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Developmental Neuroscience

Guidelines

About the Journal

Aims and Scope

Developmental Neuroscience is a multidisciplinary journal publishing papers covering all stages of invertebrate, vertebrate and human brain development. Emphasis is placed on publishing fundamental as well as translational studies that contribute to progress in understanding mechanisms of normal development as well as genetic and environmental causes of abnormal brain development. The journal provides valuable information for both physicians and biologists. The journal accepts original research reports, reports on technological advances, and long and short reviews. Current topics of particular interest to the journal include:

• Genetics of Neurodevelopmental Disorders
• Stem Cell-derived Models of Neurological Disease
• Injury of the Developing Nervous System
• Pre-clinical models of Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Journal Sections

Journal Club: Letters that briefly discuss recently published Developmental Neuroscience papers only or in addition to papers published elsewhere. All papers published in this section should present a short overview of the topic and questions addressed in the reviewed paper, a description of the key findings, and a brief discussion and critical evaluation of the paper. The Journal Club articles must offer more than a summary of the original article and highlight developments in the field. Presentation of unpublished work or results is not acceptable. The authors of the paper must be graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, or the equivalent. At the time of the Journal Club articles’ submission, the highlighted papers should have appeared no earlier than the last two issues of the Journal. We encourage authors to contact the Journal’s Editorial Office (dne@karger.com) before writing a Journal Club paper to reserve the articles they wish to discuss. Authors of the reviewed papers will be invited to read the Journal Club before publication. If the authors choose to reply, their response will be linked to the published Journal Club. Journal Club papers should not exceed 1500 words; a maximum of 1 to 2 figures and a maximum of 1 table may be included (please see the template below).

Article Types

Research Article

Research Articles report on primary research. They must describe significant and original observations. Consideration for publication is based on the article’s originality, novelty, and scientific soundness, and the appropriateness of its analysis.
Research Articles are reports of original work. Authors are asked to follow the EQUATOR Network for Research Articles.
Prior approval from an Institutional Review Board (IRB) or an Ethics Review Committee is required for all investigations involving human subjects.

A downloadable template is available below.

Documents

Research Article (DOCX, 39 KB)

Articles should be approximately 25 typed manuscript pages with 6–8 figures and will occupy approximately 12 printed pages in final.

Review Article

Review Articles are considered reviews of research or summary articles. They are state-of-the-art papers covering a current topic by experts in the field. They should give evidence on and provide answers to a well-defined aspect or question in a particular area. Review Articles must include a critical discussion of the reported data and give a clear conclusion with potential impacts on the standard of care.

A downloadable template is available below.

Documents

Review Article (DOCX, 32 KB)

Articles should be approximately 8–10 typed manuscript pages and will occupy approximately 3–5 pages in final form.

Brief Report

Brief Reports are short and/or rapid announcements of research results. They must contain data derived from cutting-edge research and be of potential interest to a large proportion of the readership. They are independent, concise reports representing a significant contribution to the field. Such communications should represent complete, original studies and should be arranged in the same way as full-length manuscripts with subheadings.

A downloadable template is available below.

Documents

Brief Report (DOCX, 36 KB)

Commentary

Commentaries draw attention to a jointly published article, discussing the context or implications of the article and highlighting points of wider relevance to the field. Commentaries are presented from the author’s perspective and do not include original data. Commentaries are invited by the Editors and relate to an article in the same issue.

A downloadable template is available below.

Documents

Commentary (DOCX, 33 KB)

Commentaries are brief focused reviews on recently published literature in the field.

Letter

Letters may explore subjects related to matters discussed in the journal, providing the author’s perspective on a subject. Letters may discuss a recently published article and may lend support or constructively critique the article in line with the author’s experience. The editors reserve the right to share such letters to the authors of the article concerned prior to publication in order to permit response, ideally in the same issue of the journal. Letters should not include original data.

A downloadable template is available below.

Documents

Letter (DOCX, 33 KB)

Authors may wish to submit the following type of Letter:

Journal Club: Letters that briefly discuss recently published Developmental Neuroscience papers only or in addition to papers published elsewhere. All papers published in this section should present a short overview of the topic and questions addressed in the reviewed paper, a description of the key findings, and a brief discussion and critical evaluation of the paper. The Journal Club articles must offer more than a summary of the original article and highlight developments in the field. Presentation of unpublished work or results is not acceptable. The authors of the paper must be graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, or the equivalent. At the time of the Journal Club articles’ submission, the highlighted papers should have appeared no earlier than the last two issues of the Journal. We encourage authors to contact the Journal’s Editorial Office (dne@karger.com) before writing a Journal Club paper to reserve the articles they wish to discuss. Authors of the reviewed papers will be invited to read the Journal Club before publication. If the authors choose to reply, their response will be linked to the published Journal Club. Journal Club papers should not exceed 1500 words; a maximum of 1 to 2 figures and a maximum of 1 table may be included.

Methods Article

Methods Articles describe methods or protocols used to perform an experiment or carry out a research plan. They should not report research results. Authors may submit a Study Protocol outlining a research and/or statistical analysis plan for proposed, or ongoing, but incomplete, research studies, including but not limited to, clinical trials, population-based studies, clinical outcome studies, and service evaluations. Only study protocols that have received ethical approval will be considered and, where expected by community convention, study protocols must be pre-registered and the trial/study registration number should be provided in the manuscript. Manuscripts reporting study protocols must adhere to the relevant reporting guidelines for their study design, such as the SPIRIT, PRISMA-P or other relevant reporting guidelines as detailed on the Equator Network website.

A downloadable template is available below.

Documents

Method Article (DOCX, 36 KB)

Method Article for Study Protocol (DOCX, 37 KB)

Methods articles should describe a new technological advance or innovative application of existing methods that open-up new research possibilities.

Contact Information

Should you have any problems with your submission, please contact the editorial office:

Editorial Office 'Developmental Neuroscience'
S. Karger AG
P.O. Box
CH–4009 Basel (Switzerland)
Email: editorialoffice_dne@karger.com

Editorial and Journal Policies

General Conditions

Only papers written in English are considered. The articles should be comprehensible to a reader who is fluent in English and should be edited prior to submission to ensure that standard English grammar and usage are observed. Use of a professional language editing service prior to submission can help avoid delays with the review process.

All manuscripts are subject to editorial review. When preparing a manuscript, it is important to review the editorial policies. For full details, please visit the Publication Ethics and Editorial Policies page.

The presentation of manuscripts should follow the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Karger Publishers is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Karger journals aim to adhere to the COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines.

By submitting an article for publication, the authors agree to the transfer of the copyright to the publisher upon acceptance. Accepted papers become the permanent property of the Journal and may not be reproduced by any means, in whole or in part, without the written consent of the publisher.

Karger recommends the use of original images and materials whenever possible. If a submitted manuscript contains third-party copyright material(s), it is the authors’ sole responsibility to obtain permission from the relevant copyright holder for reusing the material(s), including any associated licensing fee. The copyright and usage information needs to be checked carefully to avoid copyright infringement. The author(s) is and will remain personally liable for any copyright infringements.

Most publishers offer a quick and easy way to clear permissions for their content via the built-in website application RightsLink or via https://www.copyright.com/get-permissions/. Another widely used licensing tool is PLSClear. Please check the publishers’ websites for the available options and user instructions.

The authors agree that their name, affiliation with their institution and contact details will be available to third parties after the article has been published. Those third parties may be placed within or outside of the European Economic Area.

Statements

All submitted manuscripts must contain a statements section after the main body of the text, but before the reference list.

Statement of Ethics

Published research must comply with internationally-accepted standards for research practice and reporting. Manuscripts may be rejected if the editors believe that the research has not been carried out within an appropriate ethical framework or if authors have misrepresented the ethics declarations. Concerns raised after publication may lead to a correction, retraction, or expression of concern in line with COPE guidelines.

Studies involving human subjects (including research on identifiable human material and data) must have been performed with the approval of an appropriate ethics committee and with appropriate participants’ informed consent in compliance with the Helsinki Declaration.

In the manuscript, authors should specify the name of the ethics committee or other relevant authority who approved the study protocol and provide the decision reference number. If ethics approval was not required, or if the study has been granted an exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript, including the reason for the exemption and the name of the ethics committee that made that decision.

For all research involving human subjects, written informed consent to participate in the study should be obtained from participants (or their parent/legal guardian where appropriate) and a statement detailing this should appear in the manuscript. For studies involving vulnerable participants or participants at risk of potential coercion, detailed information regarding the steps taken to ensure informed consent must be provided. If consent was not obtained, please specify why and whether this was approved by the ethics committee.

In line with the ICMJE recommendations on the protection of research participants, authors must avoid providing identifying information unless strictly necessary for the submission and participants’ identifiable attributes must be anonymized in the manuscript and its supplementary files, if any. If identifying information is necessary, authors must confirm that the individual has provided written consent for the use of that information in a publication.

Research involving human embryonic stem cells, embryonic germ cells or induced pluripotent stem cells should comply with the ISSCR 'Guidelines for the Conduct of Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research' or an equivalent set of guidelines or applicable regulations.

Case Reports: Manuscripts reporting a case report must include a statement detailing that written informed consent for publication was obtained and from whom (e.g. “Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this case report and any accompanying images.”). If the patient has died, consent for publication must be obtained from their next of kin. If the patient described in the case report is a minor or vulnerable, then consent for publication must be obtained from the parent/legal guardian. The completed consent form must be made available to the Editor if requested, and will be treated confidentially.

Clinical Trials: In accordance with the ICMJE recommendations, all clinical trials should be registered in a publicly available registry approved by the WHO or ICMJE (see the list here) and the clinical trial number must be clearly stated in the manuscript. Manuscripts reporting clinical trials must adhere to the relevant reporting guidelines for their study design, such as CONSORT for randomized controlled trials, TREND for non-randomized trials, or other relevant reporting guidelines as detailed on the Equator network website.

Karger follows the WHO definition of clinical trials "A clinical trial is any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes [...] Interventions include but are not restricted to drugs, cells and other biological products, surgical procedures, radiologic procedures, devices, behavioural treatments, process-of-care changes, preventive care, etc. This definition includes Phase I to Phase IV trials.”

Studies involving animals: Experimental research on vertebrates or any regulated invertebrates must have been approved by the authors' Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) or equivalent ethics committee and must follow internationally recognized guidelines such as the ARRIVE guidelines. In the manuscript, authors should specify the name of the ethics committee or other relevant authority who approved the study protocol and provide the reference number where appropriate.

If ethics approval was not required, or if the study has been granted an exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript (including the name of the ethics committee who made that decision). Additional information is expected for studies reporting death of a regulated animal as a likely outcome or planned endpoint. Other types of studies including field studies and non-experimental research on animals must comply with local or international guidelines, and where appropriate must have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee.

Please note if authors are submitting to a journal with a double blind peer review policy, the Ethics Statement should be anonymized where appropriate.

Conflict of Interest Statement

Karger endorses the ICMJE recommendations on the ‘Disclosure of Financial and Non-Financial Relationships and Activities, and Conflicts of Interest’. Authors are required to disclose any relationship that could reasonably be perceived by a reader as a potential conflict of interest at the time of submission. All forms of support and financial involvement (e.g. employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership and options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, royalties) which took place in the previous three years should be listed, regardless of their potential relevance to the paper. Also the nonfinancial relationships (personal, political, or professional) that may potentially influence the writing of the manuscript should be declared. The role of the funder in study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; writing of the report; any restrictions regarding the submission of the report for publication should be declared. If the funder had no role in any of the above, this should be clearly stated in the manuscript’s funding section.

Please note if authors are submitting to a journal with a double blind peer review policy, the Conflict of Interest statement should be anonymized where appropriate.

Author Contributions Statement

In the Author Contributions section, a short statement detailing the contributions of each person named as an author should be included. Contributors to the paper who do not fulfill the ICMJE Criteria for Authorship should be credited in the Acknowledgement section. If an author is removed from or added to the listed authors after submission, an explanation and a signed statement of agreement confirming the requested change are required from all the initially listed authors and from the author to be removed or added.

Please note if authors are submitting to a journal with a double blind peer review policy, the Author Contributions statement should be anonymized where appropriate.

Group Authorship

For group authorship, the ICMJE recommends that:

"When a large multi-author group has conducted the work, the group ideally should decide who will be an author before the work is started and confirm who is an author before submitting the manuscript for publication. All members of the group named as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, including approval of the final manuscript, and they should be able to take public responsibility for the work and should have full confidence in the accuracy and integrity of the work of other group authors."

When submitting a manuscript authored by a group, the submitting author should specify the group name in the manuscript file and enter the information of the group members who can take credit and responsibility for the work as authors in the submission system. The non-author group members should be listed elsewhere in the manuscript, typically in the Acknowledgements.

Data Availability Statement

The journal’s data sharing policy strongly encourages authors to make all datasets on which the conclusions of the paper rely available to editors, reviewers and readers without unnecessary restriction wherever possible. Authors are required to provide a Data Availability Statement in their article that details whether data are available and where they can be found. In cases where research data are not publicly available on legal or ethical grounds, this should be clearly stated in the Data Availability Statement along with any conditions for accessing the data. The decision to publish will not be affected by whether or not authors share their research data.

Examples of Data Availability statements:

· The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in [repository name e.g “figshare”] at http://doi.org/[doi], reference number [reference number]

· Publicly available datasets were used in this study. These can be found in [repository name e.g “figshare”] at http://doi.org/[doi], reference number [reference number]

· All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this article. Further enquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

· All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this article and its supplementary material files. Further enquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

· The data that support the findings of this study are not publicly available due to [REASON WHY DATA ARE NOT PUBLIC e.g. their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants] but are available from [e.g. the corresponding author [author initials] OR Data sharing committee [PROVIDE CONTACT DETAILS including email address] upon reasonable request]

· The data in this study was obtained from [third party source] where [RESTRICTIONS/LICENCE] may apply. Such dataset may be requested from [source contact information].

Please note if authors are submitting to a journal with a double blind peer review policy, the data availability statement should be anonymized where appropriate.

Definition of research data: This policy applies to the research data that would be required to verify the results of research reported in articles published in the journal. Research data include data produced by the authors (“primary data”) and data from other sources that are analysed by authors in their study (“secondary data”). Research data includes any recorded factual material that are used to produce the results in digital and non-digital form. This includes, but is not limited to, tabular data, code, images, audio, documents, video, maps, raw and/or processed data.

For images, Karger requests that individual/unique features within an image are not modified, and image-processing methods do not alter the original image information ( the use of software and/or enhancement technique must be disclosed in the methods section). Any concerns raised over inappropriate image modification will be investigated in accordance with COPE guidelines.

Policy exceptions: This policy does not require public sharing of quantitative or qualitative data that could identify a research participant unless participants have consented to data release. The policy also does not require public sharing of other sensitive data, such as the locations of endangered species. Alternatives to public sharing of sensitive or personal data include:

● Depositing research data in controlled access repositories

● Anonymizing or deidentifying data before public sharing

● Only sharing metadata about the research data

● Stating the procedures for accessing your research data in the article and managing data access requests from other researchers

Embargoes: Embargoes on data sharing are permitted but should be clearly stated in the data availability statement, including the reason for embargo, date of the end of the embargo period and how and where the data can be accessed following the end of the embargo period. Please note that all datasets on which the conclusions of the paper rely must be made available to editors and reviewers if requested to facilitate the review process.

Data repositories: The preferred mechanism for sharing research data is via public data repositories. We encourage authors to select a data repository that issues a persistent identifier, preferably a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), and has established a robust preservation plan to ensure the data is preserved in perpetuity. Additionally, we highly encourage researchers to consider the FAIR Data Principles when depositing data. Authors are encouraged to deposit their research data in a repository that has been widely adopted within their research community, suitable repositories per each area and data type can be searched using the FAIRsharing database tool (https://fairsharing.org/databases/) or via https://repositoryfinder.datacite.org.

If no such database is available authors may use a general data repository. Examples of general data repositories include:

· Figshare (www.figshare.com)

· Dryad (www.datadryad.org)

· Zenodo (www.zenodo.org)

· Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/)

If authors are submitting an article to a journal with a double blind peer review policy, they should deposit their data in a repository that allows them to temporarily preserve anonymity such as Figshare (“private sharing link”) or Dryad (“private for peer review”).

Data and software citation: The journal encourages authors to cite any publicly available research data or software used in their reference list. References to datasets (data citations) and software code must include a persistent identifier (such as a DOI). Citations of datasets, when they appear in the reference list, should include the minimum information recommended by DataCite (e.g. author(s), title, publisher (repository name), DOI) and follow journal style. References to software, when they appear in the reference list should include the minimum information recommended by the FORCE11 Software Citation Implementation Working Group (e.g. creator(s), software title, publication venue (repository name), date the software was published, identifier (DOI, if available)) and follow journal style.

Data licensing: The journal encourages research data to be made available under open licences that permit reuse freely. The journal does not enforce particular licenses for research data, where research data are deposited in third party repositories. The publisher of the journal does not claim copyright for research data.

Reference: Hrynaszkiewicz, I, Simons, N, Hussain, A, Grant, R and Goudie, S. 2020. Developing a Research Data Policy Framework for All Journals and Publishers. Data Science Journal, DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2020-005.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism, whether intentional or not, is not tolerated in Karger’s journals. Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to, copying or reusing text, ideas, images or data from other sources without clear attribution, and goes against the principle of academic publishing. Karger may subject any manuscripts to a plagiarism-detection software ( Crossref Similarity Check, powered by iThenticate) and if the software raises any concerns, there will be a follow-up investigation in line with COPE guidelines. At any stage of peer-review, publication, or post-publication, if plagiarism is detected the manuscript may be rejected, corrected or retracted, as appropriate, and we reserve the right to inform the authors' institutions about any plagiarism detected. We expect that our editors and reviewers will inform the journal about any concerns related to plagiarism.

Further Conditions

In your cover letter, please describe the gap in knowledge that this report addresses, and discuss the implications, significance and novelty of your research for the Editor. Furthermore, please emphasize the unique and important contributions that your report makes to our understanding of developmental neuroscience.

Early View

Accepted papers are published online in the unedited, original manuscript version within a few days of acceptance, subject to the authors accepting and confirming applicable conditions of publication, including publication charges. The Early View version will be replaced by the version of record once available.

Subscribe to Open

Developmental Neuroscience is piloting the model Subscribe to Open (S2O), which aims to achieve the benefits of Open Access with no financial or other burdens on authors. Please refer to Subscribe to Open for more information.

To enable S2O, authors sign an agreement at acceptance that allows for both models. Thus, authors at acceptance transfer all rights, title, and interest, including the right to claim copyright throughout the world, related to the article, to S. Karger AG, in case articles in the volume are published under the subscription model. In case the volume will be published under the Open Access model, articles will be published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

The charges detailed in the ‘Cost of Publication’ section will apply in case the volume remains accessible under a gated (subscription/hybrid) model. In case the journal volume becomes Open Access under the Subscribe to Open model, no charges will be levied for authors of accepted papers in that volume.

If the volume becomes Open Access under the Subscribe to Open model, the Version of Record of the Open Access articles may be shared freely according to the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.

For NIH-Funded Research if the article becomes Open Access under the Subscribe to Open model no embargo will apply, otherwise refer to the ‘Funding Organizations’ section in the author guidelines.

Peer Review

Peer Review Policy

All Karger journals employ a rigorous peer-review process to confirm the validity and ensure scientific accuracy of published articles. Independent researchers with relevant expertise assess submitted manuscripts to help journal editors determine whether a manuscript should be published in their journal.

Peer Review Type

Developmental Neuroscience uses a single-blind peer review system where reviewers know the names of the authors, but the authors do not know who reviewed their manuscript.

Peer Review Process

The Editor-in-Chief and the international Editorial Board ensure a thorough and fair peer-review process with the highest scientific publishing standards. The editorial office performs preliminary checks on submitted manuscripts to ensure compliance with submission guidelines, editorial policies and ethical standards. After completion of internal checks, each submission is assessed by the Editor-in-Chief (and/or Managing Editor) who decides whether to proceed with peer review and may assign a suitable handling Editor (Associate Editor, Editorial Board Member or Guest Editor). Handling Editors guide the peer-review process for manuscripts within their areas of expertise with the help of reviewers who are well qualified and up-to-date on the subject matter and/or methodology. All articles, except for Editorials and some Correspondence articles, are externally peer reviewed, typically by at least two individuals with expertise in the manuscript content area and/or research methods, before a final decision is made about acceptance for publication. If an Editor, Editorial Board Member, or employee submits a manuscript, it is assigned to an independent Editor who will handle the peer review, and details of the review process, beyond the anonymized review and decision, are not accessible to the Editor, Editorial Board Member, or employee. All Editors, reviewers and authors shall adhere to Karger’s editorial policies and best practices in line with COPE Core Practices to maintain high standards of peer-review.

Peer Reviewers

Authors may suggest reviewers, who must have a recent publication record in the area of the submission, must not have published with the authors in recent years, and must not be from the same institution as the authors. Whether or not to consider these reviewers is at the Editor's discretion, and in line with Karger’s Editorial policy. Where possible, institutional email addresses or information which will facilitate verifying the identity of the reviewer should be provided.

Appeals and Complaints

Any appeal on a decision or complaint during peer-review, or post-publication, must be submitted in writing to the corresponding Karger’s editorial office (see “Journal Contact”). All cases will be handled in line with COPE guidelines.

Documents

A Guide to Reviewing Articles for DNE (PDF, 291.98 KB)

Reproducibility

Availability of materials

The Methods section of the article must contain sufficient information to allow a reader to replicate the study. Karger encourages authors to use protocols.io as an open access repository for their detailed methodology. For protocols registered in protocols.io, please cite this record in your methods section and include the record DOI in the references. Karger supports the inclusion of Research Resource Identifiers in the methods section, for further information please see the Resource Identification Portal. Supplier and catalogue numbers should be included for any chemical and reagents.

Image presentation

Where authors include a representative image of an experimental group or outcome it is expected that no image enhancements or adjustments are applied to that image. Where necessary for clarity of interpretation, for example, image cropping or brightness adjustment, this should be applied to the whole image, be detailed in the Methods section of the article and the original images must be uploaded as supplementary material.

Statistics

Karger recommends following The SAMPL Guidelines when reporting statistical analyses. Sample size must be reported for each study in the methods section tables and Figure legends. Where statistical testing for the significance of an effect is carried out, a dedicated section for statistical methodology must be included in the Methods. This section should provide sufficient information that would allow, with access to the full data set, reproduction of the article's results. The choice of statistical tests and any post-hoc tests must be justified in this section. The threshold for significance, alpha, should be defined here as well as how multiple comparisons are adjusted for, where applicable. When reporting the results of statistical tests it is not sufficient to only report the p-value. For example, for a Student’s t-test, it is necessary to report the degrees of freedom, t-statistic as well as the exact p-value.

Materials Design Analysis Reporting Framework

Karger Publishers endorses the Materials Design Analysis Reporting (MDAR) Framework for minimum reporting standards in the life sciences and encourages authors to consider all aspects of the MDAR Framework relevant to their study when submitting a manuscript. Authors are encouraged to submit a completed MDAR Checklist with their manuscripts.

Misconduct

Karger takes seriously all allegations of potential misconduct and will follow relevant COPE Guidelines. Concerns regarding a published article should be raised to the Research Integrity and Publication Ethics Manager at publication.ethics[at]karger.com. All efforts will be made to resolve concerns raised about a published article without undue delay and an Erratum or Retraction will be issued, where necessary. An Expression of Concern may be published to inform readers of ongoing matters in line with COPE guidance. In cases of suspected research or publication misconduct, it may be necessary for the Editor or Publisher to contact and share submission details with third parties including authors’ institutions and ethics committees in line with COPE Guidelines. Advice may also be sought directly from COPE.

Article Preparation

Formatting

The preferred word processing program for manuscripts is Microsoft Word. Page and line numbering should be activated, and the level of subheadings should be indicated clearly.

Footnotes should be avoided. When essential, they should be numbered consecutively and appear at the foot of the appropriate page.

Abbreviations (with the exception of those clearly well established in the field) should be explained when they are first used both in the abstract and in the main text.

Units of measurement should be expressed in SI units wherever possible.

Generic names of drugs (first letter: lowercase) should be used whenever possible. Registered trade names (first letter: uppercase) should be marked with the superscript registration symbol ® or ™ when they are first mentioned.

The manuscript text, tables and illustrations must be submitted in separate files.

For further technical specifications, including those regarding tables, figures, and illustrations, please refer to the Karger website.

Further Formatting Instructions

Documents

Graphical Abstract

A graphical abstract may be submitted together with the manuscript. It will also be peer-reviewed for online publication next to the abstract text. It is the authors’ responsibility to ensure its quality, resolution and accuracy. The graphical abstract should summarize the main findings of the article in a concise, clear and pictorial form, by means of a single figure designed to capture the content of the article for readers at a single glance. Examples of published graphical abstracts can be found in Rodriguez et al., J Vasc Res 23 March 2023; 60 (1): 1–11. (https://doi.org/10.1159/000529115) and Chapp et al., 2023 Neuroendocrinology 2023 (https://doi.org/10.1159/000530591).

The graphical abstract must be submitted as a single image file in jpg format, with a maximum size of 32 x 14 cm, conforming to 4800 (max) x 2100 pixels, at 300 dpi. The font should be Arial at 9–12 points for any text it may contain within the image. Please use the Sampler above to see if your image fits the available white space. The width of the available white area should be used as much as possible.

Graphical Abstract Sampler (PPTX, 62.99 KB)

Plain Language Summary

A plain language summary may be submitted for Research Articles and Review Articles. The summary should not exceed 250 words and be written in plain English avoiding the use of technical language. If a technical term must be used, then authors must explain it the first time that it is used. The summary must be distinct from the abstract and provide readers with an easy-to-understand description of the manuscript. Authors should avoid the use of personal opinions and/or speculation on the results of the manuscript. No page charges will be incurred by the inclusion of the plain language summary. Use neither bibliographic references nor references to figures or tables in the summary.

Plain Language Summary Template (DOCX, 20.59 KB)

Manuscript Arrangement

Title Page

The first page should contain a short and concise title plus a running head of no more than 80 characters. Abbreviations should be avoided.

Below the title, list all the authors’ names as outlined in the article sample, which can be downloaded under Article Types. Each listed author must have an affiliation, which comprises the department, university, or organization and its location, city, state/province (if applicable), and country.

Place the full postal address of the corresponding author at the bottom of the first page, including at least one telephone number and e-mail address.

Keywords relevant to the article should be listed below the corresponding author information.

Body

Please refer to the Article Types section of the Guidelines for Authors for information on the relevant article structure, including maximum word counts and downloadable samples.

Online Supplementary Material

Online Supplementary Material may be used to enhance a publication and increase its visibility on the Web. Supplementary files (directly relevant but not essential to the conclusions of the paper) will undergo editorial review and should be submitted in a separate file with the original manuscript and with all subsequent submissions. The Editor(s) reserve(s) the right to limit the scope and length of supplementary material. Supplementary material must meet production quality standards for publication without the need for any modification or editing. For ease of reader access, we strongly recommend that files be less than 10 MB. Authors wishing to associate larger amounts of supplementary material with their article should deposit their data in an appropriate public data repository. Figures must have legends and tables require headings. All files must be named clearly. Acceptable files and formats are Word or PDF files, Excel spreadsheets (if the data cannot be converted properly into a PDF file), and multimedia files (MPEG, AVI, or QuickTime formats). All supplementary material should be referred to in the main text. A DOI number will be assigned to supplementary material, and it will be hosted online at https://karger.figshare.com under a CC BY license.

References

In-Text Citation

References in the text should be identified sequentially using Arabic numerals [in square brackets].

Reference List

The reference list should include only those publications which are cited in the text, arranged numerically in the order in which they are cited. Please number the reference list as shown below (i.e., without using full stops, brackets, etc.). The authors’ surnames should be followed by their initials with no punctuation other than a comma to separate individual authors. A maximum of 6 authors should be listed (followed by “et al.” if there are more than 6 authors). Material submitted for publication but not yet accepted should be referred to as “unpublished data” and should not be included in the reference list. Other pre-published or related materials with a DOI, e.g. preprint manuscripts, datasets, and code, may be included. More information on good referencing practice, as well as further examples, can be found in National Library of Medicine Style Guide for Authors.

Reference Management Software

If you are using reference management software, we recommend using the Vancouver Referencing Style, which is also known as ‘Non-superscripted Number’ and adjusting to have the numbers in square brackets in the main text.

Examples

Articles published in journals: 1 Sawant KV, Xu R, Cox R, Hawkins H, Sbrana E, Kolli D, et al. Chemokine CXCL1-mediated neutrophil trafficking in the lung: role of CXCR2 activation. J Innate Immun. 2015;6(7):647–58. (Journal names should be abbreviated according to the Index Medicus.)

Articles published only with DOI number: 2 Chen C, Hu Z. ApoE polymorphisms and the risk of different subtypes of stroke in the Chinese population: a comprehensive meta-analysis. Cerebrovasc Dis. DOI: 10.1159/000442678.

Monographs: 3 Matthews DE, Farewell VT. Using and understanding medical statistics. 5th ed, revised. Basel: Karger; 2015.

Edited Books: 4 Cohen SR, Gardner TW. Diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema. In: Nguyen QD, Rodrigues EB, Farah ME, Mieler WF, Do DV, editors. Retinal pharmacotherapeutics. Dev Ophthalmol. Basel: Karger; 2016. Vol. 55; p. 137–46.

Websites: 5 Karger Publishers [Internet]. Basel: Transforming Vesalius: The 16th-Century Scientific Revolution Brought to Life for the 21st Century [cited 2013 Feb 4]. Available from: https://www.vesaliusfabrica.com/en/new-fabrica.html.

Author Services

Karger Publishers offer a range of services to assist authors with the preparation of their manuscript, including discounts for language editing services offered by third parties.

More information is available on the Author Resources section of the Karger homepage.

When submitting a manuscript, authors can add their ORCID number to their Karger account to ensure that their paper is accredited to them correctly.

Cost of Publication

Page Charges/Article Processing Charges

Karger has established Transformative Agreements with many consortia and institutions that include full or partial coverage of the Article Processing Charges (APCs) and/or the Author’s Choice Open Access publication fees. Authors affiliated with those institutions can publish Open Access in all Karger journals and comply with Open Access mandates without incurring any additional costs or with reduced APCs. Find out if your open access charges are covered by an agreement under Publish & Access - Transformative Agreements

Please note that adherence to word limits indicated in previous paragraphs does not guarantee exemption from page charges. Pages charges are calculated based on the final character counts (with spaces) in the main manuscript and all associated tables. Figures and illustrations are counted at a fixed rate of 2000 characters per item. Online supplementary material are not charged. Manuscripts with up to 55,000 character count equivalent do not incur a charge. Each increment of 5000 character count equivalent above that limit will be charged at CHF 365 / USD 410 / EUR 410.

Please note that an automatic calculation system for page charges was introduced in mid-2023. Please do get in touch with the editorial office of the journal if you have any questions.

Online Supplementary Material

We strongly encourage authors to make all the datasets on which the conclusions of the manuscript are based available. Online supplementary material is hosted for free with a published article. For ease of reader access, we strongly recommend that files be less than 10 MB. Authors wishing to associate larger amounts of supplementary material with their article should deposit their data in an appropriate public data repository.

Illustration Charges

Figures and illustrations are counted at a fixed rate of 2000 characters per item. There is no additional charge for figures and illustrations appearing in grayscale or color in print or online.

Author's Choice

Karger Publisher’s Author’s Choice™ service broadens the reach of your article and gives all users worldwide free and full access for reading, downloading, and printing at karger.com. The option is available for a one-time fee, which is a permissible cost in grant allocation. More information can be found at karger.com/authors_choice. For a fee of CHF 3,200.00 / USD 3,600.00 / EUR 3,600.00, the final, published version of the article may be posted at any time and in any repository or on other websites, in accordance with the relevant Creative Commons license as well as the current Karger self-archiving policy for Open Access articles. Karger supplies all articles to PubMed Central for indexing.

Journal Policies

Copyediting and Proofs

Manuscripts accepted for publication by Karger Publishers will undergo basic proofreading to check for obvious spelling and grammar mistakes. If you would prefer a more in-depth language editing service to improve clarity and style, please consult a service provider prior to submission. Please note that the use of a language editing service before submission is not a requirement for publication in the journal and does not guarantee that the manuscript will be considered for peer review or accepted.

Karger Publishers’ house style is based on internationally recognized standard manuals, including The Chicago Manual of Style.

An e-mail containing a link to download the PDF proofs will be sent to the corresponding author. The authors should check the PDF document and respond to any questions that have been raised during proofreading within 48 hours.

Alterations made to proofs, other than the correction of errors introduced by the Publisher, are charged to the authors and may require editorial approval.

Please note that the revised proofs are not sent to the authors prior to typesetting and online publication unless there are exceptional circumstances. The article layout will be created according to the Karger standard.

DOI Number

A DOI number will be available as a unique identifier on the title page of each article. DOIs are useful for identifying and citing articles published online without volume or issue information (for more information, see www.doi.org).

Online First Publication

All articles are published electronically ahead of print with a DOI number and are supplemented later with the definite reference to the printed version. The articles become available immediately after the authors’ approval to print.

Licenses and Copyright

At acceptance, the authors will transfer all rights, title, and interest, including the right to claim copyright throughout the world, related to the article, to S. Karger AG.

Please note that metadata – essentially, data tags about article information such as authors and keywords that helps make articles discoverable by, for example, search engines – is governed by a separate policy. Refer to the FAQ on our Open Access web pages for details.

Archiving and Self-Archiving

All articles are archived in Portico. Articles may also be archived in PubMed Central if the journal is indexed there. Karger supports Green Open Access and permits authors to archive their Author's Accepted Manuscript (AAM, i.e., accepted manuscripts after peer review but before production; also referred to as a postprint) on their personal home page or institution’s repository, provided that these are not used for commercial purposes, are linked to the publisher’s version, and acknowledge the publisher’s copyright. Preprints may be shared without restriction.

In addition, authors may post their accepted manuscripts in public Open Access repositories and scientific networks no earlier than 12 months following publication of the final version of their article. The posted manuscripts must:

1. Be used for noncommercial purposes only

2. Be linked to the final version on karger.com and include the following statement:

"This is the peer-reviewed but unedited manuscript version of the following article: [insert full citation, e.g., Cytogenet Genome Res 2014;142:227–238 (DOI: 10.1159/000361001)]. The final, published version is available at http://karger.com/?doi=[insert DOI number]."

It is the authors’ responsibility to fulfill these requirements.

For papers published online first with a DOI number only, full citation details must be added as soon as the paper is published in its final version. This is important to ensure that citations can be credited to the article.

To facilitate compliance with Coalition S/Plan S Open Access mandates, Karger permits authors, independently and without Karger`s action, to upload a copy of their Author Accepted Manuscripts (AAM), applying a CC BY license, to a repository designated by their Plan S funders. However, when an article is published as Open Access, the Version of Record should be archived instead of the AAM. The AAM may be made freely available in the archive upon the official, final publication of the article (Version of Record or VOR, i.e. the post-production, final article version). Manuscripts to be archived in PubMed Central (PMC) due to NIH funding requirements or that have been published Open Access under Author’s Choice™ will be submitted by Karger on the authors’ behalf, as outlined under Funding Organizations.

Articles published as Open Access under Author’s Choice may be shared freely on any repository or website. Re-posted Open Access articles must follow the terms of the relevant Creative Commons license. To ensure citations are credited to the Version of Record, Karger encourages authors to link to the published article on karger.com and include the following statement: "The Version of Record of this article is available at http://karger.com/?doi=[insert DOI number](e.g. http://karger.com/?doi=10.1159/000365070)."

Karger policies on Open Access, licensing and self-archiving can also be found at Sherpa Romeo.

Funding Organizations

If the authors are affiliated with an organization that has an Open Access agreement with Karger, the authors are prompted during submission to select from a list of these organizations. By choosing one of the listed organizations, eligibility can then be assessed.

NIH-Funded Research

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy mandates that AAMs must be archived in its digital database PubMed Central (PMC) within 12 months of the official publication date. As a service to authors, Karger Publishers submits the accepted, unedited version of NIH-funded manuscripts to PMC upon publication, where it is made available after a 12-month embargo period. Where the authors have chosen to make their paper freely available under Karger’s Author’s Choice™ service, this embargo does not apply.

Plan S

Karger approves authors, independently and without Karger`s action, to make their AAMs openly available in PMC or another repository under a CC BY license upon publication of the Version of Record (VOR, i.e post-production, final article version). However, when an article is published as Open Access, the Version of Record should be archived instead of the AAM. Some Coalition S funders, such as Wellcome Trust, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and FWF, designate PMC as the repository in which to make the Author’s Accepted Manuscript (AAM) openly available. For papers made Open Access via Author's Choice, Karger will deposit the article in PMC on the author’s behalf with a CC BY license. Authors should refer to their funders’ policies for details. Authors should check their funders’ requirements about how to declare their funding and any associated mandates within their manuscript.

Karger publishes some journals under the Transformative Journals model, compliant with Plan S. Find more information about Transformative Journals on the Karger website.

Other Funding Sources

Karger Publishers also complies with other funders’ requirements for submission to PMC. In some cases, doing so requires that authors select Author’s Choice™, which is generally reimbursed by the funder or is a permissible cost in the grant. Authors should include information on their grants in the Funding Sources section of their papers.

More information on funding sources can be found on the Karger website.

Errata and Retractions

Karger is committed to maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the scientific record. Retractions will be issued where required in accordance with COPE guidelines. Errors in an article that affect the content of the article, such as figures or results, or the article metadata, such as the author list, will be corrected through the publication of an Erratum. Please note that the corrections of other errors introduced by authors and missed during the final manuscript proofing stage may be declined. Authors should contact us to report errors in their articles. Please state journal name, volume, issue and page numbers, the DOI number if the article has not yet been printed, as well as article title and the nature of the error.

Submission

Manuscript Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted online via the Developmental Neuroscience submission and peer review system by the manuscript’s corresponding author. The corresponding (submitting) author will automatically be the contact person for the manuscript for the peer review and production process. For fee payment and license signing, the contact author will be the first listed corresponding author.

The corresponding (submitting) author is solely responsible for managing all communication between the journal and all co-authors and acts on behalf of all listed authors. This ensures that all correspondence reaches a unique contact and thereby secures swift communication in particular throughout the submission, peer review and production process. Articles can be published with more than one corresponding author (usually limited to three), but only the submitting author can be accommodated during the submission, peer review and production process.

The corresponding (submitting) author’s specific responsibilities include:

Ensuring all the listed authors have approved the manuscript submission to the journal and agreed to all of the content including the author list, including the Submission Declaration
Handling the revision(s) and re-submission(s) of the manuscript until acceptance
After acceptance, manuscript proof reading and approving the final proof
Acting as the point of contact for queries about the published article. It is their responsibility to inform all co-authors of any matters arising in relation to the published article including questions relating to publication ethics, availability of data, materials, etc.

Where there are multiple corresponding authors, the first listed corresponding author’s specific responsibilities include:

Upon acceptance, ensuring that all listed authors agree to the license agreement
Arranging for payment of Page Charges/Article Processing Charges where required. The affiliation of the corresponding author will be used to determine eligibility for discounted or waived charges including discounted or waived APCs under read and publish/offsetting/OA agreements

Please note that the author names entered into the manuscript submission and peer review system should be identical to the information presented on the title page of the manuscript, including the sequence of authorship. The author names submitted should reflect the official publication names. It is the submitting (corresponding) author’s responsibility to ensure the accuracy of all content in the proof, including the names of co-authors, addresses and affiliations.

Before submission, please read the Submission Guidelines in full for specific requirements for manuscript preparation.

A brief cover letter outlining how your study contributes to the current scientific literature and how it fits the aims and scope of the Journal should be provided. If your submission is part of a special issue of the journal, please refer to the specific name of the special issue in your cover letter and specify who invited the submission where appropriate.

Submission Declaration

The submitting author will submit, on behalf of all authors, their manuscript for potential publication after full peer-review. All co-authors will confirm that the submitting author has authority to act on their behalf via the verification link sent out to all authors upon completion of the submission. Please refer to the Submission Declaration PDF for details.

Documents

Submission Declaration (PDF, 89 KB)