Journal of Neurorestoratology Open Access Editors-in-Chief: Hongyun Huang, Luming Li
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Submission Guidelines
Guidelines for Authors

This Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Please read the guidelines below then visit the journal’s submission site www.editorialmanager.com/jnrt to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned. Remember you can log in to the submission site at any time to check on the progress of your paper through the peer review process.

Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Journal of Neurorestoratology will be reviewed.

As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.

1. Open Access

Journal of Neurorestoratology is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. Each article accepted by peer review is made freely available online immediately upon publication. An aritcle is published under a CC BY or CC BY-NC-ND license upon the authors' selection, and will be hosted online in perpetuity. Authors will retain copyright alongside scholarly usage rights, and Tsinghua University Press and Elsevier will be granted publishing and distribution rights.

The authors license exclusive rights in their article to Tsinghua University Press and Elsevier where a CC BY-NC-ND end user license is selected, and license non-exclusive rights where a CC BY end user license is selected.

2. Article processing charge (APC)

Publication costs of the journal are covered by the collection of article processing charges (APC). This journal is financially supported by Tsinghua University Press and therefore does NOT charge the authors any APC for open access publication. There is no charge for submitting a paper to the journal either.

 

3. What do we publish?

3.1 Aims & Scope

Neurorestoratology is a sub-discipline of neuroscience concerned with neurorestoration by means of neural repair, regeneration and replacement, neural circuit or network construction, signaling repair, neuromodulation, neuroprostheses neuroprotection, and the enhancement of neuroplasticity, neurogenesis and angiogenesis. Journal of Neurorestoratology focuses on original experimental and clinical research, technological advances and expert reviews on the subject of Neurorestoratology. Clinical studies on geriatric, pediatric, hereditary and traumatic CNS disorders are of particular interest, such as neurorestorative techniques that involve cell therapy, tissue engineering or bioengineering, neuromodulation by electro-magnetic stimulation, pharmaceutical or chemical therapies, neural prostheses, pharmacotherapy and combinations of these methods.

3.2 Article Types

Journal of Neurorestoratology publishes original research article, review, case report, and special report.

  • Research article

         This category is for full-length reports on original research.

         A structured abstract of no more than 300 words is required (Purpose, Methods, Results, and Conclusion).

         Manuscripts in this category should use the following structure: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusions.

  • Review

         This category is for reviews of major topics in Neurorestoratology, both synthetic and narrative reviews.

         An unstructured abstract of no more than 200 words is required.

  • Case report

         This category is for case report in clinical neuroscience.

         An unstructured abstract of no more than 200 words is required.

  • Special Report

         This category is for standards, guidelines, expert consensus in Neurorestoratology.

4. Editorial policies

4.1 Peer review policy

The journal’s policy is to have manuscripts reviewed by two expert reviewers. Journal of Neurorestoratology utilizes a single-blind peer review process in which the reviewer’s name and information is withheld from the author. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, while maintaining rigor. Reviewers make comments to the author and recommendations to the Editor-in-Chief who then makes the final decision.

4.2 Authorship

Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors.

The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:

         1. Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data,

         2. Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,

         3. Approved the version to be published,

Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.

When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship.

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.

4.3 Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

4.3.1 Third party submissions

Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

  • Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input.
  • Identify any entities that paid for this assistance.
  • Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

Where appropriate, we reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves. 

4.3.2 Writing assistance

Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance.

It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.

Any acknowledgements should appear first at the end of your article prior to your Declaration of Conflicting Interests (if applicable), any notes and your References. 

4.4 Funding

Journal of Neurorestoratology requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

It is the policy of Journal of Neurorestoratology to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles.

Please ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’.

For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations.

4.6 Research ethics and patient consent

Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.

Submitted manuscripts should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, and all papers reporting animal and/or human studies must state in the methods section that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure that you have provided the full name and institution of the review committee, in addition to the approval number.

For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal.

Information on informed consent to report individual cases or case series should be included in the manuscript text. A statement is required regarding whether written informed consent for patient information and images to be published was provided by the patient(s) or a legally authorized representative.

Please also refer to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Protection of Research Participants.

All research involving animals submitted for publication must be approved by an ethics committee with oversight of the facility in which the studies were conducted. The journal has adopted the Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare for Veterinary Journals published by the International Association of Veterinary Editors.

4.7 Clinical trials

Journal of Neurorestoratology conforms to the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrolment as a condition of consideration for publication. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.

4.8 Reporting guidelines

The relevant EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines should be followed depending on the type of study. For example, all randomized controlled trials submitted for publication should include a completed CONSORT flow chart as a cited figure and the completed CONSORT checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses should include the completed PRISMA flow chart as a cited figure and the completed PRISMA checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. The EQUATOR wizard can help you identify the appropriate guideline.

Other resources can be found at NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives.

4.9 Data

We are committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research. Journal of Neurorestoratology requires authors to share their research data in a suitable public repository as a condition of publication. This is subject to ethical considerations and in such cases the journal editor may grant an exception and authors should contact the Editorial Office. Authors are also required to include a data accessibility statement in their manuscript file and to follow data citation principles.

5. Publishing policies

5.1 Publication ethics

We are committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors.

5.1.1 Plagiarism

Journal of Neurorestoratology and TUP take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software, iThenticate. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarized other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

5.1.2 Prior publication

If material has been previously published, it is not generally acceptable for publication in Journal of Neurorestoratology. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication.

5.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement

Before publication we requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement, and grant TUP a license to publish, including to display, store, copy, and reuse the content.  

Journal of Neurorestoratology publishes manuscripts under Creative Commons licenses. Permitted reuse is defined by your choice of one of the following user licenses:

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0): This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0): This license allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. 

Alternative license arrangements are available, for example, to meet particular funder mandates, made at the author’s request.

6. Preparing your manuscript

6.1 Word processing formats

The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. Word template is available to download here.

6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics

Figures supplied in color will appear in color online.

6.3 Supplementary material

This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. These will be subjected to peer-review alongside the article.

6.4 Reference style

If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Journal of Neurorestoratology output file here.

7. Submitting your manuscript

7.1 How to submit your manuscript

Journal of Neurorestoratology is hosted on a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne? Manuscripts. Visit https://www.editorialmanager.com/jnrt/default1.aspx to login and submit your article online.

IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created.

7.2 Title, keywords and abstracts

Please supply a title, an abstract and keywords to accompany your article. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article online through online search engines such as Google.

7.3 Information required for completing your submission

Provide full contact details for the corresponding author including E-mail, mailing address and telephone numbers. Academic affiliations are required for all co-authors. These details should be presented separately to the main text of the article to facilitate anonymous peer review.

You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

7.4 Permissions

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere.

 

8. On acceptance and publication

If your paper is accepted for publication after peer review, you will first be asked to complete the contributor’s publishing agreement. Once your manuscript files have been accepted, your article will be prepared for publication and can appear online within an average of 30 working days.

8.1 Production

The Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will made available to the corresponding author via our E-mail to the corresponding author and should be returned pro‍mptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate. Please note that if there are any changes to the author list at this stage all authors will be required to complete and sign a form authorizing the change.

8.2 Online publication

One of the many benefits of publishing your research in an open access journal is the speed to publication. With no page count constraints, your article will be published online in a fully citable form with a DOI number as soon as it has completed the production process. At this time it will be completely free to view and download for all.

8.3 Promoting your article

Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible.

9. Further information

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the Manuscript Submission process should be sent to the Journal of Neurorestoratology Editorial Office.

Download Template

Download the Template for Journal of Neurorestoratology below.