About JNeurosci

Updated September 2024

Mission

The Journal of Neuroscience is an official journal of the Society for Neuroscience (SfN). JNeurosci seeks to advance neuroscience research by publishing and widely disseminating high-quality research representative of the breadth of neuroscience; ensuring transparent, rapid, and fair peer review; and providing outlets for open discussion and debate that are not available elsewhere.

Aims and Scope

JNeurosci is a transdisciplinary journal and welcomes contributions from the broad field including (but not limited to) molecular, cellular, developmental, systems, behavioral, cognitive, computational, integrative, translational, and clinical neuroscience. JNeurosci’s editorial leadership is composed of active scientists. We are committed to publishing novel and rigorous studies that significantly advance our knowledge and that appeal collectively to the values and interests of the entire neuroscience community.

Criteria

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

If there are questions about scope, a presubmission inquiry can be made through JNeurosci submission system. Papers that are outside of the journal's scope may be editorially rejected without peer review. Editorial rejection is intended to benefit authors by delivering rapid decisions for manuscripts that are not likely to succeed in peer review and to relieve the burden on volunteer reviewers. Learn more about this philosophy in the editorial, "Why Editorial Rejection?".

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, strong 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. 
    • We welcome research articles from across the breadth of the field including (but not limited to) molecular, cellular, developmental, systems, behavioral, cognitive, computational, integrative and clinical neuroscience.
    • 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.
      • Neuro and Beyond is a commentary series that highlights topics at the intersection of neuroscience and society, illustrating neuroscience contributions beyond the discipline to the benefit of the greater good.
    • 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.
      • Symposia papers are invited short summaries or overviews of selected symposia and minisymposia presented at the SfN Annual Meeting, written by the speakers. Symposia are published each year to coincide with the SfN meeting.
  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:
      • 2023 Journal Impact Factor: 4.4
      • Total Cites: 143,793
      • Cited Half-Life: 13.3
      • Eigenfactor Score: 0.06585
      • h5-index: 95
      • h5-median: 119
      • Scopus CiteScore: 9.3
    • Sources: 2023 Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate Analytics, 2024), Google Scholar, and Scopus.
      • An accepted manuscript is quickly published online in Early Release. The final version is pubished within an issue in the following weeks.
      • The Editorial Board works to provide a first decision quickly, in 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, and transparent 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 journal editors who are active research scientists in the field. JNeurosci represents the various subdisciplines within the field, both in its published content and among the members of the Editorial Board and reviewers.
    • Beginning in 2023, JNeurosci is embracing open peer review. Decision letters, reviewer comments, and author responses will be published alongside an accepted article. Both reviewers and authors will be able to opt out from sharing this material during the submission and review process. Learn more about open peer review in the editorial, "Introducing Open Peer Review at JNeurosci".
  1. Working to understand the publishing needs of the field: The Editorial Board monitors the publishing landscape, stays in touch with the readership and community, and responds 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.

Accessibility

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