eNeuro, SfN’s New Open-Access Journal: Excellence and Innovation

Publishing excellent science that can be discussed, debated, studied, and built upon is essential to our field’s goal to understand the brain and nervous system. Helping to continue that important tradition is one reason why I am excited and honored to serve as the founding editor-in-chief of eNeuro, the new online open-access journal from the Society for Neuroscience. I am also thrilled to work with many leading thinkers in the field to ensure eNeuro introduces significant innovations in publishing — innovations in the process of publishing and the subject matter that we choose to publish.

As eNeuro will begin accepting submissions in August and launch this fall, I wish to share its exciting emerging scientific vision, and I invite and encourage you to submit your research to eNeuro in order to share your science and advance the field. With input from prominent scientists across our multidisciplinary field, eNeuro is developing into an innovative and important forum for communicating about discoveries in neuroscience. While its foundation will be a commitment to the excellence, rigor, and breadth for which the Society for Neuroscience is known, eNeuro will also have new and unique features for scientists who seek a different publishing experience and a broader range of content than traditionally appears in journals.

Broader Content, Fair and Fast Review

Publishing decisions at eNeuro, like those at SfN’s flagship publication, The Journal of Neuroscience, will be made by a team of respected, working scientists and be based on scientific rather than commercial factors. By publishing in either of these respected journals, scientists will be investing in SfN’s nonprofit programs worldwide that enhance and serve the field.

eNeuro will provide a high-quality, modern publishing experience that will cover a broader range of excellent science that advances the field of neuroscience. Going beyond what some journals have elected to publish, eNeuro will accept a wide array of content. In addition to innovative discoveries, eNeuro will feature studies that focus on negative results, failure to reproduce, tools and methods, and new theories, as well as commentaries, all of which contribute significantly to advance understanding and which need a respected and visible home for discussion and debate.

In addition to an expanded content base, eNeuro will implement a transparent, fair, and fast review process for authors. We will undertake an innovative “double blind” review experiment in which authors and reviewers are anonymous to each other during the process. Authors will also benefit from a clear and open feedback process in which they generally will not be asked for extensive additional experiments. They will receive a fact-based synthesis made by their Reviewing Editor (once a consensus has been reached with the reviewers) of their submission explaining why their work was accepted or rejected, and that review will be published with the article, if accepted.

Rapid Publishing, Expanded Features

eNeuro will publish studies immediately after acceptance, ensuring that the field has access to research as quickly as possible. These pre-publication manuscripts will be posted as PDFs while the composition and editing process is underway. The online environment promotes greater use of images, video, and audio, the ability to share content and articles, and features that allow communications directly with scientist-authors. Authors will be encouraged to submit significance statements as well as video “papercasts” and visual abstracts. eNeuro will strive to create an engaging and interactive experience for the reader, regardless of whether they are neuroscientists or members of the public.

Encouraging Future Experimentation in Publishing — and Your Feedback

While eNeuro’s fundamental commitment to publish high-quality science will be clear and unwavering from the beginning, SfN and eNeuro’s emerging leadership also intends it to be a place to explore and test new ideas in scientific publishing. In addition to the double-blind review experiment, we will introduce other new features and innovations over time. I welcome your thoughts and feedback on these items at eNeuro@sfn.org.

Learn why SfN created an open-access journal »