Preparing a Manuscript

Updated September 2023

Organization of the Manuscript

Manuscripts must be written in English. The entire text should be double-spaced, including references. Submitting an incomplete manuscript or a manuscript that does not adhere to the word limits will cause a delay in review. There is no length limit on manuscripts.

Multiple-part papers are discouraged. Although this arrangement is sometimes necessary, authors will often be asked to collapse multiple papers into a single manuscript.

eNeuro uses a double-blind review process, which means the identities of both the authors and reviewers are concealed throughout the review process. In order to facilitate this, authors should ensure their manuscripts are prepared in a way that does not reveal their identity. Please use the following as a guide when submitting your paper:

  • ⁘  Eliminate author names and contact information throughout the paper. See Title Page for more information.
  • ⁘  Use the third person to refer to personal work. For example replace any phrases like “as we have shown before” with “has been shown before.”
  • ⁘  Make sure that the Materials and Methods section does not refer to personal work or contain other identifying details such as affiliation. Do not include statements such as “using the method described in (XXX, 2007).” See Materials and Methods for more information.
  • ⁘  Ensure that figures do not contain any affiliation-related identifier.
  • ⁘  Depersonalize the work by using anonymous text where necessary. Do not include statements such as “as we have reported before.”
  • ⁘  Remove self-citations and citations to unpublished work.
  • ⁘  Do not eliminate essential self-references or other references but limit self-references only to papers that are relevant for those reviewing the submitted paper.
  • ⁘  Remove references to funding sources.

It is the responsibility of the authors to comply with the rules outlined above to ensure anonymity. If anonymity is found to be compromised, the manuscript will be pulled from review and sent back to the authors to make the necessary revisions to ensure author anonymity. If you feel necessary revisions cannot be made to meet the criteria for a double-blind review, please alert the Central Office to inquire whether your manuscript may proceed with a single-blind review of the manuscript.

Extended Data

Authors should make sure all necessary data including extended data and figures essential to the work are included with the submission. Theoretical papers should include enough detail about the models so that the work can be replicated. All extended data will be reviewed by the editors to determine whether it is integral to the study and should be included in the final version of the manuscript.

Citations may not exist solely within the extended data; they must be included in the manuscript. Online data sets are not visible to search engines used by citation indices, making inclusion of references in the main manuscript essential to provide proper credit to those cited.

Only extended data directly related to figures or tables and corresponding figure legends are allowed. Extended data should be labeled as Figure 1-1, Figure 1-2, Table 1-1, Table 1-2, etc., so they indicate which figure or table they are supporting (i.e. extended data table supporting Figure 5 labeled as Figure 5-1). Each should have a legend and be cited in the manuscript text and in the table or figure legend for which they support. Extended data that supports more than one figure and/or table should be labeled as supporting the figure or table referred to first in the text.

For ease of access and review, Extended Data should be submitted in the same format and following the same guidelines as regular figures and tables and uploaded to the system as Multimedia/Extended Data file type (see Multimedia, Figure, and Table Guidelines). Individual files may not exceed 20 MB.

If there is a well-established repository for the data, it should be deposited there; eNeuro will host data without such a repository (see Policy on Molecular Data and Policy on Computer Code and Software).

Code and Software

If a study includes computational work and/or modeling with code that the authors wrote for this study, and the computational work is deemed central to the conclusions of the study by the editors, the following is required for compliance with the Policy on Computer Code and Software:

  • ⁘  The code used for the submission should be uploaded to an online repository by the time the manuscript is accepted. To preserve the double-blind review process, this URL should be redacted in the manuscript while under review and included in the cover letter.
  • ⁘  The code files must be packaged into a single ZIP file, uploaded to the submission system as a “Multimedia/Extended Data” file type.
  • ⁘  A legend for the code file, labeled as “Extended Data 1,” should be at the end of the manuscript.
  • ⁘  A subsection titled “Code Accessibility” should be included in the Materials and Methods section, stating: “The code/software described in the paper is freely available online at [URL redacted for double-blind review]. The code is available as Extended Data.” The full statement, including the redacted URL, should be included in the cover letter to be used if the article is accepted. If there are any accession numbers or restrictions on accessing the code in the repository, these should be included in the full statement.
  • ⁘  The type of computer and operating system on which the code was run to obtain the results in the manuscript must be stated in the Materials and Methods section.

Studies including any custom computational work, analysis, or modeling are encouraged to follow the guidelines above in the initial submission of the manuscript. If the editors deem your computational work central to the conclusions of your manuscript, and the code was not included as described above, you will be asked to provide your code in accordance with these instructions.

Studies for which analysis or modeling software was written must include a subsection in the Materials and Methods section titled “Software Accessibility.” It is encouraged, but not required, for software to be uploaded to the submission and deposited in a repository in accordance with the instructions above. If the software is not published with the article, authors must provide their software to another scientist upon request.

Title Page – Separate from Manuscript Text

The title page of the manuscript should be completed using the Title Page Template [PDF].

Please include all the information listed and upload as a title page file.

Collect the following information to fill in the title page template:

  • ⁘  Title (50-word maximum)
  • ⁘  Abbreviated title (50-character maximum)
  • ⁘  Author names and affiliation, including postal codes
  • ⁘  Corresponding author with complete address, including an email address and postal code
  • ⁘  Number of figures, tables, multimedia (separately)
  • ⁘  Number of words for abstract, introduction, and discussion (separately)
  • ⁘  Acknowledgments
  • ⁘  Conflicts of Interest
  • ⁘  Funding sources

Author Names

Authors who normally write their names in non-Latin characters may include their names in their native writing system in parentheses immediately following a transliterated version, for example, Jingbing Xue (薛晶冰). Any non-Latin languages that can be represented in Unicode characters will be accepted. This second rendering is allowed only for the original written form of a transliterated name and may not be used to include nicknames, degrees, ranks, titles, etc.

The name of a formal group or consortium may be included in the author list only if that group made essential contributions to the results and there is at least one individual author in addition to the group. The group name must be spelled out. Contributions of the entire group should be included in the Author Contribution statement, and the authors may include a URL that provides further information about the group, such as a list of its membership.

Author Affiliations

The author’s affiliation should be their home institution at the time when their primary contribution to the research was made. Authors’ current affiliations may be listed in the acknowledgments section, if different than the listed affiliation.

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments should be used to identify all funding sources. Acknowledgments may also be used to note intellectual, technical, or other assistance that does not warrant authorship. Individuals should be informed before the publication of any such acknowledgments and given the opportunity to decline the recognition. Promotional statements are not permitted. Funding sources should be listed first, with any acknowledgments of assistance following.

Dedications

eNeuro will only allow dedications to recently deceased neuroscientists who made a specific scientific contribution to the work described in the article. If the recently deceased person was one of the authors of the current paper, his or her date of death should be included. eNeuro does not allow dedications to living people.

Conflict of Interest

Conflict of interest declarations are included in the acknowledgments section. For “no conflict,” the preferred wording is: “The authors declare no competing financial interests.” It is expected that authors submitting papers to eNeuro are in accordance with the Society’s Policy on Conflict of Interest.

Manuscript Text

Manuscripts must include the following sections in the order listed:

Do not include the title page or any information that could reveal any author’s identity.

Line numbers will be automatically added to Microsoft Word documents; submissions of other file types should include line numbers.

Abstract (250 words maximum, including citations)

The abstract should be clearly written and readily comprehensible to the broad readership of eNeuro. It should provide a concise summary of the objectives, methodology (including the species and sex studied), key results, and major conclusions of the study. The abstract should be written in complete sentences, without subheadings. Abstracts should be limited to 250 words including citations. Authors are also invited to submit visual abstracts.

Abstracts are not required for commentary, opinion, or review manuscripts.

Significance Statement (120 words maximum)

The Significance Statement should provide a clear explanation of the importance and relevance of the research in a manner accessible to researchers without specialist knowledge in the field and informed lay readers. The Significance Statement will appear within the paper below the abstract.

Introduction

The Introduction should briefly indicate the objectives of the study and provide enough background information to clarify why the study was undertaken and what hypotheses were tested. Research article Introductions are limited to 750 words including citations. Open Source Tools and Methods Introductions are limited to 500 words including citations.

Materials and Methods

The Materials and Methods section should provide sufficient information to allow other investigators to repeat the research (see also Policy Concerning Availability of Materials). Previously published work by the authors must not be referenced but rather described in detail at least for the review process. Once the paper is accepted the authors may add the relevant references. Reference to publish procedures can be made if these procedures are commonly accepted by the scientific community. The sex of the species studied must be stated. All companies from which materials were obtained should be listed. If materials were obtained from an individual, an affiliation for that individual should be listed. A manuscript that presents only a theory may omit the Materials and Methods section.

All animal experimentation reported in eNeuro must have been conducted in accordance with the Society’s Policies on the Use of Animals and Humans in Neuroscience Research. Conditions of animal housing should be provided (e.g., group/individual housing). The Zeitgeber Time (ZT, with ZT0 = lights on in the animal facility) of the experiment must be provided. If animals, particularly rodents, were housed individually in single cages, the possible caveats for data interpretation should be discussed. The use of individual housing should be justified.

To preserve the double-blind process please use the following statement regarding animal use: “All animal procedures were performed in accordance with the [Author University] animal care committee’s regulations.” The full statement including the name of the institution should be included in the cover letter to be used if the article is accepted.

Regarding the location where human subjects were recruited please use the following statement: “Human subjects were recruited at a location which will be identified if the article is published.” The full statement including the location should be included in the cover letter and will be used if the article is accepted.

Statistics

Numerical data should be analyzed using appropriate statistical tests. The authors must state the statistical methods they have used: descriptive and/or experimental design. In the case of experimental design, the authors must indicate the type: nonrandom or random (non-inferiority or superiority).

Whenever applicable or relevant, eNeuro strongly encourages estimation statistics (see Editorial and Opinion article).

  • ⁘  Statistical analysis should always include effect sizes and expressions of uncertainty (an interval estimate).
  • ⁘  Authors can select an approach to quantifying uncertainty that best meets their research goals (frequentist confidence intervals, Bayesian credible intervals, bootstrapped intervals, etc.).
  • ⁘  For key findings it is especially helpful to provide figures that directly visualize uncertainty (e.g., the estimation plots, https://www.estimationstats.com/).
  • ⁘  If possible, figures should include all data points.
  • ⁘  Effect sizes and uncertainty should inform interpretation and discussion: thoughtfully consider the range of parameter values that are consistent with the data and draw conclusions that appropriately reflect uncertainty.
  • ⁘  Hypothesis tests can also be reported where it is important to make clear yes/no decisions. In general, though, testing of a single point null does not provide a stringent test of hypothesis. Thus, authors are encouraged to consider equivalence testing or similar Bayesian procedures.
Statistical Table

The first column is the structure of the data (e.g., normal distribution).

The second column lists the statistical test.

The third column should give confidence intervals.

The lines refer to the numerical values provided in the text as they appear in the results section.

  Data Structure Type of test Power
a      
b      
c      

 

RRIDs

eNeuro encourages use of Research Resource Identifiers (RRIDs) through the Resource Identification Initiative, a project aimed at promoting reproducibility by clearly identifying the key resources used in the course of scientific research, including critical reagents and tools. RRIDs can be identified or submitted at the Resource Identification Portal.

Once you have located an RRID, insert “RRID:” plus the identifier in the appropriate location in the manuscript. For example: “Sections were stained with a rabbit polyclonal antibody against ERK1 (Abgent Cat# AP7251E, RRID: AB_2140114).”

URLs

eNeuro encourages the use of links to web pages providing detailed specification for animal lines, reagents, software packages, etc., when it is impossible or impractical to include a unique identifier or unambiguous description. URLs should be cited in parentheses in the text. For example: “Experiments were done using C57BL mice (http://jaxmice.jax.org/strain/013636.html).”

Links to sites providing tutorial material (e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/) are not allowed in articles because their authority and permanence cannot be verified. URLs of personal or laboratory websites or Dropboxes are also prohibited to maintain author and reviewer anonymity.

Reanalysis of Published Data

Reanalyses of published data are allowed if the original study reporting the data collection is clearly and thoroughly cited, if there are no duplications of figures or graphs that have already been published, and if the study clearly acknowledges that this is a previously acquired data.

Results

The results section should clearly and succinctly present the experimental findings. Only results essential to establish the main points of the work should be included. For research articles, there is no limit to length or number of figures and tables for this section. For Open Source Tools and Methods, the Results section must not exceed 1000 words including citations.

Authors must provide detailed information for each analysis performed, including population size, definition of the population (e.g., number of individual measurements, number of animals, number of slices, number of times treatment was applied, etc.), and specific p values (not > or <), followed by a superscript lowercase letter referring to the statistical table provided at the end of the results section. Numerical data must be depicted in the figures with box plots.

Discussion

The discussion section should include a brief statement of the principal findings, a discussion of the validity of the observations, a discussion of the findings in light of other published work dealing with the same or closely related subjects, and a statement of the possible significance of the work. Extensive discussion of the literature is discouraged. If applicable, the discussion should include a rationale for using only one sex (male or female).

In research articles, the Discussion section is limited to 3000 words including citations. In Open Source Tools and Methods, the Discussion section is limited to 1000 words including citations.

References

Only published, preprint, and in-press (i.e., accepted for publication in a specific journal or book) should appear in the reference list at the end of the paper. The latest information on in-press references should be provided. In the case of in-press references (i.e., accepted for publication in a specific journal or book) the paper, which must be relevant for reviewers to see in order to make a well-informed evaluation should be included as a separate document text file along with the submitted manuscript. In this case, the authors recognize the loss of anonymity. “Submitted” references should be cited only in text and in the following form: (unpublished observations). If the paper is accepted, the authors can then add their names: A. B. Smith, C. D. Johnson, and E. Green, unpublished observations). The form for personal communications is similar: (F. G. Jackson, personal communication). Authors are responsible for all personal communications and must obtain written approval from persons cited before submitting the paper to eNeuro. Proof of such approval may be requested by eNeuro.

References should be cited in the text as follows: “The procedure used has been described elsewhere (Green, 1978),” or “Our observations are in agreement with those of Brown and Black (1979) and of White et al. (1980),” or, with multiple references in chronological order: “Earlier reports (Brown and Black, 1979, 1981; White et al., 1980; Smith, 1982, 1984) ...”

Papers should be given in alphabetical order according to the surname of the first author. In two-author papers with the same first author, the order is alphabetical by the second author’s name. In three-or-more-author papers with the same first author, the order is chronological. The name of the author(s) should be followed by the date in parentheses, the full title of the paper as it appeared in the original together with the source of the reference, the volume number, and the first and last pages. Do not number or bullet the references. If the author list for a paper in the references exceeds 20, the paper should be cited as Author A et al. The following illustrate the format to be used:

Journal article

  • Hamill OP, Marty A, Neher E, Sakmann B, Sigworth F (1981) Improved patch-clamp techniques for high-resolution current recordings from cells and cell free membrane patches. Pflugers Arch 391:85–100.
  • Hodgkin AL, Huxley AF (1952a) The components of membrane conductance in the giant axon of Loligo. J Physiol (Lond) 116:473–496.
  • Hodgkin AL, Huxley AF (1952b) The dual effect of membrane potential on sodium conductance in the giant axon of Loligo. J Physiol (Lond) 116:497–506.

Book

  • Hille B (1984) Ionic channels of excitable membranes. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer.

Chapter in a book

  • Stent GS (1981) Strength and weakness of the genetic approach to the development of the nervous system. In: Studies in developmental neurobiology: essays in honor of Viktor Hamburger (Cowan WM, ed), pp288–321. New York: Oxford UP.

Abbreviations of journal titles should follow those listed in the Index Medicus. Responsibility for correct references lies with the authors. All references on the reference list must have at least one corresponding in-text citation. References must be double-spaced, and no bullets, numbers, or other listing formats should be used.

Multimedia, Figure, and Table Guidelines

Multimedia and 3D Models

Essential multimedia will be displayed in line with the article text, as is done for figures.

Multimedia files must be numbered independently of figures and tables and cited at the relevant point in the text. A title should be part of the legend and not lettered onto the multimedia file itself. A legend, including sufficient detail to be intelligible without reference to the text, must be included in the manuscript document after the reference list. Legends must define all symbols and include essential information, such as scale bar dimensions. If videos are not in real time and the time is not displayed in the video, the period represented must be stated in the legend.

Multimedia files must be in MP4 format. 3D models must be in U3D format.

For each video submitted, authors should provide a preview image that best captures the main point of the video. These images should follow the same sizing and resolution guidelines as figures.

Figures

Figures must be numbered independently of tables and multimedia and cited in the manuscript. Do not duplicate data by presenting it both in the text and in a figure.

A title should be part of the legend and should not appear as text on the figure file. A legend must be included in the manuscript document after the reference list and should include enough detail to be intelligible without reference to the text. Specific individuals’ contributions to data acquisition, analysis, or other responsibility resulting in a figure may be included at the end of each legend. Please use the heading “Figure Contributions” and state each contribution with the author’s full name.

Figure Contributions: John Smith performed the experiments; Jane Jones analyzed the data.

Figures must be submitted as separate files in TIFF or EPS format and be submitted at the size they are to appear: 1 column (maximum width 8.5 cm), 1.5 columns (maximum width 11.6 cm) or 2 columns (maximum width 17.6 cm). They should be the smallest size that will convey the essential scientific information.

Color figures should be in RGB format and supplied at a minimum of 300 dpi. Monochrome (bitmap) images must be supplied at 1200 dpi. Grayscale must be supplied at a minimum of 300 dpi. For figures in vector-based format, all fonts should be converted to outlines and saved as EPS files to ensure that they are reproduced correctly.

Remove top and right borderlines that to not contain measuring metrics from all graph/histogram figure panels (i.e., do not box the panels in). Do not include any two-bar graphs/histograms; instead state those values in the text.

All illustrations documenting results must include a bar to indicate the scale. All labels used in a figure should be explained in the legend. The migration of protein molecular weight size markers or nucleic acid size markers must be indicated and labeled appropriately (e.g., “kD”, “nt”, “bp”) on all figure panels showing gel electrophoresis.

Illustrations should be prepared so that they are accessible to color-blind readers and color should only be used if it is necessary to accurately convey the information being presented by the image. Grayscale generally provides a more faithful representation when a single quantity is displayed. Use textures or different line types rather than colors in bar plots or graphs. Figures with red and green are particularly problematic and should generally be converted to magenta and green. If no suitable combination can be found, consider presenting separate monochrome images for the different color channels. For line drawings that require color, consider redundant coding by adding different textures or line types to the colors.

Tables

All tables must be numbered independently of figures, multimedia, and 3D models and cited in the manuscript. Do not duplicate data by presenting it both in the text and in a table.

Each table should include a title and legend; legends should be included in the manuscript file after the reference list. Legends should include sufficient detail to be intelligible without reference to the text, define all symbols, and include essential information.

Each table should be double-spaced. Multiple-part tables (A and B sections with separate subtitles) should be avoided, especially when there are two types of column headings.

Do not use color or shading, bold or italic fonts, or lines to highlight information. Indention of text and sometimes, additional space between lines is preferred. 

Visual Abstracts

Visual abstracts are single graphical images or schematics that are designed to emphasize the main findings of the article and are intended to help readers quickly identify papers that are most relevant to their areas of research.

For ease of reading, visual abstracts should have a clear beginning and end: either from top to bottom or left to right. Content should be in graphical form with minimal text. Visual abstracts are considered a part of the technical content of the article and will go through peer review.

The visual abstract should be submitted at the smallest size that will convey the essential scientific information. It should follow the same guidelines as figures and should be submitted as a separate file in TIFF or EPS format.

Mathematics and Equations

Manuscripts with many mathematical characters and equations should be prepared using MathType version 6.0 or higher. Manuscripts with a minimal amount of math may be prepared using word-processing tools such as Word’s Equation Editor, or with features such as bold, italics, superscript and subscript together with characters in the Symbol or Greek fonts. Do not use the Wingdings or Webdings fonts.

Abbreviations and Units

Standard Abbreviations do not need to be defined. For other abbreviations appearing two or more times, spell out the term at first occurrence and introduce the abbreviation by placing it in parentheses after the term. SI units should be used without definition. Temperature should be expressed in degrees Celsius.

Preferred Usage

The term “killed” is preferred to “euthanized” or “sacrificed,” which are considered euphemisms. If the word “killed” is objectionable, wording can be modified. For example, “the animal was exsanguinated” instead of “the animal was killed by exsanguination.”

Italics are used for binomial nomenclature, gene names, genetically modified mice (e.g., mutants) and for certain Latin terms, but not for emphasis (e.g., “the Growth group,” not “the Growth group”).