Acta Neurologica Scandinavica

Edited by:
Elinor Ben-Menachem

Print ISSN: 0001-6314
Online ISSN: 1600-0404
Frequency: Monthly
Current Volume: 121 / 2010
ISI Journal Citation Reports® Ranking: 2008: 71/156 Clinical Neurology
Impact Factor: 2.317

TopAuthor Guidelines

Before a paper is submitted, authors should consult a current issue of Acta Neurologica Scandinavica for style and format.

Authors submitting a paper do so on the understanding that the work has not been published before, is not being considered for publication elsewhere, and has been read and approved by all authors. The submission of the manuscript by the authors means that they automatically agree to grant Blackwell Munksgaard the exclusive licence to publish it if and when the manuscript is accepted for publication. Granting this exclusive licence is a condition of publication and papers will not be passed to the publisher for production unless the licence has been granted. On acceptance, the corresponding author will receive an Copyright Transfer Agreement, which is to be signed on behalf of all co-authors and returned.

The work shall not be published elsewhere in any language without the written consent of the publisher. The articles published in this journal are protected by copyright, which covers translation rights and the exclusive right to reproduce and distribute all of the articles printed in the journal. No material published in the journal may be stored on microfilm or videocassettes or in electronic databases or retrieval systems without the written permission of the publisher.

All clinical trials must be approved by the local ethics committee. This should be stated in the article in the methods section. For randomized clinical trials please follow the requirements set down by the consort statement to be found at: http://www.consort-statement.org/statement/revisedstatement.htm

Articles must be written in correct scientific English suitable for publication. Although articles are subject to review and editing, the journal does not hold itself responsible for all statements made by contributors.

Peer review. All submitted material will be subject to peer review, but manuscripts can be rejected based on in-house assessment alone. That decision will be communicated rapidly. Currently around 30% of submitted manuscripts are accepted for publication, usually after modification suggested by the reviewers.

Manuscripts. The first 10 printed pages in the original articles are free of charge. For excess pages, the charge is GBP 60 per printed page.

Please submit your manuscript online: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ane. Please make sure to upload your complete manuscript file, including the author page and the abstract, even though it is also required to fill in these details on ScholarOne Manuscripts.

The first page should contain only the title of the article, the authors' names and institutions, and the full postal address of the author to whom communications and proofs are to be sent, and from whom offprints are to be requested. A second page with a brief running title which must not contain authors' names as all papers are sent anonymously to our referees.
Acknowledgements should be given on a separate page and any major sponsorship should be mentioned. Only persons who have made substantial contributions to the study should be acknowledged. Authors are responsible for obtaining written permission from anyone acknowledged by name.

1. Original articles
1.1. The text is limited to:
• less than 3,000 words not including abstracts, figure legends and references (please supply a word count).
• up to 35 references of Vancouver style
• up to 6 figures or tables (total)
1.2. If longer, in the cover letter, reasons for increase in length, figure or table number or reference number should be stated.
1.3. Reports of randomized clinical trials should, if possible, conform to CONSORT guidelines
1.4. The number of authors should be limited to 8 (if more, justification should be provided)
1.5. Title
• should be concise and descriptive (not declarative).
• 10 words or less
1.6. Short title of less than 50 characters
1.7. Abstract: 150 words structured as follows:
• Objectives (including the aims of the study)
• Materials & methods. If space is short, report only the primary outcomes
• Results
• Conclusions
1.8. Key words: 3-8, listed in alphabetical order
1.9. Arrange the article's text:
• Introduction
• Material & methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Acknowledgements (Any acknowledgements should appear on a separate page)
• References.

2. Review articles
2.1. The text is limited to:
• less than 7,000 words not including abstracts, figure legends and references (please supply a word count).
• up to 150 references of Vancouver style (if more, justification should be provided)
• figures and tables are important in review papers and up to 10 figures or tables (total) can beincluded in the text.
2.2. Title
• should be concise and descriptive (not declarative).
• length less than 100 characters
2.3. The number of authors should be limited to 5 (if more, justification should be provided)
2.4. Short title of less than 50 characters
2.5. Abstract: 200 words unstructured summary.
2.6. Key words: 3-8, listed in alphabetical order

3. Clinical commentaries
3.1. The text is strictly limited to
• less than 1,500 words not including abstracts, figure legends and references (please supply a word count)
• up to 15 references of Vancouver style (if more, justification should be provided)
• up to 4 figures or tables (total)
3.2. Title
• should be concise and descriptive (not declarative)
• length less than 100 characters
3.3. Short title of less than 50 characters
3.4. The number of authors should be limited to 8 (if more, justification should be provided)
3.5. Abstract: 250 words structured as follows:
• background
• aims of the study
• methods
• results
• conclusions
3.6. Key words: 3-8, listed in alphabetical order.

4. Letters to the editor
4.1. Letter to the editor are welcome if they refer to an article published in Acta Neurologica Scandinavica.
4.2. The letter should arrive in an electronic file on the desk of the Editor within two months after the publication of the article.
4.3. The letter will be sent to the author of the article, who will have 6 weeks to answer.
4.4. After the reply, no further correspondence will be accepted
4.5. Letters are not peer reviewed.

References. We recommend the use of a tool such as EndNote or Reference Manager for reference management and formatting.
EndNote reference styles can be searched for here:
http://www.endnote.com/support/enstyles.asp

Reference Manager reference styles can be searched for here:
http://www.refman.com/support/rmstyles.asp

The style of citations and references must conform to that of the 'Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals' as stated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (BMJ 1991;302:338-341). These should be kept to the pertinent minimum and numbered consecutively in the order in which they appear in the text, in accordance with the Vancouver system. Identify references in text, tables, and legends by arabic numerals (in parentheses). References cited only in tables or figure legends should be numbered in accordance with a sequence established by the first identification of that figure or table in the text. Use the style of the examples following, which are based on Index Medicus. Try to avoid using abstracts as references. Include manuscripts accepted, but not published; designate the abbreviated title of the journal followed by (in press). Information from manuscripts not yet accepted should be cited in the text as personal communication. The references must be verified by the author(s) against the original documents.

Standard journal article
List all authors when 6 or less; when 7 or more, list only the first 3 and add et al.
Journals. GAJDOS PH, OUTIN H, EIKHARRAT D et al. High-dose intravenous gamma-globulin for myasthenia gravis. Lancet 1984;i:406-7.
Corporate Author. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. Ann Intern Med 1988;108:258-65.
Chapter in book. FIESCHI C. Strategies for the treatment of brain infarction. In: Battistini L et al., eds. Acute brain ischemia - medical and surgical therapy. New York: Raven Press, 1986:1-11.

Illustrations. All figures should clarify the text and their number be kept to a minimum. Submit two copies of each illustration, identifying them with a label on the back that indicates the number, title of article and the top.
Line drawings should be professionally drawn; half-tones should exhibit high contrast. Details must be large enough to retain their clarity after reduction. Figure legends must be typed on a separate page at the end of the manuscript. Where possible, authors should send digital versions of each figure saved as a separate file in TIFF or EPS format. See http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/illustration.asp for more information on submitting electronic artwork.

Colour Illustrations. Any colour illustrations must be paid for by the author. Authors must complete a colour work agreement form for any manuscript containing colour figures and fax it to the production editor on +44 (0)131 226 3803 as soon as the manuscript has been accepted.
A PDF file of the form can be downloaded from http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pdf/SN_Sub2000_X_CoW.pdf

Tables. Tables should be typed on separate sheets numbered with arabic numerals, and have a self-explanatory heading.

Abbreviations and symbols. Use: Units, symbols and abbreviations. A guide for biological and medical editors and authors, 1994. The Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole Street, London W1M 8AE, England. Unfamiliar terms or abbreviations should be given in full at first mention. All units should be metric. Use no roman numerals; in decimals use the decimal point, not the comma.

Supporting Information. The Acta Neurologica Scandinavica Online gives authors the opportunity to include data that would be inappropriate or impractical to include in the printed version. These data may substantially enhance the importance of the research and may also be of benefit to readers. Authors are encouraged to include data such as videos, 3-D structures/images and any other supporting data too large for print publication. All supporting information must be submitted with the original manuscript via ScholarOne Manuscripts.

Supporting information guidelines including acceptable file formats and sizes are available at: http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/suppmat.asp

Proofs. The corresponding author will receive an email alert containing a link to a web site. A working e-mail address must therefore be provided for the corresponding author. The proof can be downloaded as a PDF (portable document format) file from this site. Acrobat Reader will be required in order to read this file. This software can be downloaded (free of charge) from the following web site:

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.

This will enable the file to be opened, read on screen and printed out in order for any corrections to be added. Further instructions will be sent with the proof. Hard copy proofs will be posted if no e-mail address is available. Excessive changes made by the author in the proofs, excluding typesetting errors, will be charged separately.

Early View. Acta Neurologica Scandinavica is covered by Blackwell Publishing's Early View service. Early View articles are complete full-text articles published online in advance of their publication in a printed issue. They have been fully reviewed, revised and edited for publication, and the authors' final corrections incorporated. Authors cannot make changes to their articles after online publication. Early View articles are given a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), which allows each article to be cited and tracked before it is allocated to an issue. After print publication, the DOI remains valid and can continue to be used to cite and access the articles.

Online Open. OnlineOpen is available to authors of primary research articles who wish to make their article available to non-subscribers on publication, or whose funding agency requires grantees to archive the final version of their article. With OnlineOpen the author, the author's funding agency, or the author's institution pays a fee to ensure that the article is made available to non-subscribers upon publication via Wiley InterScience, as well as deposited in the funding agency's preferred archive. For the full list of terms and conditions, see here.

Any authors wishing to publish their paper OnlineOpen are required to send a completed Online Open payment form to the Production Office upon acceptance. Prior to acceptance there is no requirement to inform the Editorial Office that you intend to publish your paper OnlineOpen. All OnlineOpen articles are treated in the same way as any other article. They go through the journal's standard peer-review process and will be accepted or rejected based on their own merit. Please send the completed and scanned Online Open payment form to ane@wiley.com.

Offprints. Offprints without covers can be ordered on the form accompanying the proofs.

Author Services. Author Services enables authors to track their article - once it has been accepted - through the production process to publication online and in print. Authors can check the status of their articles online and choose to receive automated e-mails at key stages of production. The author will receive an e-mail with a unique link that enables them to register and have their article automatically added to the system. Please ensure that a complete e-mail address is provided when submitting the manuscript. Visit http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/ for more details on online production tracking and for a wealth of resources including FAQs and tips on article preparation, submission and more.

Supplements. Papers to be published as supplements should be submitted to the Editor. Authors should follow the instructions given above. The quality of language must meet the standards of the journal. All costs for translation or linguistic revision, as well as all printing costs, must be paid by the author. Information about distribution, text on cover and title page, printing costs, etc., can be obtained from the Journals Department, Blackwell Munksgaard: 1 Rosenørns Alle, 1970 Frederiksberg C, Denmark.