ISSN 1665-5044 printed version
ISSN 2604-6180 on line version

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

Instrucions to authors

The Mexican Journal of Neuroscience (Rev Mex Neurociencia) is the official scientific disclosure body of the Mexican Academy of Neurology A.C. This is a two-monthly online, open-access publication launched in the year 2000, belonging to the Federation of Neurology Journals in Spanish. Rev Mex Neurociencia publishes Original Articles and Reviews addressing biology and diseases of the nervous system. The main clinical disciplines covered by Rev Mex Neurociencia are: Neurology, Neurosurgery, Psychiatry, Psychology and Basic Neurosciences.

Articles on clinical and basic research written in impeccable English are welcome. The submission of an article implies that the work in question has not been published previously (except in summarised format, or as part of an academic conference or thesis), that it is not being considered for publication in any other journal, that all the authors have approved the publication of the same, and that the pertinent authorities at the organisation at which the work was conducted (institution of origin) have implicitly or explicitly approved the publication of the same, and that, if accepted, it will not be published on any other medium, including electronic, in English, Spanish or any other language. These regulations for authors comply with the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: http://www.icmje.org/).

SUBMISSION DETAILS

Articles should be submitted electronically on our system: http://publisher.revmexneuroci.permanyer.com/ Articles should be prepared strictly in accordance with the style of the journal (see below) using a Microsoft Word 2.0 word processor or superior. Figures (composed of images, photographs and illustrations) should be included in the main article file at the end of the text (see below) and as separate files in high-resolution PPT, JPEG, TIFF or PNG format. Other formats are not acceptable.

COST PER PUBLICATION

Rev Mex Neurociencia does not charge for pages or figures published. Colour figures are welcome at no cost to the authors.

AUTHORSHIP

Authors should have made a substantial contribution to the conception, design, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation of the information, writing of the article or critical review of the same consisting of important intellectual content. All the authors should approve the final version of the article before submitting it.

The documents submitted to the manuscript management system should include a digitally scanned version of the Letter of Submission and Assignment of Rights in the standardised Rev Mex Neuroci format (see below) with the electronic article files.

The names of the authors may only be added, deleted or rearranged on the express request of the corresponding author, in the event the article is accepted.

Once the article has been published, the list of authors may only be altered on the submission of a letter of correction published in a subsequent edition of Rev Mex Neuroci.

ETHICS

Scientific research should be conducted in accordance with the World Medical Association Code of Ethics (Helsinki Declaration) for experimentation involving human beings (http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/index.html). In relation to research on non-human animals, Rev Mex Neuroci recommends research work be conducted in accordance with Directive 2010/63/EU on Animal Experimentation (http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/lab_animals/legislation_en.html) and the American Association of Psychology Guides for Ethical Conduct in the Care and Use of Non-Human Animals (http://www.apa.org/science/leadership/care/guidelines.aspx).

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

All authors are required to declare any potential conflicts of interest, including any financial, personal or other relationship with any person or organisation that might have an influence, or that might be regarded as having an influence on the scientific articles submitted to Rev Mex Neuroci. In the event there are no conflicts of interest, this fact should be expressed explicitly. The legend entitled "DECLARATION OF CONFLICTS OF INTEREST" should be part of the structure of the article and be placed after the conclusion and before the DECLARATION OF CONFLICTS OF INTEREST.

SOURCE OF FINANCING

Authors are urged to declare the source of economic financing for the execution of the research and/or the preparation of the manuscript, and to provide a brief description of the role of the financer, where applicable, in the design of the study, the collection of data, the analysis and interpretation of the information, the writing of the article and the decision to submit it to Rev Mex Neuroci. The declaration entitled "SOURCE OF FINANCING" should be part of the framework of the article and be placed after the DECLARATION OF CONFLICTS OF INTEREST and before the list of bibliographical references, in the writing of the article or the decision to submit it to Rev Mex Neuroci.

PREPARATION AND FORMATTING OF ARTICLES

We recommend consulting a recent Rev Mex Neurociencia article as means of complying with its style. Documents should feature numbered pages with double-spaced Arial, Times or Gill Sans font 11 or 12. The right margin of the document should NOT be justified for the purposes of editing. Use Microsoft Word 2.0 or later versions.

LANGUAGE

Only articles written in English (both the American and British variants) will be accepted. Rev Mex Neurociencia has no professional language editing services, reason for which the authors are entirely responsible for the accuracy and suitability of the written content.

ABBREVIATIONS

With the exception of units of measurement, the exaggerated use of abbreviations should always be avoided. The meaning of an abbreviation should be explained the first time it appears. Original articles This is a paper on research testing a scientific hypothesis, with no more than 5,500 words (including the cover letter, the page providing information on the authors, the title page, summary, abstract, main text, list of references, tables and figure legends), with no more than six tables or figures (any combination is allowed) and no more than 40 references in the bibliographical list. The electronic article file should include the numbering of the pages and should comprise, in strict order, the following parts, separately:

1. Cover letter: This is an unsigned freestyle letter at the beginning of the article declaring that it is not being considered or assessed for publication on any other medium, that all the authors have made a significant contribution to the work submitted and that all the authors have approved the final version of the manuscript.

2. Page with information on the authors: This page contains the names of the authors and their affiliations, in the exact manner they wish them to appear in the printed article. The authors´ rank, position or professional level should not be declared. Furthermore, this page should contain the corresponding author´s name and address.

3. Title page: This is the page that states the type of article (Original Article, Review, etc.), the full title of the same, the abbreviated title or cornices, the names of the authors starting with the surname(s) followed by the first name(s). Do not include professional titles ("Dr", "resident", "MD" and "PhD", for example).

4. Corpus of the manuscript, which should contain:

Abstract: This page is dedicated to the abstract in English. This section of the article should be structured and comprise, in no more than 250 words, the following sub-sections: Objective, Methods, Results, Conclusions. A list of 3 to 5 keywords in English is required for indexing purposes.

Introduction: This page should include just one to three paragraphs (no more than 300 words in total) with a brief introduction focused on the essence and motivation of the study. Ideally, it should be based on the justification, importance, hypothesis and objective of the same. A clear justification on the approach to the issue in question should be provided if the article is a review. Literature citations begin here and should be registered in superscript Arabic numerals (for example: ...are poorly reported in numbers.21) after the punctuation mark, in the order in which the references are cited in the text (order of appearance).

Methods: This section should include a sentence specifying the type of study, the approval of the Ethics Committee and the requirement of Informed Consent (where applicable). The subject population (human or non-human), the study period, outcomes measured (dependent variables), operational definitions, the organization of the study (or experimental strategy), measurement of the variables and the collection of data all need to be clearly defined. After having provided this information, the last paragraph should deal with the statistical analysis, clearly specifying the methods of basic data description, analysis of association or inference, and the level of significance (in Rev Mex Neuroci). The level of significance should always be expressed with a non-cursive lowercase "p", always considering p< 0.05) as significant and the statistical package used (where applicable). Exact methods should be used in the analysis of categorical variables. Results should be presented as accurately as scientific values require (for example, measurements of association such as odds ratios should normally be reported to two decimal places). Except when the design of the article specifically requires, such as in non-inferiority studies, all the "p" values to be two-tailed. In general, "p" values of greater than 0.01 should be reported to two decimal places, "p" values of between 0.01 and 0.001 to three decimal places, and "p" values of less than 0.001 as "p < 0.001". The Methods section may include references to previous studies.

Results: This section should start with a description of the general characteristics of the study population. A description of both general and particular results. This section allows for the use of Charts (single-column tabulations, or in other words, listings), Tables (tabulations with more than one column and more than one row) and Figures (both single and compound illustrations, graphs and photographs). Use words first of all, use Tables if it is not possible with text only, and use Figures if this is not possible. Do NOT repeat the information contained in Tables or Figures in the text, just interpret it. If a Table or Figure is required, the text should only address the findings included in the Table or Figure superficially, do NOT repeat the same information. Do NOT refer to previous studies in this section.

Discussion: This section should first contain an interpretation of the results summarising the main findings of the scientific report, and a comparison with similar previous studies afterwards. Do not repeat numbers, percentages or raw data reported in the Results section. Discuss the results and explain to the scientific community why they are valuable and relevant for clinical practice. Provide a clear description of the limitations of the study, how the study could be improved in the future and what the future perspectives and courses of action are. This section should include references to preceding literature.

Declaration of conflicts of interest

Sources of financing

Citations and references: Insert the citations in relation to previous studies or conceptual references in superscript Arabic numerals, in order of appearance. Do NOT make citations in parentheses or brackets. A list of all the references used in order of appearance and in strict Rev Mex Neuroci style should be provided after the Conclusions section. The accuracy of the references is the responsibility of the authors. Do not place the list of references in alphabetical order. References cited in a Tables or Figures should appear in numerical order in accordance with the first reference made to the Table or Figure in the text. For example, if the last reference cited before the Table or Figure in question is reference 14, and the Table or Figure contains five references that have not yet been mentioned in the text, then the references contained in the Text or Figure should be numbered from 15 to 19; and consequently, the following unmentioned reference on returning to the text should be 20. If the references include more than six authors, the first six should be listed in MedLine style (for example: Ramírez-Castro CS) followed by "et al." The style of the references should be as follows:

Journal articles: Cantú-Brito C, Ruiz-Sandoval JL, Arauz-Góngora A, Villarreal-Careaga J, Barinagarrementería F, Murillo-Bonilla LM, et al. Prevalence of carotid stenosis in patients with transitory cerebral ischemia in Mexico. Rev Mex Neuroci 2010; 11: 343-8.

Congress summary/abstract: Martínez-Ramírez D, Martínez HR, Armendáriz-Betancourt I. Motor focalisation as a predictive sign of high-grade brain tumour. Rev Mex Neurociencia 2011; 12: 278. Abstract.

Book: Silberstein SD, Lipton RB, Dalessio DJ, eds. Wolff's headache and other head pain. 7th ed. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2001: 57-72.

Website: U.S. positions on selected issues at the third negotiating session of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Washington, D.C.: Committee on Government Reform, 2002. (Accessed March 04, 2002, at https://www.house.gov/reform/min/inves_tobacco/index_accord.html.)

Tables: Tables should appear in the article file after the list of references, starting with the title. Number the Tables with Arabic numerals in the order in which they are cited in the text. Use titles that provide a concise description of the content of the Table, thereby enabling the reader to understand the Table without having read the text. Tables may contain abbreviations but should feature a footnote with the meaning of the abbreviations. Provide the measurement units for all numerical data in the columns and rows of the Table. Place measurement units at the top of the column or at the far right of a row when the same measurement unit applies to all the data in this column or row. When preparing Tables with a grid, use a single grid for each Table, and not a separate grid for each column or row.

Figure legends: A legend should be placed above each figure and NEVER be part of the same.

Figures: High-resolution figures (at least 300 dpi/ppp) should be included on separate pages at the end of the text file, and NEVER between the Methods, Results or Discussion paragraphs. Do not include figure legends as part of the image itself. A brief title should identify each figure (for example, "Figure 1" or "Figure 2", etc.).

Review Articles

This is a paper on the narrative review of a neuroscience topic, with no more than 7,000 words (including the cover letter, the page providing information on the authors, the title page, summary, abstract, main text, list of references, tables and figure legends), with no more than seven tables or figures (any combination is allowed) and no more than 50 references in the bibliographic list. This specific type of article should comprise the following parts:

1. Cover letter: As specified previously in relation to Original Articles.

2. Page with information on the authors: As specified previously in relation to Original Articles.

3. Title page: As specified previously in relation to Original Articles.

4. Corpus of the manuscript, which should contain:

Abstract: This page is dedicated to the abstract. This section for this specific type of article should be non-structured (not composed of sub-sections), and should include, in no more than 200 words, a definition of the subject-matter in question, the importance of the same, the topics or sections to be addressed and a brief conclusion on the relevance of the Review. A list of 3 to 5 keywords is required for indexing purposes.

Introduction: This section should provide a clear justification for the presentation of the topic. The citations begin here, in accordance with the aforementioned guidelines.

Development: This section does not necessarily bear the title "Development". Instead, we recommend freestyle titles and subtitles, as required.

Conclusion: This section should specify the relevance of the topic in question and the future guidelines in fewer than 100 words.

Declaration of conflicts of interest

Sources of financing

Citations and references: As specified previously in relation to Original Articles.

Tables: As specified previously in relation to Original Articles.

Figure legends: As specified previously in relation to Original Articles.

Figures: As specified previously in relation to Original Articles.

Cover Letter and Assignment of Rights

Date: ___________________

Title of the article: _________

Type of article: ___________

Name of the corresponding author: _________________________

Signature of the corresponding author: _________________________

On behalf of all the authors of this article, I hereby declare that the manuscript is original and has not been published or submitted for publication on any other medium, and that no affiliation exists with any organisation with direct or indirect financial interests in relation to the topic in question that might affect the reporting of the article submitted herein.

On signing this declaration, taking into consideration that the Mexican Academy of Neurology (AMN) and the Mexican Journal of Neuroscience (Rev Mex Neurociencia) have agreed to review and edit my submission, on behalf of all the authors, I hereby solemnly transfer and assign all rights, titles and interests, including any copyright in all forms and media herein and generated in the future, to the AMN and Rev Mex Neuroci. The authors retain the non-exclusive right to use all or part of the article in future works, provided credit and rights are provided to AMN and Rev Mex Neurociencia. Rev Mex Neurociencia agrees to release the copyright in the event Rev Mex Neuroci does not publish this work.