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Introducing Neuro Forum, a Section for Young Neurophysiologists
While Journal of Neurophysiology is beloved by most senior and
mid-career researchers in our field, I’m concerned that the next generation
will not share this feeling unless their participation is more actively
encouraged. Are there editorial initiatives that might help to address this
issue? Starting in Fall 2006, the Journal of Neuroscience made an
effort along these lines that we aim to emulate and adapt. They have a
manuscript type (which they call “Journal Club”) for graduate students and
postdocs to independently write brief commentaries on interesting, recently
published papers in Journal of Neuroscience. These are reviewed by
the Editors and are turned around quickly, so that the commentary can appear
within 2 months of the target article.
At Journal of Neuroscience, the quality of these articles has been
inspiring, and the feedback from students and postdocs to former Journal
of Neuroscience Chief Editor Gary Westbrook (who launched the
initiative) has been “uniformly positive.” In my own conversations with
students and postdocs, they love the idea, conveyed by this mechanism, that
they are being taken seriously as full participants in the scientific
endeavor. In my view, adapting this article format is an excellent way to
engage junior scientists with the field of neurophysiology and with
Journal of Neurophysiology in particular. Of course, the hope is that
the students and postdocs who participate in this process will become
lifelong contributors, reviewers, and editors for Journal of
Neurophysiology.
Rather than simply replicate the Journal of Neuroscience’s effort,
our initiative, titled “Neuro Forum,” will allow for a somewhat broader
range of submissions. First, there will be works that summarize,
contextualize, and evaluate a recent paper from the current literature.
However, unlike the Journal Club format, we propose to allow the authors to
draw from recent work in any journal. Second, there will be mini-reviews
that summarize and integrate work on a dynamic topic in neurophysiology.
For single target article submissions, the target article may have been
published in any journal within the past 3 months (at the time of
submission). The target article will most typically be an exciting finding in
some area of neurophysiology, broadly defined, but could also include work
from other areas of neuroscience of compelling interest to
neurophysiologists such as neuroanatomy, neurochemistry, genetics, disease
models, or neural computation. For mini-review submissions, significant
advances in the field must have been published within the last year.
Submissions, both those based upon single target articles and mini-reviews,
are limited to 3 printed pages (this corresponds to ~3,000 words) including
a maximum of 12 references and one original schematic/explanatory figure. The
Editor in Chief and Associate Editors will conduct reviews of submissions,
occasionally sending them for external review. Manuscripts will be evaluated
for scientific accuracy, logic, clarity, and general interest. Successful
submissions will not merely summarize the target articles, but will evaluate
them critically, place them in scientific context, and suggest further lines
of inquiry.
Manuscripts requiring major revisions cannot be accepted due to time
constraints. While accepted manuscripts will receive feedback for minor
revision, rejected manuscripts will not receive detailed reviews. No
submission fee is required, and no page charges or color charges will be
levied. Please see the Editor’s page (http://www.the-aps.org/publications/jn/neuroforum.htm)
for detailed guidelines. Please feel free to contact me
(dlinden@jhmi.edu) with queries about
the format or specific potential target articles or mini-review topics. We
hope to publish the first Neuro Forum articles in the December 2008 or
January 2009 issues of Journal of Neurophysiology.
So, if you are a student or postdoctoral fellow, please be a trailblazer
and submit your best efforts to Neuro Forum. If you are faculty, please
encourage your students and post-docs to contribute and help them by
suggesting target articles or topics. Like any new publishing endeavor,
there is a major “founder effect.” If we can publish strong Neuro Forum
pieces in the first year, then this will attract more high-quality
submissions and establish a positive feedback loop. Thanks in advance for
your support for what I know will be an exciting new initiative.
Or, in the words of the bard. . .
All the young dudes*
Carry the news
Boogaloo dudes
Carry the news
–David Bowie, “All the Young Dudes”
*Of course, being impeccably politically correct folk, we
at Journal of Neurophysiology are adopting the word “dudes” in its
most inclusive sense (women, men, transgendered persons, emergent properties
of the youthful hive-mind. . .)
Back to the Journal of Neurophysiology main page
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Click here to view a short
video message from the
Editor-in-Chief of theJournal of Neurophysiology,
David Linden, Ph.D.