Neurologia medico-chirurgica Instructions to Authors

Updated: 2024.10.15

Recommended Papers for Citation

• Recommendations by Categories
• Recommendations published in 2021
• Recommendations published in 2022

Aims and Scope

Neurologia medico-chirurgica (NMC) is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal that publish significant and novel contributions primarily in neurosurgery. Articles can take basic, experimental, applied, or clinical approaches. NMC especially welcomes articles that present work at the interface of these areas. Article types include Original Articles, Technical Notes, Rapid Communications, Special Topics and Review Articles.

NMC covers a broad range of topics spanning the functional, vascular, tumor, trauma, spinal, geriatric, pediatric aspects of neurosurgery. Articles on basic research and clinical works are also welcomed.

NMC is supported by the Japan Neurosurgical Society (JNS), which aims to advance the neurosurgical sciences worldwide. NMC, therefore, provides its global authors with rapid but full peer-review services to select original, innovative, important work that is of the highest interest. A global audience of researchers and clinicians frequently access the journal’s articles, which are available freely online as soon as they are published.

The journal requires that all manuscripts be prepared in accordance with the “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.” as published by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Manuscript Types

The journal welcomes five manuscript types, all of which are subject to peer review.

Original Articles

Full and comprehensive reports describing original research presented in the standard format of Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion and References.

Technical Notes

Descriptions of new techniques or significant modifications of techniques that are directly applicable to clinical practice or research are considered.

Rapid Communications

Short, concise summaries of highly significant findings that justify immediate publication. Provide the specific findings and avoid extensive interpretative text or general discussion.

Special Topics

Special Topics are solicited by the Editorial Committee on a current topic of interest in the field of neurosurgery. This article type is for subjects not classified above article types (e.g. cost-effective analysis, medical training issues, ethics, summary reports of symposia, guidelines, etc.).

Review Articles

Insightful overviews that provide timely or critical discussion about the present status and directions for future research. Review Articles are at the invitation of, or after discussion with, the Editorial Committee.

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor are brief, constructive commentaries that can be submitted in response to a recently published article in NMC. Authors of the article will be invited to submit a reply letter.

Submission of case reports will be considered for publication in NMC Case Report Journal (NMC CRJ). For Case Reports, the Editorial Committee considers the level of significance and interest to the journal’s audience. Those judged to be of particular note will be accepted into NMC.

Journal & Ethics Policies

NMC upholds the highest standards in scholarly publishing.

Before submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors must ensure that they have read and complied with the journal’s policies. The journal reserves the right to reject without review, or retract, any manuscript that the Editor believes may not comply with these policies.

The responsibilities of the journal’s authors, editors, reviewers and publisher regarding research and publication ethics are described in full below.

Submission to the journal implies that the manuscript has not been previously published (in part or in whole, in any language), is not in press, and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. The journal’s Affidavit following the instructions must be completed and signed by all authors and submitted with the manuscript.

Authors must inform the editors if any related manuscripts are under consideration, in press or published elsewhere. The availability of a manuscript on a publicly accessible preprint server does not constitute prior publication (see ‘Preprints’). If authors choose to submit their manuscript elsewhere before a final decision has been made on its suitability for publication in NMC, they should first withdraw it from the journal.

Submission

NMC welcomes manuscript submissions from authors based anywhere in the world.

Submission of a manuscript to the journal implies that all authors: have approved it, warrant it is factual, have agreed to its submission, and have the right to publish it.

Originality

Submission to the journal implies that the manuscript is original work. Upon submission, the manuscript will be automatically checked for plagiarism by the Crossref’s Similarity Check plagiarism software to determine both textual overlap and manuscript originality. By submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors agree to this screening. Any manuscript with an unacceptable level of unoriginal material may be rejected or retracted at the Editors’ discretion.

Preprints

To support the wide dissemination of research, the journal encourages authors to post their research manuscripts on community-recognized preprint servers, either before or alongside submission to the journal. This policy applies only to the original version of a manuscript that describes primary research. Any version of a manuscript that has been revised in response to reviewers’ comments, accepted for publication or published in the journal should not be posted on a preprint server. Instead, forward links to the published manuscript may be posted on the preprint server.

Authors should retain copyright in their work when posting to a preprint server.

Scooping

When assessing the novelty of a manuscript submitted to the journal, the editors will not be influenced by other manuscripts that are posted on community-recognized preprint servers after the date of submission to NMC (or after the date of posting on a preprint server, if the manuscript is submitted to the journal within 4 months).

Authorship

Submission to the journal implies that all authors have seen and approved the author list. Changes to the author list after manuscript submission – such as the insertion or removal of author names, or a rearrangement of author order – must be approved by all authors and the editor.

Authors are encouraged to consider ICMJE Recommendations on ‘Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors’. The ICMJE recommends that authorship is based on four criteria: 1) making a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data for the work; 2) drafting the manuscript or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content; 3) approving the final version of the manuscript for publication; and 4) agreeing to be held accountable for all aspects of the work and working to resolve any issues raised.

Any contributor who has met all four criteria should be an author on the manuscript. Contributors who do not meet all four criteria should not be authors of the manuscript but may be included in the Acknowledgements section instead.

Use of artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted tools/technologies

In consonance with the COPE’s position statement, WAME’s recommendations, and ICMJE’s Recommendation, NMC does not allow artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted tools/technologies such as Large Language Models (LLMs), chatbots, or image creators to be listed as author or co-author. As described in the ICMJE, those tools cannot be responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of the work, thus they do not meet the ICMJE’s criteria for authorship listed above.

Authors (humans) are fully responsible for any materials of the submitted work, including the use of AI-assisted tools or technologies. Authors should not list AI and AI-assisted technologies as an author or co-author, nor cite AI as an author. Authors (humans) are also responsible for plagiarism including the text and AI-produced images. Authors must disclose, upon submission and in the Materials and Methods (or similar section), any use of AI-assisted tools or technologies in the writing of a manuscript, production of images or graphical elements of the paper, or in the collection and analysis of data.

Image integrity

Authors may digitally manipulate or process images, but only if the adjustments are kept to a minimum, are applied to the entire image, meet community standards, and are clearly described in the manuscript. All images in a manuscript must accurately reflect the original data on which they are based. Authors must not move, remove, add or enhance individual parts of an image. The editors reserve the right to request original, unprocessed images from the authors. Failure to provide requested images may result in a manuscript being rejected or retracted.

Reproducing copyrighted material

If a manuscript includes material that is not under the authors’ own copyright, the authors must obtain permission from the copyright holder(s) to reproduce it.

If a manuscript includes previously published material, the authors must obtain permission from the copyright owners and the publisher of the original work to reproduce it. The authors must cite the original work in their manuscript.

Copies of all reproduction permissions must be included with the manuscript when it is first submitted.

Availability of data and materials

Authors must disclose the source of publicly available data and materials, such as public repositories or commercial manufacturers, by including accession numbers or company details in their manuscript, as appropriate.

Animal/human experimentation

Authors of manuscripts describing experiments involving humans or materials derived from humans must demonstrate that the work was carried out in accordance with the principles embodied in the Declaration of Helsinki, its revisions, and any guidelines approved by the authors’ institutions.

If identification of patients is unavoidable in being able to affirm scientific validity, the authors must include a statement in the Materials and Methods section that describes the procedures for obtaining informed consent from participants regarding participation in the research and publication of the research. A PDF of the statement of approval of the study by the relevant institutional or regional review board should be uploaded to the submission system upon first submission.

Patient anonymity must be protected by avoiding details that might identify patients unless essential for scientific purposes. Details in the text, figures, photographs that might disclose identity of subjects should be omitted to preserve subjects’ anonymity. Measures such as masking of the eye region in photographs of patients may be inadequate.

Authors of manuscripts describing experiments involving animals or materials derived from animals must demonstrate that the work was carried out in accordance with the ethical guidelines approved by responsible committee of the authors’ institution(s).

The Editors reserve the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the above provisions. Authors remain fully responsible for their statements.

Clinical trial registration

The journal adheres to the ICMJE policy on Clinical Trials Registration, which recommends that all clinical trials are registered to one of 5 ICMJE-approved public trial registries:

• Clinical Trials
• Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry
• ISRCTN Register
• UMIN Clinical Trials Registry
• EudraCT

All clinical trials must be registered with a public trial registry at or before the time of first patient enrollment as a condition of consideration for publication. Manuscripts describing clinical trials must include the registration number of the trial and the name of the trial registry at the end of the Abstract and in the Materials and Methods section.

Reporting guidelines

The journal requires authors to follow the EQUATOR Network’s Reporting Guidelines for health research. Study types include, but are not limited to, randomized trials, observational studies, case reports, qualitative research, diagnostic and prognostic studies, economic evaluations, animal pre-clinical studies and study protocols. The journal encourages authors to follow SAGER guidelines and to include sex and gender considerations where relevant.

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses must be reported according to the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines, an evidence-based minimum set of items for reporting in systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

Author competing interests and conflicts of interest

In the interests of transparency, the journal requires all authors to declare any competing or conflicts of interest in relation to their submitted manuscript in the ‘Disclosure of Conflict of Interest’ section of the manuscript (see the relevant section below). A conflict of interest exists when there are actual, perceived or potential circumstances that could influence an author’s ability to conduct or report research impartially. Potential conflicts include (but are not limited to) employment-consultancy relationships, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/ registrations, and grants or other funding. Further disclosure standards of financial conflicts of interest are available.

Authors should list all funding sources for their work in the Acknowledgements section of their manuscript.

Members of Japan Neurosurgical Society (JNS) must have supplied the COI declaration form for the last three years to the JNS Office before submitting a manuscript.

Confidentiality

The journal maintains the confidentiality of all unpublished manuscripts. By submitting their manuscript to the journal, the authors warrant that they will keep all correspondence about their manuscript (from the Editorial Office, editors and reviewers) strictly confidential.

Self-archiving policy

Self-archiving enables authors to deposit a copy of their manuscript in an online repository. NMC encourages authors of original research manuscripts to upload their article to an institutional or public repository immediately after publication in the journal.

Long-term digital archiving

J-STAGE preserves its full digital library, including NMC, with Portico in a dark archive (see https://www.portico.org/publishers/jstage/). In the event that the material becomes unavailable at J-STAGE, it will be released and made available by Portico.

Peer Review Process

Editorial and peer review process

The journal uses single-anonymized peer review. When a manuscript is submitted to the journal, it is assigned to the Editor-in-Chief, who performs initial screening. Manuscripts that do not fit the journal’s scope or are not deemed suitable for publication are rejected without review. The remaining manuscripts are assigned to an Editor and two reviewers to assess each manuscript. The deadline for submission of the reviewers’ reports are within 2 weeks.

Upon receipt of the two reviewers’ reports, the Editor makes the first decision on the manuscript. If the decision is to request revision of the manuscript, authors have 3 months to resubmit their revised manuscript. Authors of revised manuscripts must submit a detailed point-by-point response to the reviewers’ comments in the field of Response to Decision Letter on the submission system. The modified parts should be highlighted by under line or color font.

Revised manuscripts submitted after this deadline may be treated as new submissions. The Editor may send revised manuscripts to peer reviewers for their feedback or may use his or her own judgement to assess how closely the authors have followed the Editor’s and the reviewers’ comments on the original manuscript.

The Editor then makes a recommendation to the Editor-in-Chief on the manuscript’s suitability for publication. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for making the final decision on each manuscript.

The members of the Editorial Committee act in advisory roles, providing feedback as reviewers and making suggestions to improve the journal. In cases where the Editor-in-Chief is an author on a manuscript submitted to the journal, Co-Editor is responsible for making the final decision on the manuscript’s suitability for publication in the journal.

Reviewer timing and suggestions

Reviewers are invited within 2 weeks of an article being submitted. Reviewers are asked to submit their first review within 2 weeks of accepting the invitation to review. Reviewers who anticipate any delays should inform the Editorial Office as soon as possible.

When submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors may suggest reviewers that they would like included in or excluded from the peer review process. The Editor-in-Chief may consider these suggestions but is under no obligation to follow them. The selection and assignment of peer reviewers is at the Editor-in-Chief’s sole discretion.

Reviewer reports

It is the journal’s policy to transmit reviewers’ comments to the authors in their original form. However, the journal reserves the right to edit reviewers’ comments, without consulting the reviewers, if they contain offensive language, confidential information or recommendations for publication.

Acceptance criteria

If a manuscript satisfies the journal’s requirements and represents a significant contribution to the published literature, the Editor may recommend acceptance for publication in the journal.

Articles in NMC must be:

• within the subject area of the journal’s scope
• novel and original
• descriptions of technically rigorous research
• of high interest to the journal’s audience
• important additions to the field.

If a manuscript does not meet the journal’s requirements for acceptance or revision, the Editor may recommend rejection.

Editorial independence

As the journal owner, the Japan Neurosurgical Society (JNS) has granted the journal’s Editorial Committee complete and sole responsibility for all editorial decisions. The JNS will not become involved in editorial decisions, except in cases of a fundamental breakdown of process.

Editorial decisions are based only on a manuscript’s scientific merit and are kept completely separate from the journal’s other interests. The authors’ ability to pay any publication charges has no bearing on whether a manuscript is accepted for publication in the journal.

Appeals

Authors who believe that an editorial decision has been made in error may lodge an appeal with the Editorial Office. Appeals are only considered if the authors provide detailed evidence of a misunderstanding or mistake by a reviewer or editor. Appeals are considered carefully by the Editor-in-Chief, whose decision is final. The guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) are followed where and when relevant.

Editor Confidentiality

The journal maintains the confidentiality of all unpublished manuscripts. Editors will not:
1) disclose a reviewer’s identity unless the reviewer makes a reasonable request for such disclosure
2) discuss the manuscript or its contents with anyone not directly involved with the manuscript or its peer review
3) use any data or information from the manuscript in their own work or publications
4) use information obtained from the peer review process to provide an advantage to themselves or anyone else, or to disadvantage any individual or organization.

Conflicts of interest in peer review

A conflict of interest exists when there are actual, perceived or potential circumstances that could influence an editor’s or reviewer’s ability to act impartially when assessing a manuscript. Such circumstances might include having a personal or professional relationship with an author, working on the same topic or in direct competition with an author, having a financial stake in the work or its publication, or having seen previous versions of the manuscript.

Members of the journal’s Editorial Committee undertake to declare any conflicts of interest when handling manuscripts, but it is not always possible to identify potential bias. An editor or reviewer who declares a conflict of interest is unassigned from the manuscript in question and is replaced by a new editor or a reviewer.

Manuscripts submitted by editors, editorial committee members, or journal staff will follow the same process as outlined above and should include a statement that declares their personal conflict of interest with the journal.

Errata and retractions

The journal recognizes the importance of maintaining the integrity of published literature.

A published article that contains an error may be corrected through the publication of an Erratum. Errata describe errors that significantly affect the scientific integrity of a publication, the reputation of the authors, or the journal itself. Authors who wish to correct a published article should contact the Editorial Office with full details of the error(s) and their requested changes. In cases where co-authors disagree over a correction, the Editor-in-Chief may consult the Editorial Committee or external peer reviewers for advice. If a Correction is published, any dissenting authors will be noted in the text.

A published article that contains invalid or unreliable results or conclusions, has been published elsewhere, or has infringed codes of conduct (covering research or publication ethics) may be retracted. Individuals who believe that a published article should be retracted are encouraged to contact the Editorial Office with full details of their concerns. The Editor-in-Chief will investigate further and contact the authors of the published article for their response. In cases where co-authors disagree over a retraction, the Editor-in-Chief may consult the Editorial Committee or external peer reviewers for advice. If a Retraction is published, any dissenting authors will be noted in the text.

The decision to publish Errata or Retractions is made at the sole discretion of the Editor-in-Chief.

Editors and reviewers as authors in the journal

Any member of the journal’s Editorial Committee, including the Editor-in-Chief who is an author on a submitted manuscript is excluded from the peer review process. Within the journal’s online manuscript submission and tracking system, they will be able to see their manuscript as an author but not as an editor or a reviewer, thereby maintaining the confidentiality of peer review.

A manuscript authored by an editor or a reviewer of NMC is subject to the same high standards of peer review and editorial decision making as any manuscript considered by the journal.

Responding to potential ethical breaches

The journal will respond to allegations of ethical breaches by following its own policies and, where possible, the guidelines of COPE.

Reviewer confidentiality

As part of their responsibilities, reviewers agree to maintain the confidentiality of unpublished manuscripts at all times. By accepting the invitation to review a manuscript, reviewers agree not to:
1) disclose their role in reviewing the manuscript
2) reveal their identity to any of the authors of the manuscript
3) discuss the manuscript or its contents with anyone not directly involved in the review process
4) involve anyone else in the review (for example, a postdoc or PhD student) without first requesting permission from the Editor
5) use any data or information from the manuscript in their own work or publications
6) use information obtained from the peer review process to provide an advantage to themselves or anyone else, or to disadvantage any individual or organization.

Copyright, Open Access and Fees

NMC is fully Open Access and uses Creative Commons (CC) licenses that, in line with the license, allow users to use, reuse and build upon the material published in the journal without charge or the need to ask prior permission from the publisher or author. More details on the CC license used are below.

Copyright and licensing

Authors are required to assign all copyrights in the work to the Japan Neurosurgical Society, who then publish the work under the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (AttributionNonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International) license. This license allows users to share unmodified articles, noncommercially, as long as appropriate credit is given.

Some funding bodies require articles funded by them to be published under a specific Creative Commons license. Before submitting your work to the journal, check with the relevant funding bodies to ensure that you comply with any mandates.

Publication fees and charges

Article Processing Charges
There are many costs associated with publishing scholarly journals, such as those of managing peer review, copy editing, typesetting and online hosting. To cover these costs, authors (or their representatives) are asked to pay modest article processing charges (APCs) if the length of their article exceeds the given limits (see below). There is no submission fee.

Extra Page Charges
There is no APC if the number of words and other elements are within the stated limits in the ‘Article structure and lengths’ section. If these limits are exceeded, a charge of 10,000 Japanese yen (plus consumption tax) per additional page is levied.

Color Charges
Color figures are published online for free. Authors who request color figures in print must pay approximately 55,000 Japanese yen (plus consumption tax) for each color pages. Final prices are provided during the post-acceptance stage.

Waiver policy

Waivers for APCs are provided automatically when the corresponding author is from a “Group A” Research4Life country. In cases of demonstrated financial hardship, the journal will consider a pre-submission application for a waiver from any corresponding author to the Editorial Office. Applications cannot be made after the peer review process has begun.

The ability of an author to pay the APC does not influence editorial decisions. To avoid any possibility of undue influence, Editors involved with the decision-making process for articles are not involved in any deliberations on waivers.

Manuscript Submission

All manuscripts must be submitted via the journal’s online submission system, ScholarOne: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/nmc.

The manuscript text must be submitted as a Microsoft Word file, and include the title page, Abstract, text, COI disclosure, References, and figure legends. Figures and tables must NOT be embedded within the manuscript file.

If included in the submission, each set of materials listed below must be cited appropriately in the manuscript text. A title for each Table, Figure or Video must be included. Total file size is limited to ≤20 MB including figures, tables and supplementary materials.

1) Text (Title page, Abstract - Legends): MS Word
2) Tables: MS Word, MS Excel (saving as an image is not a valid format)
3) Figures: JPEG, PNG, GIF
4) Video: AVI, MP4, MPEG

If you encounter any problems with online submission, please contact the Editorial Office as per the details in the Contact section.

Manuscript Preparation

Style

The manuscripts should be typed double-spaced throughout with ≥12-point type face, formatted for A4 paper leaving margins of at least 2.5 cm (1 inch). Number all pages consecutively.

English standards

Manuscripts, including figures, tables, supplementary files and video materials, should be prepared in English. Authors whose native language is not English are strongly encouraged to have their manuscript checked by a native English speaker or by an editing service prior to submission. If a manuscript is not clear due to poor English, it may be rejected without undergoing peer review.

Article structure and lengths

The organization of the manuscript should be in the following order.

- Title page: Article title, authors’ full names, affiliations, running title, and the name and full address of the corresponding author.
- Abstract and keywords
- Main text
- Acknowledgment (if any)
- Conflicts of Interest
- References
- Legends
- Tables and Figures
- Supplementary Files (e.g. videos, if available)

For each Manuscript Type, authors must organize and order their content using the following formats:
Original Articles:
Abstract: Unstructured; up to 250 words.
Sections: Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgment (if any), Conflicts of Interest, References, Legends
Word limit: 6,400 words
Tables/Figures: up to 5

Technical Notes:
Abstract: Unstructured; up to 250 words.
Sections: Abstract, Introduction, Technical Note, Discussion, Acknowledgment (if any), Conflicts of Interest, References, Legends
Word limit: 4,000 words
Tables/Figures: up to 4

Rapid Communications
Abstract: Unstructured; up to 250 words.
Sections: Abstract (Text in free style), Acknowledgment (if any), Conflicts of Interest, References, Legends
Word limit: 4,000 words
Tables/Figures: up to 4

Special Topics/Review Articles:
Abstract: Unstructured; up to 250 words.
Sections: Abstract (Text in free style), Acknowledgment (if any), Conflicts of Interest, References, Legends
Word limit: 9,600 words
Tables/Figures: up to 8

Letters to the Editor
Word limit: 800 words
Tables/Figures: None

Manuscripts should conform to the length specified in the below table. The word limit or the printed pages includes References and tables and figures. One printed page is approximately 800 words. One table or figure is the equivalent of approximately 400 words.

Title Page

The title page should comprise the following.
1) A concise but informative title. Only the first letter of each word should be capitalized, except for conjunctions, articles, or prepositions unless the first word of the title. Chemical formulas or abbreviations should not be used, but long common terms such as names of compounds or enzymes can be abbreviated.
2) Authors’ full names without academic qualifications or nomenclature
3) Full names of the department(s) and institution(s) in which the research was undertaken, together with the location (city, state, and nation). Use superscript numbers to indicate authors from different institutions.
4) Up to 5 informative keywords (or short phrases), based on the Index Medicus or similar.
5) A brief running head (running title), not to exceed 60 characters (count letters and spaces). Abbreviations defined in the text can be used.
6) Corresponding author’s name, academic title (e.g. M.D), full address, telephone and e-mail address. Only one corresponding author is permitted.

Footnotes

Footnotes, if any, should be included in the title page.

Abbreviations

Avoid nonstandard abbreviations, unfamiliar terms or symbols, and laboratory jargon. Each abbreviation should be defined in parentheses together with its non-abbreviated term when it first appears in the text (except in the Title and Abstract).

Numerals and Units

Use Arabic numerals. Standard metric units (mm, cm, ml, l, mg, g, msec, sec, min, hr, etc.) can be used throughout without definition.

SI or SI-derived units should be used. More information on SI units is available at the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) website.

Abstract

The Abstract should clearly express the basic content of the paper in a single paragraph without subheadings and should state the purpose of the investigation, describe the study design or experimental procedure, outline the main findings or major contributions, and finally state specific conclusions or recommendations. Provide enough information for the Abstract to be easily understood without reference to the text, and emphasize new and important aspects of the study.

Abstracts should not exceed 250 words for all article types. Avoid using specific abbreviations. If it is essential to refer to a previous publication, omit the article title (e.g. Maekawa, S., Endo, S., and Sakai, H. (2015). Sci. Journal., 14: 10–15).

Introduction

The Introduction should provide sufficient background information to allow the reader to understand the purpose of the investigation, the research questions being addressed and its relationship with other research in related fields, although it should not include an extensive review of the literature.

Materials and Methods

The Materials and Methods should be brief, but must include sufficient details to allow others to evaluate and/or reproduce the experiments. When referring to devices like catheters or coils for the first time, the company should be stated. Do not append ™ or ®. For example: Launcher (Medtronic, Minneapolis, MN, USA). Designate drugs by their generic names; but for particular chemicals or equipment, the brand names and locations of the supplier (city, state, and nation) should be given in parentheses.

Study subjects should be described adequately to demonstrate that control and experimental groups contain matched subjects.

Describe statistical methods and details of randomization or anonymized observations. Specify the numbers of observations made and individuals who could not be followed up until the end of the study.

Include statements in relation to human or animal experimentation, clinical trial registration and reporting guidelines (as specified in the relevant sections above) in the Materials and Methods section.

Results

This section includes the results of the experiments. The Results and Discussion sections may be combined if this helps readers to understand and evaluate the study. Include only the data and illustrative materials that are pertinent to the subject of the article. Avoid repetition of all the data in the tables or illustrations in the text, but do emphasize or summarize important trends or observations and avoid duplicate presentation of the same data in both tabular and graphical forms.

Discussion

The Discussion should be concise and should be an interpretation of the results. Novel models or hypotheses may be proposed in this section only if they are supported by the results obtained in the experiments. Do not repeat the description of the experimental results in this section.

Interpret the present data concisely, giving particular attention to the question or hypothesis posed in the Introduction section. Include discussion of previous works that not only agree but also disagree with the present results.

State the conclusions or recommendations that can be directly drawn from the present results. Logical implications of the present findings for practical applications or future studies are permissible, but unsubstantiated speculation must not be included.

Acknowledgments

This section should be brief. State personal or institutional contributions, and financial or material support. Supply full information for nature of support (technical help, critical review, data collection, and participation in clinical trial), number of grants-in-aid, and name and location of institution or organization.

Disclosure of Conflict of Interest

All authors must state any actual or potential conflicts of interest with regard to the manuscript submitted for review under a heading of “Conflicts of Interest Disclosure’’ following the “Acknowledgment’’ section. Authors should also state if there are no conflicts of interest. In addition, authors who are members of the JNS must register online self-reported COI Disclosure Statement Forms through the website for JNS members or not.

Example: A (author name) received a research grant from X (entity name).; B serves as a consultant to Y.; C received lecture fees from Z.; All authors have no conflict of interest.

References

The authors are responsible for the accuracy of their references.

• List the references immediately after the main text.
• The references should be numbered in the order of their appearance in the main text. Do not list the references in alphabetical order.
• References should be indicated in the main text by using numbers in parentheses. For example, In the previous studies (1-3).
• Including AI-generated material as the primary source in the reference is not allowed.
• If there are more than three authors, name only the first three authors and then use “et al.”.
• Journal names should be abbreviated in the standard form as they appear in the NLM catalog. If the journals are not included in the NLM catalog, use the ISSN List of Title Word Abbreviations for standard abbreviations of journal names. If you are uncertain, please use the full journal name.

For reference styles pertaining to other media formats or further details, please refer to Citing Medicine.

Examples

Journal article
1) Rastan S, Hough T, Kierman A, et al. Towards a mutant map of the mouse--new models of neurological, behavioural, deafness, bone, renal and blood disorders. Genetica. 2004;122(1):47-9. doi: 10.1007/s10709-004-1930-x
Book chapter
2) Riffenburgh RH. Statistics in medicine. 2nd ed. Amsterdam (Netherlands): Elsevier Academic Press; 2006. Chapter 24, Regression and correlation methods; p. 447-86.
Entire book
3) Eyre HJ, Lange DP, Morris LB. Informed decisions: the complete book of cancer diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. 2nd ed. Atlanta: American Cancer Society;2002. 768 p.
Software
4) Nelson KN. Comprehensive body composition software [disk]. Release 1.0 for DOS. Champaign (IL): Human Kinetics, 1997. 1 computer disk: color, 3 1/2 in.
Online journals
5) Terauchi Y, Takamoto I, Kubota N, et al. Glucokinase and IRS-2 are required for compensatory beta cell hyperplasia in response to high-fat diet-induced insulin resistance. J Clin Invest [Internet]. 2007 Jan 2 [cited 2007 Jan 5];117(1):246-57. Available from: http://www.jci.org/cgi/content/full/117/1/246 doi: 10.1172/JCI17645
Database
6) MeSH Database [Internet]. Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US). 2003 Apr - [cited 2011 Jul 8]. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh
Journal article in a language other than English
a) in a roman alphabet
Berrino F, Gatta G, Crosignani P. [Case-control evaluation of screening efficacy]. Epidemiol Prev. 2004;28(6):354-9. Italian.
b) in a non-roman alphabet
Zhao L, Li H, Han D. [Effects of intestinal endotoxemia on the development of cirrhosis in rats]. ZhonghuaGanZang Bing ZaZhi. 2001;9 Suppl:21-3. Chinese.

Tables

Cite all tables in the text, and number consecutively according to appearance in the text. Provide each table on a separate page, supplying a brief title and explanatory footnotes. All abbreviations used in each table should be explained in the footnotes. Each column must carry an appropriate heading, and units in numerical measurements should be added to the column heading in parentheses.

If data can be described in one or two sentences in the text, do not present them in a table. Tables must be submitted as either Microsoft Word or Excel files, NOT converted into images.

Figures

Cite all figures in the text, and number consecutively in the order cited in the text. Titles and detailed explanations should be given in the legends, not on the figures. All abbreviations used in each figure should be explained in each legend. Related illustrations should be grouped into one figure on one page.

Figure legends should provide a brief, self-sufficient explanation of the illustrations and typed together in the “Figure Legends” section of the manuscript. Describe the staining method and original magnification for photomicrographs, and bar measurements for electron micrographs.

Figures can be in color in the print version at the costs as detailed in the ‘Publication fees and charges’ section.

Supplementary material

Supplementary material adds, but is not essential, to a reader’s understanding of a manuscript. Authors are encouraged to submit supplementary material for online-only publication. Supplementary material may comprise data, text, audio or movie files, and is published online alongside the accepted manuscript.
Videos can be submitted as “Supplementary Material” to support your research information in the submitted manuscript. Acceptable video file formats are MPEG (.mpg), Quicktime (.mov), or Microsoft (.avi). Maximum file size/video is 20 MB. A credit line that represents the copyright holder is the Japan Neurosurgical Society will be added in the video materials when they are published.

As supplementary material is peer-reviewed, authors must submit it in its final form as part of their manuscript submission. After a manuscript has been accepted for publication, authors may not make any changes to the supplementary material. All supplementary materials will be published alongside the article on the journal website. The same policies for ethics, copyright, permissions and publication quality for the main article apply to the supplementary materials.

Accepted Manuscripts

Manuscripts that are accepted for publication are copyedited and typeset by the journal’s production team before publication. The journal is published 12 times per year and articles continuously online as Advance Online Publications. All communication regarding accepted manuscripts is with the corresponding author.

Proofs

Page proofs are sent to the corresponding author, who should check and return them within 48 hours. Only essential corrections to typesetting errors or omissions are accepted; excessive changes are not permitted at the proofing stage.

Reprints

Order forms for reprints are sent with the proofs to the corresponding author and should be returned with the proofs.

Contact

To contact the Editorial Office or the Editor-in-Chief, please write to:

Miki Fujimura, MD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief
Editorial Office
c/o Kyorinsha Co., Ltd.
3-46-10, Nishigahara, Kita-ku, Tokyo, 114-0024, Japan
E-mail: nmc@kyorinmail.jp