Clinical and Translational Neuroscience

Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Clinical and Translational Neuroscience

1. Open Access
2. Article processing charge (APC)
3. Article types
4. Editorial policies
   4.1.Peer Review Policy
   4.2 Authorship
   4.3 Acknowledgments
   4.4 Funding
   4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
   4.6 Research ethics and patient consent
   4.7 Clinical Trials
   4.8 Reporting guidelines
   4.9 Data
5. Publishing policies
   5.1 Publication ethics
   5.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement
   5.3 Permissions
6. Preparing your manuscript
   6.1 Word processing formats
   6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
   6.3 Supplementary material
   6.4 Journal layout
   6.5 Reference style
   6.6 English language editing services
7. Submitting your manuscript
   7.1 How to submit your manuscript
   7.2 Title, keywords and abstracts
   7.3 Corresponding author contact details
8. On acceptance and publication
   8.1 Production
   8.2 Coninuous publication
9. Further information

This Journal recommends that authors follow the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Please read the guidelines below then visit the journal’s submission site http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ctn to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.

Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Clinical and Translational Neuroscience 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
Clinical and Translational Neuroscience is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. Each article accepted by peer review is made freely available online immediately upon publication, is published under a Creative Commons license and will be hosted online in perpetuity. Publication costs of the journal are covered by the collection of article processing charges which are paid by the funder, institution or author of each manuscript upon acceptance. There is no charge for submitting a paper to the journal.

For general information on open access at SAGE please visit the Open Access page or view our Open Access FAQs.

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2. Article processing charge (APC)
If, after peer review, your manuscript is accepted for publication, a one-time article processing charge (APC) is payable. This APC covers the cost of publication and ensures that your article will be freely available online in perpetuity under a Creative Commons licence.

The article processing charge (APC) is $1,500.

*If the paying party is based in the European Union, to comply with European law, value added tax (VAT) must be added to the APC. Providing a VAT registration number will allow an institution to be exempt from paying this tax, except for UK institutions.

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3. Article types

Original Article: Original research, including both basic and clinical science and controlled trials.

Abstracts should be a maximum of 250 words and should be structured appropriately. The introduction should not exceed 600 words and the Discussion 1,500 words. There is no word limit on Methods and Results however the manuscript’s readability may suffer if these sections are excessively long. Authors should therefore consider what data and analyses may be appropriate for supplemental information. There is no limit to the number of references.

Reviews: literature reviews, systematic reviews, market reviews and critical reviews will be accepted for consideration. Reviews must contain no more than 5,000 words. There are no limits to figures or references, but authors are advised that the Editorial Board will not accept poorly-focused reviews.

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4. Editorial policies

4.1 Peer review policy
Following a preliminary triage to eliminate submissions unsuitable for Clinical and Translational Neuroscience all papers are sent out for review. The covering letter is important. To help the Editor in his preliminary evaluation, please indicate why you think the paper suitable for publication. If your paper should be considered for fast-track publication, please explain why. The journal’s policy is to have manuscripts reviewed by two expert reviewers. Clinical and Translational Neuroscience 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 who then makes the final decision.

The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor / Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.

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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:

(i) Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data,
(ii) Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
(iii) Approved the version to be published,
(iv) Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.

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.

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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 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.

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4.4 Funding
Clinical and Translational Neuroscience requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading.  Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests  
It is the policy of Clinical and Translational Neuroscience 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.

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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.

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4.7 Clinical trials
Clinical and Translational Neuroscience 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.

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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 Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) flow chart as a cited figure, and a completed CONSORT checklist as a supplementary file.
Other resources can be found at NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives

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4.9 Data
SAGE acknowledges the importance of research data availability as an integral part of the research and verification process for academic journal articles.

Clinical and Translational Neuroscience requests all authors submitting any primary data used in their research articles to be published in the online version of the journal, or provide detailed information in their articles on how the data can be obtained. This information should include links to third-party data repositories or detailed contact information for third-party data sources. Data available only on an author-maintained website will need to be loaded onto either the journal’s platform or a third-party platform to ensure continuing accessibility. Examples of data types include but are not limited to statistical data files, replication code, text files, audio files, images, videos, appendices, and additional charts and graphs necessary to understand the original research. The editor(s) can grant exceptions for data that cannot legally or ethically be released. All data submitted should comply with Institutional or Ethical Review Board requirements and applicable government regulations. For further information, please contact the editorial office at [email address].

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5. Publishing policies

5.1 Publication ethics
SAGE is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the SAGE Author Gateway.

5.1.1 Plagiarism
Clinical and Translational Neuroscience and SAGE 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. 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 a SAGE journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the SAGE Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

5.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement
Before publication SAGE requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement.  Clinical and Translational Neuroscience publishes manuscripts under Creative Commons licenses. The standard Clinical and Translational Neuroscience license is Creative Commons by Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0), which allows others to re-use the work without permission as long as the work is properly referenced and the use is non-commercial. For more information, you are advised to visit SAGE's OA licenses page

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

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5.3 Permissions      
Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway.

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6. Preparing your manuscript

6.1 Word processing formats
Preferred formats for the text and tables of your manuscript are Word DOC, RTF, XLS. LaTeX files are also accepted. The text should be double-spaced throughout and with a minimum of 3cm for left and right hand margins and 5cm at head and foot. Text should be standard 10 or 12 point. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.

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6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit SAGE’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines 

Figures supplied in color will appear in color online.

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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.  For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files, which can be found within our Manuscript Submission Guidelines page.

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6.4 Journal layout
Clinical and Translational Neuroscience conforms to the SAGE house style.  Click here to review guidelines on SAGE House Style.

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6.5 Reference style

Clinical and Translational Neuroscience adheres to the SAGE Vancouver reference style. Please review the guidelines on SAGE Vancouver to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the SAGE Vancouver output file here.

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6.6 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using SAGE Language Services. Visit SAGE Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.

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7. Submitting your manuscript

7.1 How to submit your manuscript
Clinical and Translational Neuroscience is hosted on SAGE Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ctn 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.  For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

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7.2 Title, keywords and abstracts
Please supply a title, short 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. Please refer to the information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords by visiting the SAGE Journal Author Gateway for guidelines on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.

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7.3 Corresponding author contact details
Provide full contact details for the corresponding author including email, 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.

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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 check for SAGE Production, the corresponding author will be asked to pay the article processing charge (APC) via a payment link. Once the APC has been processed, your article will be prepared for publication and can appear online within an average of 25 days. Please note that no production work will occur on your paper until the APC has been received.

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8.1 SAGE Production
When your paper enters the SAGE Production system, your paper will be issued with a 6 digit ID number. Your SAGE Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by email attachment 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.

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8.2 Continuous publication
One of the many benefits of publishing your research in an open access journal is the speed to publication. With no issues to fill and 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. Check the ‘Latest Articles’ tab on the journal website for the latest published content. Articles are batched every quarter, and are then available in the Archive.

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9. Further information
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the Manuscript Submission process should be sent to the Editorial Office as follows:

claudio.bassetti@insel.ch

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