Authors Info

Authors Info & Guidelines

SCOPE

BrainImmune publishes short but comprehensive online articles covering the broad spectrum of fundamental & clinical aspects of the neuroendocrine- and stress-immune interactions.

Our content is written by experts in the field whose research has had a major influence on the development of the topic reviewed.

Article TYPES

For your info we publish the following article types:

1) Short Reviews or Overviews (see an example) 2) Evolving Concepts 3) Editorials and Opinion 4) Commentaries 5) History Overviews 6) Feature & Faces 7) What’s Hot 8) Blogs 9) News Reports.

STYLE

We would like to keep a liberal style but please note:

It is instrumental to give enough background and the text should be intelligible to non-specialists, with definitions of unfamiliar technical terms and explanations of difficult or controversial points included. At the same time, the overview is to be sufficiently precise and detailed to command the attention and respect of experts in the field.

Take into account that this is online publishing, thus keep style clear, concise and to the point.
We cover the extremely broad spectrum and interface from neurosciences, endocrinology, psychiatry, psychology and psychosomatics to immunology and molecular biology. Hence, keep in mind that a substantial part of our readers are, by definition, NOT experts in your field.
Use American English spelling and minimize the use of nonstandard abbreviations.

LENGTH

The usual length, for Short Reviews or Overviews, corresponds to about 8 to 25 double-spaced typewritten manuscript pages in Word format. History, Commentaries and Evolving Concepts articles are, by definition, much shorter and their length corresponds to about 3 to 8 double-spaced typewritten manuscript pages in Word format.

Authors Info – Manuscript PREPARATION

1. General Guidelines and Formats

Submission of a manuscript amounts to assurance that it has not been copyrighted, published, or accepted for publication elsewhere, that it is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere, and that it will not be submitted elsewhere while under consideration by BrainImmune.

a) Submit manuscripts as a MS Word (DOC) file.
b) Manuscripts must be paginated and double-spaced throughout. Separate paragraphs by a space, but do not indent.
c) For Greek characters you must use the insert symbol function from Word.

2. Title Page

a) The full title.
b) Author(s) full name and the affiliations of all authors and their institutions.
c) List of non-standard abbreviations used in the text.
d) Contact information of corresponding author: e-mail address, phone and fax numbers.

3. Abstract

Abstracts are optional, but when being submitted, abstracts must be 150 words or less, reference citations should not be included and the species of animals or species of origin of cells used in the manuscript must be clearly stated.

4. Introduction

As mentioned above, this is an online publication, and a substantial part of readers are not experts in your field. Please give enough background and put the overview in historical context.

5. The rest of the text

It is the author’s choice how he/she will structure the chapter or overview. Provide clear-cut and simple headings and subheadings that will be listed, together with abbreviations on the front page of your chapter.

6. Conclusions

You must provide conclusions with a short summary of the key concepts and ideas discussed. If appropriate, this section can also indicate areas of the field that need further attention and/or areas of future investigation. We strongly encourage, when appropriate, to provide the possible clinical implications of your results, ideas, concepts, etc. In this case, this section should be entitled as ”Conclusions and clinical implications”.

7. Acknowledgments

This section is placed at the end of the text and sources of financial support are cited. This information must be in the form of a sentence with the name of the funding agency written out in full.

8. Tables

We would like to make very liberal use of lists, tables and figures since these can provide quick and effective data for practicing physicians who may not have time to read lengthy text. Tables should be produced using the MSWord table function, since they will hold together best during email.

Insert explanatory material and footnotes below the table. Designate footnotes using lowercase superscript letters (a, b, c) reading horizontally across the table. Supply units of measure at the heads of the columns. Abbreviations that are used only in a table should be defined in the footnotes to that table.

9. Figures and Illustrations

For the sake of the general readership, authors are especially encouraged to use “model” diagrams that illustrate hypothesized physiological mechanisms or key technical considerations. The author may wish to reproduce primary data if those data clearly illustrate an important physiological and/or technical principle. Figures will be included directly in the text. Provide figures and images in JPEG formats.

a) Figure Legends

Include a short title after the figure number. In addition, give a short explanation in sufficient detail to make the data intelligible without reference to the text (ideally figure legends should be no more than 150 words). Symbols used in the figure must be explained in the figure legend.

b) Permissions

As usual, we will need written permission to re-use any figure published elsewhere. Since many journals charge for permission to re-use a figure, and we are unable to provide support for this expense, it is often preferable to modify an illustration so that it is not the same as the original, or to produce a new figure, rather than republishing a figure. Often authors, if asked, will provide a new and different figure for your use and they can be given credit.

10. Abbreviations, names, units, drugs, receptor nomenclature etc.

A short list of standard abbreviations is available at the end of the instructions for authors. Terms that do not appear in the list must be used three or more times in a manuscript to justify abbreviation. When using nonstandard abbreviations, the full term should be spelled out at the first mention, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses.

The abbreviation should be used consistently thereafter. All nonstandard abbreviations should be listed in alphabetical order on the title page. The use of abbreviations should be minimized to enhance readability and comprehension of the text. Keep in mind that abbreviations that are familiar to neuroscientists may not be familiar to immunologists, and vice versa.

a) For biochemical abbreviations, use those currently recommended by The Journal of Biological Chemistry in its instructions to authors. Italicize genes and loci, and use approved names listed in the appropriate nomenclature database. Avoid using multiple names for genes and proteins; alternative names should be given on first mention only. For special materials and equipment, give the manufacturer’s name. Abbreviate units of measure only when used with numbers. Specify estimates of variance (e.g., SD, SE) and give references for statistical methods.

b) When reporting values for commonly studied components (α1-antitrypsin, ammonia, bilirubin, calcium, cholesterol, creatinine, etc.), report the value in SI units with traditional units given in parentheses.

c) Drugs: Generic drug names are used in text, tables and figures. Trade names may be given in parentheses following the first text reference, but should not appear in titles, figures, or tables. Whereas trade names are capitalized, generic or chemical names are not. The chemical structure of new compounds (or a citation to the published structure) must be given. The form used in calculating concentrations (e.g., base or salt) must be indicated.

d) Receptor Nomenclature: The nomenclature used to identify receptors and ion channels should conform to guidelines of the Committee on Receptor Nomenclature and Drug Classification of the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (NC-IUPHAR).

11. Equations

Word 2007 users please note: With Word 2007, Microsoft has introduced a new proprietary math editor as the default editor for equations, but there are incompatibilities, which prevent us from using equations created with this new editor.

Note: Please use the Design Science Equation Editor (formerly the default Word editor) or Math Type rather than the new default math editor featured in the Insert ribbon. To use either Equation Editor or Math Type, in the Insert ribbon, click “Object” and choose object type “Microsoft Equation 3.0” or “Math Type Equation”. The Equation Editor toolbar or Math Type window will appear and will work as in previous versions of Word.

12. References

Only material already published or in press may be cited in the reference list. References to unpublished observations, personal communications and papers submitted for publication are given in parentheses at the appropriate location in the text, not in the list of references.

Only papers that have been officially accepted for publication may be cited as (”in press”) in the reference list. The authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references.

Please insert reference numbers into the text in parentheses [1, 2] and list references at the end of the chapter numerically. Use any number of references you wish, but obviously it will be helpful to readers if you list primarily important and new sources.

Please note, the required style for references is that used in Journal of Internal Medicine

References should be included as a numbered list in the order in which they appear in the text. Cite references in text using a number in parentheses placed on line (do not use superscript). Do not format references as endnotes. Include all the authors’ names (do not use “et al.“) and complete article titles with inclusive pagination. Abbreviate the names of journals according to PubMed. Spell out the names of unlisted journals.