Instructions for Authors
Aims and Scopes
The Journal of Child Neurology (JCN) is an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed biomedical journal publishing articles in the fields of child neurology, pediatric neurosurgery, pediatric neuroradiology, child psychiatry, pediatric neuropsychology, developmental and behavior pediatrics, pediatric neuroscience, and developmental neurobiology.
General Instructions
All submissions (including invited material) are subjected to peer review. Authors are invited to submit original articles of all types for consideration. Case reports can be submitted as brief communications. All material must be submitted online at the SAGETRACK ScholarOne website http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/childneurology. New authors should use the “Create Account: New users click here” button at the submission website. After entering the website, go to the “Corresponding Author Center” to submit manuscripts, using the “Click here to submit a new manuscript” button. Manuscript text and tables must be prepared and submitted only in Microsoft Office Word (MSWord) document format (saved as “.doc” files). Files to be uploaded should be complete final versions of text of the article (including abstract and keywords), tables, and figures (photographs, art work, or line drawings); do not insert existing figures into the MSWord document file. At the completion of the upload of each file, a confirmation window will appear asking for a description of the file (for the main document, use language such as “article text” or “main document”; for figures, indicate a figure number, such as “Figure 1”; and for other supporting materials, indicate clearly what the file is).
Copyright
Submission of a manuscript to JCN is taken as evidence that the materials have not been submitted simultaneously elsewhere and that no part of the text or any of the figures has been copyrighted, published, or reproduced elsewhere unless information regarding previous publication is explicitly cited and permission obtained (a copy of such permission must be provided with the manuscript). Once a manuscript is accepted for publication, the corresponding author will be required to complete an electronic copyright transfer form. From SAGETRACK website “Corresponding Author Center” choose the correct manuscript from “Manuscripts with Decisions” and from the ACTION box on the far right side, choose “Contributor Form.” After reading the form and completing the appropriate boxes, clicking the “I accept” box will confirm appropriate copyright transfer.
Text
Manuscripts should follow the usual format for scientific articles and articles recently published in JCN (examples can be found at the SAGE Journals Online website http://jcn.sagepub.com). Authors must assure that manuscripts conform to the style guidelines of the AMA Manual of Style. Manuscript pages should be double-spaced and numbered consecutively with the appropriate subheadings used to designate different sections in the following order: title page, abstract, keywords, text, references, tables, and figure legends. Avoid use of any abbreviations or acronyms unless the abbreviation or acronym itself has become a word (e.g., DNA). Only generic names of drugs should be used. Clinical laboratory data (including normal ranges) should be expressed in conventional units rather than SI (Système International) units, although SI units can be provided in parentheses. Authors whose native language is not English must have manuscripts carefully proofread and corrected for proper American English spelling, grammar, and syntax by a professional editor or colleague who is a native English speaker. Authors should retain for their own files at least one complete copy of all material submitted. Additional information on manuscript preparation can be obtained from the website http://www.icmje.org or from the following references:
1. AMA Manual of Style: A Guide for Authors and Editors. 10th ed. New York, NY: Oxford Press; 2007.
2. Brumback RA. Success at publishing in biomedical journals: hints from a journal editor. J Child Neurol. 2009;24:370-378.
3. Brumback RA. ABRV (or Abbrevobabble Revisited). J Child Neurol. 2009;24(12):1477-1479.
4. Brumback RA. Publishing in biomedical journals: the system in review. J Child Neurol. 1991;6:193-195.
5. Kushlan JA. Use and abuse of abbreviations in technical communication. J Child Neurol. 1995;10:1-3.
6. Young DS, Huth EJ. SI Units for Clinical Measurement. Philadelphia, PA: American College of Physicians; 1998.
7. Council of Science Editors, Style Manual Committee. Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual For Authors, Editors, and Publishers. 7th ed. Reston, VA: The Council; 2006.
Title page. The title should be brief and meaningful. Following the title, there should be a listing of first and last names of all authors, along with highest academic or medical degrees and affiliations. Authorship should be limited to direct participants. List the complete name, address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address for the corresponding author (authors who do not have an e-mail account can obtain one from among the free sites such as “gmail.com,” “hotmail.com,”' or “yahoo.com”'). For multi-authored submissions, up to three authors can be designated as “first authors who contributed equally to this work” if the contributions of those individuals essentially constituted the majority of the work on the project. In addition, “mentors who contributed equally to this work” can be used to define a category of authorship for senior investigators, clinicians, or directors who equally provided the support and mentorship necessary for the success of the work. A separate paragraph of “acknowledgements” should identify where the work was done, the meeting, if any, at which the material was presented, and any assistance in writing the manuscript or other help that did not merit authorship (including “ghost authorship”). A separate “declaration of conflicting interests” should describe all potential conflicts of interest or commercial or other financial relationships of the authors and a separate paragraph of “funding” should list all financial support for the studies.
Abstract. An unstructured abstract of no more than 150 words should be provided on a separate page and should be factual, presenting the reason for the study, main findings, and conclusions.
References. Authors are responsible for correctness and completeness of reference citations. The reference list should be typed double-spaced and begin on a separate page. Reference citations should be arranged according to their order of appearance in the text, and indicated by superscript numbers in the text. References should be typed generally in accordance with the style of the AMA Manual of Style (examples shown below). Only the first four authors should be listed; when there are more than four authors, list only the first three followed by “et al.” Abbreviations of journal names should conform to the style in PubMed. Abstracts should be noted as such. Citation of websites should list the complete URL address and the date and month accessed. Sample references are given below.
1. Liptak GS, Bloss JW, Briskin H, et al. The management of children with spinal dysraphism. J Child Neurol. 1988;3(1):3-20.
2. Benson DF. The role of frontal dysfunction in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. J Child Neurol. 1991;6(Suppl):S9-S12.
3. Christoferson LA, Leech RW. Animal models of hydrocephalus. In Leech RW, Brumback RA, eds. Hydrocephalus: Current Clinical Concepts. St. Louis, MO: Mosby-Year Book; 1991:71-76.
4. Volpe JJ. Neurology of the Newborn. 2nd ed. Philadelphia, PA: WB Saunders; 1987.
Personal communications, unpublished manuscripts submitted but not yet accepted, and similar unpublished items should not appear in the reference list, but can be noted parenthetically in the text. If reference managers (such as EndNote) are used, the author must assure that the submitted manuscript has the references provided in the same plain text manner as the rest of the manuscript.
Artwork Submissions
Artwork includes charts and graphs, maps, photographs, line art, and tables with 17 or more columns. Electronic art should be prepared as sharp high-quality computer images with a minimum width of 2100 pixels and saved in uncompressed TIFF and JPEG file formats. Microsoft application files are acceptable for vector art (line art). For all scanned images, line art (black and white) images should be scanned as a bitmap at 900ppi and photos should be scanned as grayscale or CMYK at 300ppi. Graphs should be submitted as figure files and should be finished drawings, not requiring further artwork. All patient identifiers must be removed from pictures of radiographs or other imaging modalities. Recognizable photographs of patients must be accompanied by written permission for publication. Reproduction of any previously published illustration must be accompanied by written permission from both the original author and publisher. Figure legends should include full explanations of the figures and be typewritten double-spaced with numbers corresponding to those on the figure files themselves. Abbreviations appearing in figures must be fully identified in the legend. All figures must be specifically referred to in the text and numbered in order of appearance in the text. Color photographs or illustrations will be published in the online version at no cost to the authors; however publication of color images in the print version will be charged to the author at a cost of $800 for the first figure and $200 for each additional figure.
Tables
Tables should be numbered consecutively corresponding to in-text citation. Each table should be prepared on a separate page at the end of the text document and preferably should be no larger than a single page. Include a brief descriptive title of the table and a footnote with explanation of any abbreviations. All tables must be specifically referred to in the text and numbered in order of appearance in the text.
Conflict of Interest
Authors must disclose any commercial, financial, or other associations that could pose a conflict of interest in connection with their submitted article and these must be disclosed on the title page at the time of submission.
Checklist for Authors
A checklist for authors is available here. Authors should use this list to ensure they have followed all guidelines for submitting to the journal.
Publish Ahead of Print With Onlinefirst
Onlinefirst is a feature in which completed articles are published online prior to their inclusion in a print issue, offering authors the advantage of making their research accessible to the public in a more timely manner. Only online subscribers can view these PDFs, but abstracts are available to the public to view for free. Onlinefirst articles are fed to search engines and citation and content repositories, such as PubMed, MEDLINE, CrossRef, and Google Scholar, and therefore are available to be accessed and cited. Each Onlinefirst manuscript is citable by the publication date of the manuscript’s first online posting and the Digital Object Identifier (DOI), providing a persistent, permanent way to identify manuscripts published in the online environment. You can cite Onlinefirst articles as follows:
Author’s last name, first initials. Article title. Journal title. Prepublished month day, year; DOI: 10.1177/ 0123456789123456
Once your article has completed the production process and before it is published in a print issue, it will be posted online. You can access JCN Onlinefirst articles on the Web at http://jcn.sagepub.com/pap.dtl. Once posted online, articles may not be retracted or edited. If your article is not completed prior to its publication date, it will not go on Onlinefirst but will be posted online with the issue in which it is published.
