About JNeurosci

Updated March 2023

Mission

To advance neuroscience research by publishing and widely disseminating the highly rigorous research representative of the breadth of neuroscience; to ensure the peer review system remains rapid and fair; and to provide outlets for discussion of neuroscience that are not available elsewhere, allowing for competing ideas, debate, and questions around neuroscience.

Aims and Scope

JNeurosci is a multidisciplinary journal that publishes papers on a broad range of topics of general interest to those working on the nervous system.

Criteria

To warrant publication in JNeurosci, a manuscript must demonstrate that its findings are of interest to the neuroscience community.

For example, if your study was not directly focused on a neuron but an ion channel, you should explicitly state within the Significance Statement and Discussion why the results are of interest to the field of neuroscience.

If there are questions about scope, a presubmission inquiry can be made through JNeurosci submission website. Papers that are outside of the journal’s scope may be editorially rejected, without peer review.

Transferring to eNeuro

JNeurosci and eNeuro are SfN journals with complementary scopes. Papers that describe a novel method that has not yet been used to make neurobiological insights, new observations that do not yet have mechanistic underpinnings, non-replications and replications of published studies, and brief reports are all within the scope of eNeuro. Thus good manuscripts of this type are likely to be suggested for transfer without review, if they are submitted to JNeurosci.

JNeurosci Values

To support its mission, JNeurosci is committed to the following values:

  1. Scientific excellence and rigor: JNeurosci values scientific studies that reflect unbiased and repeatable experiments, methods, procedures, analysis, and reporting to advance the field of neuroscience.
    • Our commitment to scientific rigor is reflected in our policies, which are evaluated on an ongoing basis to respond to developments and standards in the field.
  2. Representation of the breadth of the neuroscience field: JNeurosci evolves with the field as it changes. Our categories have changed over the years to reflect the breadth of the field of neuroscience.
    • Currently, our topics of research are:
    • In addition to research articles, JNeurosci publishes features that provide a service to the field and to our readers.
      • Journal Clubs are written by students or post docs and provide a thoughtful overview on a current topic, as well as providing the author(s) a learning and authorship opportunity outside of a regular research manuscript.
    • Feature Articles:
      • Dual Perspectives are a pair of short, expert mini-reviews that provide opposing and/or complementary hypotheses related to an important question in neuroscience, written by proponents of each view.
      • TechSights provide broad reviews and evaluations of technical developments that are likely to have profound impacts on current and future neuroscience research.
      • Progressions explore scientific journeys that have commenced with papers published in JNeurosci.
      • Viewpoints provide an overview of a single topic in neuroscience that is introductory enough to be accessible to the broad readership of the Journal but broad enough to provide an interesting context for that topic.
      • Symposium and Mini-Symposium papers are invited short summaries or overviews of selected symposia and mini-symposia presented at the SfN Annual Meeting, and written by the speakers. Symposia are published each year corresponding with the SfN meeting, in the Journal’s special Annual Meeting issue.
  3. Diversity: JNeurosci is committed to ensuring diversity among the members of its editorial board and reviewers across gender, age, and geography.
    • We value our reviewers who generously contribute their time and expertise to serve the field. Each year, we like to recognize our top reviewers who helped to make JNeurosci successful for another year. Our Associate Editors are the most frequent and highly rated reviewers that review for the journal.
    • To engage new reviewers and provide training in fair, rigorous, and constructive review, JNeurosci has initiated a reviewer training program to pair trainees highly experienced reviewers.
  4. Prompt and effective dissemination of peer reviewed science: JNeurosci publishes 50 weeks a year, one volume a year, and is committed to publishing papers as quickly as possible, while maintaining scientific excellence and rigor.
    • Select Bibliometrics:
      • 2021 Journal Impact Factor: 6.709
      • Total Cites: 192,643
      • Cited Half-Life: 11.9
      • Eigenfactor Score: 0.13097
      • h5-index: 107
      • h5-median: 135
      • Scopus CiteScore: 10.3
    • Sources: 2022 Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate Analytics, 2022), Google Scholar, and Scopus.
      • An accepted manuscript is quickly published online as a PDF version in our Early Release section, followed by a copyedited version published within an issue.
      • Our editorial board also works hard to provide a first decision quickly, with a median of 32 days from submission to first decision.
    • As an official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, JNeurosci can reach the largest neuroscience community in the world.
    • Our communications team works actively to alert the press to articles published in the journals, which has resulted in research featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, Newsweek, TIME, HuffPost.
  5. Fair, constructive experience in peer review: JNeurosci values the work of its authors and reviewers and is committed to providing a constructive experience in the evaluation of research.
    • Decisions are made by our journal editors who are active research scientists in the field. JNeurosci covers and works hard to represent the various sub-disciplines within the field, both in its published content and among the members of its editorial board and peer reviewers.
  1. Working to understand the publishing needs of the field: JNeurosci and its editorial board scan the publishing landscape regularly, stay in touch with the readership and community, and respond to the changing publications environment. JNeurosci values the exchange of scientific communication and uses technology to enhance communication within the scientific community and with the public.

History

The Journal of Neuroscience was first published on January 1, 1981, under the leadership of Maxwell Cowan as Editor-in-Chief, and included five section editors: Solomon Snyder, molecular neuroscience; Michael Bennett, cellular neuroscience; Gerald Fischbach, developmental neuroscience; Eric Kandel, behavioral neuroscience; and Edward Evarts and R. W. Guillery, neural systems.

JNeurosci was initially published through partnerships between the Society for Neuroscience and external publishers, including 10 years with Oxford University Press. JNeurosci was brought in-house to SfN for publication in 1996. To learn more about the beginning of The Journal of Neuroscience, read "Coming of Age: The Founding of The Journal of Neuroscience" in Chapter IV of the history of SfN timeline.

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