Manuscript preparation instructions

New for 2010 – Please note that the journal now encourages authors to complete their copyright licence to publish form online

Submittal of a manuscript to Neuro-Oncology implies that the authors of the paper understand and fully accept the policies of the journal as detailed in these Instructions to Authors. Please read these instructions carefully and follow them strictly to ensure that the review and publication of your paper is as efficient and quick as possible. The Editors reserve the right to return manuscripts that are not in accordance with these instructions.

All manuscripts submitted for possible publication, including text, tables, graphics, and supplementary materials, should be submitted online via the journal's online submission system at www.editorialmanager.com/n-o/. Once you have prepared your manuscript according to the instructions below, instructions on how to submit your manuscript online can be found by clicking here. If you have any problems with the submission process or any questions about the guidelines in these instructions, please contact the Neuro-Oncology Editorial Office by phone (1-713-745-4918), fax (1-713-794-1370), or e-mail (neurooncology@mdanderson.org). Our normal mailing address is Neuro-Oncology, Unit 1421, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, P.O. Box 301402, Houston, TX 77230-1402, USA. Please contact the Editorial Office for the delivery address if you plan to send overnight or express mail.

Papers will normally be reviewed within 4 weeks of submission. Authors may suggest appropriate reviewers to whom the manuscript could be assigned or stipulate those reviewers who may have a bias or conflicting interest. Full addresses, including mail and e-mail addresses, and telephone and fax numbers of suggested reviewers should be provided. Final assignments, however, are at the discretion of the Editor in Chief. Manuscripts and illustrations are not returned to the author unless the author requests them. Journal policy dictates that the identity or information leading to the identity of any reviewer is not to be revealed.

The following types of unsolicited articles are published in Neuro-Oncology:

• Basic and Translational Investigations or Clinical Investigations that report original experimental, clinical, translational, epidemiological, quality-of-life, or other studies relating to neuro-oncology and that are well documented, novel, and significant; included in this group are Phase 1–4 clinical trials reports.
• Reviews and Editorials that cover subjects of timely interest and importance to cancer researchers. (These are written by invitation of the Editor in Chief. Authors wishing to write a review or an editorial should send a letter to the Editor in Chief outlining the proposed article. All reviews, invited or uninvited, will be peer-reviewed.)
• Letters to the Editor offering considered opinions on manuscripts published in the journal within the last 6 months (correspondence concerning articles that have not been published in Neuro-Oncology will not be considered). Letters containing brief results or technical notes of interest to the neuro-oncology community may also be considered for publication.
• Case Studies that are brief, without an extensive review of the literature, and Case Illustrations that contain briefly written text and references and portray, by neuroimaging, those concepts better visualized than described; Case Studies and Case Illustrations are only rarely published in Neuro-Oncology, and authors are discouraged from submitting them except when the case is of extraordinary importance.

The following types of articles typically are solicited by the Editor in Chief:

• Symposia on subjects selected by the Editor in Chief
• Invited Meeting Reports selected and invited by the Editor in Chief
• Book Reviews by invitation of the Editor in Chief (if you are interested in reviewing books for Neuro-Oncology, please contact the Editorial Office)

Please note that Neuro-Oncology has suspended the category Rapid Reports as a submission option. The journal editors may, however, elect to accelerate review and publication of articles dealing with particularly important, timely, and/or urgent information on a case-by-case basis.

Announcements of scientific meetings and courses of interest to Neuro-Oncology readers should be submitted to Dr. Daniel P Cahill.

No manuscript will be sent out for review until all items are received. The preferred software for text is Microsoft Word, although manuscripts generated in other word processing programs are acceptable if saved in Rich Text Format. (Note: Neuro-Oncology does not accept Microsoft Word 2007/Word 2008 for Mac documents at this time. Please use Word’s “Save As” option to save your document as an older (.doc) file type.) Papers prepared with desktop publishing software are not acceptable. Preferred software for illustrations is described in the Figures & Illustrations section below.

The manuscript text (title page, abstract, article text, acknowledgments, reference list, and figure captions) and each figure should be uploaded in a separate file; tables may be submitted as separate files (in .doc or .rtf format) or be typed in at the end of the manuscript text. This applies to the original version of the manuscript and any revised versions.

Please use short, simple filenames when saving all your documents, and avoid special characters, punctuation marks, symbols (such as &), and spaces. If you are a Macintosh user, you must also type the extension at the end of the file name you choose (.doc, .rtf, .jpg, .gif, .tif, .xls, .pdf, .eps, .ppt, .mov, or .qt).

Other helpful hints are: (i) use the TAB key once for paragraph indents; (ii) where possible use Times New Roman for the text font and Symbol for any Greek and special characters; (iii) use the word processing formatting features to indicate Bold, Italic, Greek, Maths, Superscript and Subscript characters; (iv) please avoid using underline: for cases use italic; for emphasis use bold; (v) clearly identify unusual symbols and Greek letters; (vi) differentiate between the letter O and zero, and the letters I and l and the number 1.

Footnotes should not be used in the text.

At the time of submission, please also include the files for any supplementary material that should accompany your manuscript.

Double-space the entire manuscript (including references, tables, figure captions, and supplementary materials) on U.S. letter-sized paper, leaving at least 1-inch (2.54-cm) margins all around and set to print on one side of the paper only. Manuscripts should conform strictly to journal style. Those not in Neuro-Oncology style (described below) or not written in good idiomatic U.S. English may be returned to the author without review. Terminology and abbreviations not consistent with internationally accepted guidelines should be avoided (see Abbreviations & Acronyms below), as should laboratory jargon.

It is recommended that authors spell-check (with the language set to U.S. English) all files before submission. Particularly if English is not your first language, before submitting your manuscript, you may wish to have it edited for language. This is not a mandatory step but may help to ensure that the academic content of your paper is fully understood by journal editors and reviewers. Language editing does not guarantee that your manuscript will be accepted for publication. If you would like information about one such service, please click here. There are other specialist language editing companies that offer similar services, and you can use any of these. Authors are liable for all costs associated with such services.

Style guides that may be helpful in writing the manuscript are the current editions of the American Medical Association Manual of Style and The ACS Style Guide. Essentials of Writing Biomedical Research Papers, 2nd ed. (M. Zeiger, ed., McGraw Hill, 2000) is an excellent resource that addresses the content and format of scientific articles. Authors are urged to proofread and edit their manuscripts carefully before submittal. Alterations in proof delay publication and are expensive. Excessive changes in proof not due to printer’s errors will be charged to the authors.

Arrange sections of the text in the following order, and number all pages, beginning with the title page:

• Title page
• Abstract and keywords
• Text
• Acknowledgments
• References
• Captions for all illustrations
• Tables (optional—these may be submitted as separate files)

Basic format for Basic and Translational Investigations and Clinical Investigations articles

The basic format (that for basic and translational investigations and clinical investigations, including reports of clinical trials) is described here. Articles that have unique formatting requirements (case studies, case illustrations, review articles, and invited meeting reports) are covered below.

Title page

• Title
• Authors’ full names
• Affiliation of each author at the time of the study, including complete addresses, with zip codes. If authors are from more than one department or institution, each author’s initials should be placed in parentheses after the applicable address
• Running title, not to exceed 50 characters and spaces
• Name and contact information for the corresponding author, including telephone, fax, and e-mail address
• Footnotes regarding change of address/affiliation, co-first authorship, or new sequence accession numbers
• Statement (titled “Funding”) detailing any funding that supported the research
• Statement (titled “Conflict of interest”) detailing any conflicts of interest for all authors
• List of any unpublished papers cited (see Unpublished Material under References)
• If applicable, a statement that the paper being submitted is one of a series

Any deletions or additions to the author list after acceptance of the paper must be submitted in writing, signed by all authors (including those added/deleted), to the Neuro-Oncology Editorial Office. Publication of manuscripts will be withheld until all such written approvals are received. Neuro-Oncology accepts no responsibility for such changes.

Similarly, all conflicts of interest (or relationships that would be suspected of constituting conflicts) should be declared and explained at the time of submission and reflect not only current conflicts but those in place at the time the research was conducted. Any changes made to the list of conflicts after the paper is accepted must be submitted in writing, signed by the appropriate authors (that is, the corresponding author and the author for whom the conflict exists), to the Neuro-Oncology Editorial Office. Publication of manuscripts will be withheld until all such written approvals are received. Neuro-Oncology accepts no responsibility for such changes.

Authorship Requirements. For guidelines on authorship, please refer to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (Ann. Intern. Med. 126, 36–47, 1997; online at www.icmje.org). The cover letter should state that all authors have seen and approved the manuscript.

Abstract

The abstract should not exceed 250 words. Since abstracts often appear apart from the text of a paper (e.g., in PubMed or Medline), they should not cite references. Keep nonstandard abbreviations and acronyms to a minimum (no more than five in the abstract), defining them in parentheses at first mention. It is essential that the Abstract clearly states the biological importance of the work described in the paper.

Keywords

Below the abstract, list up to five keywords that may be used for indexing.

Text

Introduction. This section should state the problem or question being addressed and summarize relevant background information to provide context for the research question.

Materials and Methods. Explanation of the experimental methods should be brief but adequate for repetition by qualified investigators. Procedures that have been published previously should merely be cited in appropriate references. Only new and significant modifications of previously published procedures need complete exposition. The sources/manufacturers of special chemicals or preparations used should be named.

Results. This section should include a concise summary of the data presented in tables and illustrations. Excessive elaboration of data already given in tables and illustrations should be avoided. The Results and Discussion sections may be combined if doing so saves space or improves the logical sequence of the material.

Discussion. The data should be interpreted concisely, without repeating material already presented in the Results section. Speculation is permissible, but it must be well founded and clearly identified as speculation.

For experimental investigations of human or animal subjects, state in the Methods section of the manuscript that an appropriate institutional review board approved the project. Investigators who do not have formal ethics review committees should follow the principles outlined in the “World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki: Research involving human subjects". For investigations of human subjects, state in the Methods section the manner in which informed consent was obtained from the subjects.

Statistical methods should also be clearly and completely described in the Methods section.

Funding. Details of all funding sources for the work in question should be given in a separate section entitled 'Funding'. This should appear before the 'Acknowledgments' section [update as appropriate]. The following rules should be followed: the full official funding agency name should be given, that is, ‘National Institutes of Health’, not ‘NIH’; grant numbers should be given in brackets; multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma; agencies should be separated by a semi-colon; no extra wording such as 'Funding for this work was provided by ...' should be used; where individuals need to be specified for certain sources of funding the following text should be added after the relevant agency or grant number 'to [author initials]'. An example is given here: ‘National Institutes of Health (CB5453961 to C.S., DB645473 to M.H.); Funding Agency (hfygr667789).’

Acknowledgments (optional). An Acknowledgments section (not footnotes) should be included, if appropriate, to recognize the following:

• Special assistance or contributions by nonauthors (e.g., supply of materials or editorial support)
• Financial support for the research or a researcher (specifying grant numbers and recipients) other than that described in the Funding statement (see Title Page, above)
• Previous presentation of the material at a meeting, workshop, or other event

Personal acknowledgments should precede those of institutions or agencies. Please note that acknowledgment of funding bodies and declarations regarding conflict of interest should be given in separate Funding and Conflict of Interest sections on the title page (see above).

References. See the section titled “References” for specific instructions below

Figure Captions & Tables. Figures should be numbered sequentially with Arabic numerals. Figures may have subparts (A, B, C, etc.); each subpart should be described in the caption. See recent issues of the journal for examples of acceptable styles.

Captions are required for all figures and should be typed, double-spaced, after the list of references. Captions should briefly describe the data shown and should not repeat details given in the text. Include the type of staining, magnification, and similar information required for accurate interpretation where applicable. Each caption should adequately identify all symbols (where not defined on the figure itself) and abbreviations used in the figure. Captions and symbols should make the figure interpretable without reference to the text. Figure numbers or captions should not be included on the face of an illustration.

Number tables with Arabic numerals. Tabular material should not simply duplicate data presented in the text or figures. Large groups of individual values should be avoided; instead, these should be averaged and an appropriate designation of the dispersion, such as standard deviation or standard error, included.

Tables should be typed in the manuscript file format with double spacing, but minimizing redundant space; tables may be submitted as separate files or included at the end of the manuscript text. Every table must have a descriptive title. Note that each column, including the first column, must carry an appropriate heading, and if numerical measurements are given, these units should be added to the column heading. Identify footnotes with superscript lowercase italic letters (a, b, c, etc.). Tables should not have subparts.

Special formatting requirements for other articles

Clinical Study Reports are formatted like clinical investigations. However, before submitting a clinical study report, authors should consult the GNOSIS guidelines [OJ: Is there any way to link to this, as a PDF, say?](published in the October 2005 issue of Neuro-Oncology [Vol. 7, Issue 4]) and, to ensure completeness, crosscheck their manuscript against these guidelines. Also, for negative studies, authors are asked to limit reports to no more than, and preferably fewer than, 18 typed pages, including title page, text, references, and tables and figures.

Case Studies and Case Illustrations must be brief—typically no more than 4 printed pages (about 12 double-spaced pages, including references and illustrations)—and should normally contain no more than 25 references.

Review Articles have a more open format than other article types. Because of the nature of review articles, which may cover a broad scope of topics related to the subject at hand, authors should use short headings to identify major manuscript sections. Though potentially broad in scope, reviews should be as concise as possible and should focus on seminal findings and important developments contributing to understanding of (or controversy about) the subject at hand. Accordingly, the number of references for review articles should be kept as small as possible (typically, no more than 100 is sufficient).

Invited Meeting Reports should typically have a total length—including the title page, text, references, and tables or figures—of five printed pages (or about 15 typed pages).

If you use EndNote and Reference Manager to facilitate referencing citations (not required for submission), this journal's style is available for use.

Neuro-Oncology uses a numbered reference list, with references presented in order of citation in the text; superscript Arabic numbers are used to cite references in the text.

Within the Reference list at the end of the paper, please follow the format shown in the samples below. Note that the author’s surname and then initials (without commas or periods) are used in the reference list. In accordance with the current edition of the AMA Manual of Style, for works with more than six authors, list the first three authors and then “et al.”: Rose PR, Walker BK, Matthews CP Jr, et al.

Sample reference entries:

• Journal Article
  1. Bailey P, Eisenhardt L. Spongioblastomas of the brain. J Comp Neurol. 1932;56:391–430.
  
• Correction
  1. Apte SS, Olsen BR, Murphy G. The gene structure of tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases (TIMP)-3 and its inhibitory activities define the distinct TIMP gene family [published correction appears in J Biol Chem. 1996;271:2874]. J Biol Chem. 1995;270:14313–14318.
  
• Supplement
  1. Robins HI, Peterson CG, Mehta MP. Combined modality treatment for central nervous system malignancies. Semin Oncol. 2003;30(suppl.):11–22.
  
• Chapter in Book
  1. Bailey OT. Medulloblastoma. In: Minckler J, ed. Pathology of the Nervous System. Vol. 2. New York: McGraw-Hill; 1971:2071–2081.
  
• Book
  1. Kaye AH, Laws ER Jr, eds. Brain Tumors: An Encyclopedic Approach. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone; 1995.
  
• Web References
  1. Children’s Memorial Hospital. (2010) First children’s hospital in Illinois to acquire new device for pediatric brain and spine tumor removal. Available at http://www.childrensmemorial.org/newsroom/release06022010.aspx. Accessed June 21, 2010.
  2. OMIM. Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man Database. Available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/omim. Accessed February 28, 1998.
  
• Abstract
  1. Vaidyanathan G, Friedman HS, Keir ST, Zalutsky, MR Meta-[211At]astatobenzylguanidine (MAbs): in vivo evaluation in an athymic mouse human neuroblastoma xenograft model [abstract]. J Nucl Med. 1996;37:61.
  
• Unpublished Material
  Cite unpublished articles (including those in review or preparation), data, and observations parenthetically in the text as either “unpublished data” or “unpublished manuscript,” along with the name of the investigator responsible for those data (e.g., the lead author of a paper in preparation). No manuscript title or presumed year of publication is needed. In the case of “personal communications,” give the name of the original speaker/correspondent and, if possible, the date of the communication; note that the Editorial Office requires a signed statement from the speaker/correspondent giving the author permission to quote him or her in the manuscript. (Example: Nonetheless, it appears that peptides become associated in some fashion with chaperones prior to or upon extraction from cells (M.W. Graner, unpublished data), and the effects of exogenous chaperones on the innate immune cells are certainly not denied.)
  

Genes: All gene names should be in italic type, while their corresponding proteins should appear in roman type. For human gene names, the Human Genome Organisation’s database style (all caps, no hyphens) and name (not alias) will be used in this journal. The database is located at http://www.genenames.org/. The OMIM database, the resource for human protein terminology, is accessible at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/omim/.

Other: Nonstandard abbreviations should be kept to a minimum. Nonstandard abbreviations should be defined at the first occurrence and introduced only when the abbreviation will be used several times.

The term “nonstandard” refers to abbreviations that are not a part of the Système International d’Unités (International System of Units, known as SI units) and those that are not widely known. Some standard abbreviations not needing expansion at first use are listed in the current edition of the AMA Manual of Style. A list of standard abbreviations is also included at the end of these instructions. Nonstandard abbreviations used in a manuscript should be established in parentheses when they are first mentioned in the text (e.g., “The study population was drawn from the institution’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) . . .”).

Abbreviations list. Authors may use, without definition, the following abbreviations:
ADP adenosine diphosphate ATP adenosine triphosphate cDNA complementary DNA CNS central nervous system CoA, acyl-CoA coenzyme A and its acylderivatives (e.g., acetyl) CT computed tomography DNA deoxyribonucleic acid DNase deoxyribonuclease EDTA ethylenediaminetetraacetate ELISA enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay FDA Food and Drug Administration (U.S.) IR infrared KPS Karnofsky performance status MR magnetic resonance MRI magnetic resonance imaging mRNA messenger RNA NAD+, NADH nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide and its reduced form NADP+, NADPH nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate and its reduced form NCI National Cancer Institute (U.S.) NIH National Institutes of Health (U.S.) nRNA nuclear RNA PCR polymerase chain reaction PET positron emission tomography RBC red blood cell RNA ribonucleic acid RNase ribonuclease rRNA ribosomal RNA tRNA transfer RNA Tris tris(hydroxymethyl)methylamine UV ultraviolet WBC white blood cell WHO World Health Organization

Units of Concentration Gy gray M (not used for moles) molar (moles/liter) mM (preferred to 10-3 M) millimolar (millimoles/liter) μM (preferred to 10-6 M) micromolar (micromoles/liter) nM (not mmM) nanomolar pM (not mmM) picomolar g/ml, g/100 ml, g per liter, etc. avoid using mg% Units of Length, Area, Volume, Mass, Time The abbreviations below are correct for both singular and plural forms of each term. cm centimeter g gram h hour kg kilogram m meter min minute μm micrometer (not micron) mm millimeter ml milliliter μl microliter μg microgram mg milligram nm nanometer pm picometer s second Physical and Chemical Units °C degree Celsius (centigrade) °F degree Fahrenheit g acceleration of gravity (closed with number [e.g., 200g]) K Kelvin Others Ci Curie cpm counts per minute Da dalton dpm disintegrations per minute eq equivalent log logarithm (Briggsian) ln logarithm (natural) mol mole Mr molecular weight P probability R roentgen rpm revolutions per minute S Svedberg unit SD standard deviation SEM standard error of the mean V volt In chemical compounds o- ortho m- meta p- para sec- secondary tert- tertiary Routes of administration i.c. intracranial i.m. intramuscular i.p. intraperitoneal i.v. intravenous p.o. oral s.c. subcutaneous

Neuro-Oncology strongly prefers that figures be submitted as high-resolution .tif or .eps files; line graphics may be submitted in their native format, for example, Powerpoint or Excel. If your paper is accepted but figure quality is inadequate, publication may be delayed.

When creating figures, please make sure any embedded text is large enough to read. Many figures contain minuscule characters such as numbers on a chart or graph. If these characters are not easily readable, they will most likely be illegible in the final version. Labeling should be sized to withstand reduction. Composite figures should be grouped under one figure number, with subparts labeled A, B, C, etc., in the upper left-hand corner on the face of the illustration.

The author is responsible for submitting graphics files that are of sufficient quality to permit accurate reproduction and for approving the final color proof.

For useful information on preparing your figures for publication, go to http://art.cadmus.com/da/index.jsp. Figures will not be relettered by the publisher. The journal reserves the right to reduce the size of illustrative material. Any photomicrographs, electron micrographs, or radiographs must be of high quality. Wherever possible, photographs should fit within the print area or within a column width. Photomicrographs should provide details of staining technique and a scale bar. Patients shown in photographs should have their identity concealed or should have given their written consent to publication. The contrast of panels within a composite photograph should be consistent. Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background. The use of internal scale markers on photographs themselves is preferred to listing the magnification in the caption, since it may be necessary to reduce the figures. It should be noted that magnifications given in the caption reflect size before reduction.

Advance Access articles are published online soon after they have been accepted for publication, in advance of their appearance in a printed journal. Appearance in Advance Access (in either of the models below) constitutes official publication, and the Advance Access version can be cited by a unique DOI (Digital Object Identifier). When an article appears in an issue, it is removed from the Advance Access page.

Articles posted for Advance Access have been copyedited and typeset and any corrections included. This is before they are paginated for inclusion in a specific issue of the journal. Once an article appears in an issue, both versions of the paper continue to be accessible and citable.

The authors’ cover letter should state that neither the submitted paper nor any similar paper, in whole or in part, other than an abstract or preliminary communication, has been or will be submitted to or published in any other source. Once an article is accepted for publication in Neuro-Oncology, the information therein is embargoed from reporting by the print media until the journal’s issue date and embargoed from reporting by all other media until it is published.

Upon receipt of accepted manuscripts at Oxford Journals, authors will be invited to complete an online copyright license to publish form.

Please note that by submitting an article for publication you confirm that you are the corresponding/submitting author and that Oxford University Press ("OUP") may retain your email address for the purpose of communicating with you about the article. You agree to notify OUP immediately if your details change. If your article is accepted for publication, OUP will contact you using the email address you have used in the registration process. Please note that OUP does not retain copies of rejected articles.

It is a condition of publication for all Oxford Journals that authors that authors either assign copyright or grant an exclusive licence to Oxford University Press or the sponsoring Society. This ensures that all of the necessary rights needed for publication of the article are in place including provision for any requests from third parties to reproduce content from the journals are handled efficiently and consistently by OUP, enabling the content to be as widely disseminated as possible. No article will be published unless the signed licence has been received at Oxford Journals. Faxing a copy of the form when requested will assist in the rapid publication of your article but the original signed form should also be returned. Any queries about the licence form should be sent as soon as possible to http://www.oxfordjournals.org/oxfordopen/policies.html.

Once invited, the license form should be returned immediately by fax or by sending a scanned PDF copy, and the original must be posted by airmail/first class within 24 hours. If we have not received the form by the time the manuscript arrives, your manuscript may be delayed.

Work submitted for publication must be original, previously unpublished, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere. If previously published figures, tables, or parts of text are to be included, the copyright-holder’s permission must have been obtained prior to submission. For more information on how to obtain permissions, please consult Rights and Permissions.

Authors will receive electronic access to their paper free of charge. Printed offprints may be purchased, and rates are indicated on the order form which must be returned with the proofs.

Permission to reproduce copyright material, for print and online publication in perpetuity, must be cleared and if necessary paid for by the author; this includes applications and payments to DACS, ARS, and similar licensing agencies where appropriate. Evidence in writing that such permissions have been secured from the rights-holder must be made available to the editors. It is also the author's responsibility to include acknowledgments as stipulated by the particular institutions. Please note that obtaining copyright permission could take some time. Oxford Journals can offer information and documentation to assist authors in securing print and online permissions: please see the Guidelines for Authors section. Should you require copies of this then please contact the editorial office of the journal in question or else the Oxford Journals Rights department.

• Site Map
• Privacy Policy
• Frequently Asked Questions