, mutants and diseases should be registered on international public databases, and the registered identifier should be provided upon submission. The international public databases suggested by NRR include figshare or re3data.
-A small amount of data or certain special data may be submitted as attachments to the research paper for publication in the supplementary data section online.
-For data harvested from other open-access means, the source must be indicated.
-Studies involving animal experiments should be reported according to ARRIVE guidelines (
Requirements for ethical issues related to clinical trials
-All studies performed using the human body or involving human samples should be registered in an international clinical trials registry platform, such as prior to participant recruitment. The registry platform and register identifier should be provided upon submission and included in the abstract of the manuscript.
-The ethics committee that approved the trial and the associated permit number(s) should be stated in research papers. Clinical trial manuscripts submitted with no indication that ethical guidelines were followed will not be accepted by NRR. In addition, whether participants gave informed consent should be indicated.
-Clinical trial manuscripts should be written according to the specifications presented at Additionally, self-assessment checklists and a flow chart should be provided upon submission.
-For more information about ethical issues involved in clinical trials, please see the material provided at
Dishonorable events in submitted papers
-Similarity between new submitted NRR manuscript and the papers previously published by the same research team or author should be no more than 50%.
-Plagiarism
•Each NRR paper will be screened twice using Crosscheck to verify originality, once after submission and again prior to publication. The screening results will be provided to the authors.
•Each NRR paper should be original, with a similarity index of < 10% against any single paper in the database and with a total similarity index of < 30% against all papers in the database.
-No retracted articles should be cited.
-For dishonorable events anonymously or non-anonymously reported, editors will contact the corresponding author of the paper with the issue and provide the results to the person who reported the event. For dishonorable events including redundant (duplicate) publication, suspected plagiarism, and undisclosed conflicts of interest, NRR will abide by the regulations suggested by COPE guidelines.
Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID)
The first author or the corresponding author should provide ORCID upon manuscript submission to facilitate accurate author publication data maintained by journal or database statisticians.
Certification of the Peer-review
Process (Publons.com)
The peer-reviewed results of scientific researchers are encouraged to be shared and discussed at or NRR will use authorized reviewers who have registered at
Recommendation of Data Repository on Figshare.com
NRR encourages to upload original experimental data on figshare prior to or after publication, including original data, images, or tables. Such open access of data will increase study transparency, accelerate the scientific research pace, and establish a credible system of scientific research.
Figshare is an internationally respected original data hosting and management database that can upload, store, and share study data. With the permission of open-access copyright, the authors can display and share their data, which facilitates retrieval, reading, downloading, and sharing.
Writing Guidance
Manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with ICMJE Recommendation for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals. The following guidelines should be followed when writing an article:
-CONSORT statement (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials): The CONSORT statement is recommended for reporting randomized controlled trials, and allows different types of medical studies to be reported using different article types. It is mainly used for randomized controlled clinical trials including parallel-cohort randomized trials, cluster randomized trials, non-inferiority trials, equivalency tests, Chinese herb trials, medicinal herb intervention trials, non-drug treatment trials, acupuncture and adverse events trials. The CONSORT statement comprises a 25-item checklist and a flow diagram. In addition, the registration identification number and registry position of the randomized controlled trial is listed in the last line in the Abstract. See for more information.