Editorial Message

Peer reviewed medical journals are source of the most recent medical information. For this Neurosciences journal since its establishment in 1996, has started a long endless journey and took a greater set of responsibilities and plans to reach the highest rank among the medical journals locally, regionally, and internationally. To achieve the international standards, many initiatives have been started to improve our visibility, increase the citation of the published articles and the impact factor. In our editorial message, we would like to share our activities, initiatives, and our annual statistics.

One of the most important step to satisfy our audience is the journal website. Firstly, we implemented our new theme and logo in the home page of the website to match with the changes occurred in the journal cover and the layout. We also switch the journal to a new domain (nsj.org.sa) to increase the visibility of the website. To meet with the digital world and make the website accessibility easier to our audience, we redesigned our website to be a mobile-friendly website. The users can read the website contents using their smart phones without any interference in the size and resolution of the images and formatting the interface and the content of the website in a manner that is mobile-friendly.

In order to facilitate efficient work for our editorial staff, we have launched ScholarOne Manuscripts™ System, journal online submission system, for managing everyday peer-review tasks from the manuscript submission until the final decision. This system will facilitate real-time communications and access to the manuscripts for editors, reviewers and other editorial team members. The authors need to create an account and fill all the information requested, after that, the author can start new submission and track the status of the manuscript that is displayed in the author center.

Plagiarism problems in raise with the increase of the research submission and electronic forms of the articles. To increase the quality of our paper and avoid plagiarism and misconduct issues, we have started detecting the originality of the submission through iThenticate™ Software, beside Google checking. The journal will receive report from each submission and the editorial team will evaluate the originality of the paper.

For optimal use of resources, better allocation of the budget and encourage the internal participation of our institution, the journal switched the journal printing to the Armed Forces Medical Services Printing Press, with the same specifications used in the previous issues. We would like to thank their continuous support and effort and high quality printer.

The journal also participated in the 10th GCC Neurology and the 24th Saudi Neurology Society Meeting, which was hold at Al-Khobar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during 8-10 February 2018. It was admirable opportunity we have met our authors and reviewers and heard their feedbacks, suggestions, and submissions issues.

This year, we welcomed submissions of new sections such as Protocol for Systematic Review and Video as a Supplementary file to an article. Systematic Review Protocol should be registered in PROSPERO registry.1 The author must disclose ethical approval and funding from a recognized body. Funded studies will be peer-reviewed by the assigned editor while non-funded research will undergo external peer review. The author should refer to the PRISMA-P Checklist to facilitate the reporting of Systematic Review Protocol.2

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Figure 1

Shows the impact factor of the Neurosciences journal since 2008-2017.

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Figure 2

Comparison of processing time frame from acceptance to publication during the years 2007-2018.

By applying advanced technologies to make content discoverable and accelerate the path to insight, knowledge and better decision-making, there have been growing interest among publishers and journals to use video as supplementary material to publications. Video materials are effective visual communication mediums to highlight and enhance the value of a publication. While still images are valuable, we would like to welcome this innovation in our future publications. Authors may include still images or videos, or both materials in their article. All submitted videos will be peer-reviewed by the editorial board. Necessary permission and consent for a video material to be published is mandatory and should be provided during submission. Detailed requirements for these sections will be available in the “Instructions to Author” for reference. It is understood that these additions will enrich the journal’s content

In 2018, another electronic survey was conducted to assure strong connection and satisfy the needs, demands, and expectations with our audience. Out of 124 respondents received, 74% were Saudi doctors specialized in Neurology, Neurosurgery, Rehabilitation, Neurophysiology, and Psychiatry. More than 60% of the respondents have read the journal, 34% heard about the journal from the internet as the main source of information nowadays, and 21% from the medical conferences. Sixty-three percent of our respondents feel engaged by the content, 57% were satisfied with the journal contents, 62% were satisfied with the new design of the journal, 59% were satisfied with our journal website. However, improving the submission system, fast publication and increased the time of the processing and encourage the residents’ submission were suggestions raised by our respondents.

On Saturday 15th December 2018, we are honored to meet our new advisory board members for 2019 year. The meeting was conduced in King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The meeting was organized by our affiliated society Saudi Neuro Critical Care Chapter during headache symposium activity. During the meeting, we discussed our achievements and future goals in order to uphold the journal position as the leading medical journal in the region. The outcomes of the meeting include the following: Develop students and residents section supervised by advisory board member to encourage medical writing and research for the young medical doctors, more engagement and connections to the related societies to increase the visibility of the journal, encourage high quality papers to increase the impact factor of the journal, verbal presentation in the Neuroscience conferences introducing the journals role, how to submit a paper to the journal? and the editorial process to the audience. The journal also is looking for more participation from our advisory board members, review the journal issues, submit more reviews and quizzes

In 2018, we received a total number of 159 manuscripts, with an average rejection rate of 27%. Reasons for rejection included papers out the scope of the journal, low scientific quality, not meeting the requirements of the journal, authors failing to submit the revisions and other necessary requirements, and duplicate publication. However, over 4 issues of 2018, we published a total number of 61 articles which include: 29 originals, 1 editorial, 4 reviews, 1 systematic reviews, 12 case reports, 4 clinical notes, 4 brief communications, 3 correspondences, 1 meeting highlight, and 2 obituaries. The average processing time from received to acceptance was 5 (1-11) months, mode=2 months and 4 months, 1.5 months from acceptance to publication and 5.8 months from received to publications (2-14) months mode=4 months. Sixty-Seven percent of published articles were from KSA, with 10% from Turkey, 7% from Iran, 5% from Iraq, 3% from China. The remaining 8% of published articles we received from Oman, Nigeria, Canada, and India.

We extend our thanks to the Editorial and Advisory Board Members for their significant contributions to maintaining the standards of the journal, and we look forward to their important continued role in achieving our goals for 2019. We would like to thank the outgoing Advisory Board member (Fisal Al-Otaibi, Mohammed Jan, Nader Honjol, Fahad Alsheikh) who had now finished his term and would like to welcome Adel Alhazzani, Brahim Tabarki-Melaiki, Fahad A. Bashiri, Faisal Al-Suwaidan, Fatimah Alqarni, Jameela Al Saeedi, Raidah Al-Baradie, Saeed Bohlega, and Othman Alhammad to the Advisory Board. We also extend our thanks to the outgoing Editorial Board members. We are honored they have agreed to join the board, and their individual contributions will be of great value to the journal. We continue the international diversity of members that the current board offers. We hope all our readers continue to benefit from the published material, and we extend our sincerest thanks to our authors, readers, reviewers, and board members, and wish all a successful year.

Waleed Khoja

Associate Editor

Khalid Hundallah

Associate Editor

Our thanks also go to the following reviewers, who have participated in the excellent review of manuscripts and booksfor the year 2018

Abdulaziz Alghamdi

Abdulwahed Barnawi

Adria Arboix

Ahmed Ammar

Alba Lopez Bravo

Alessandro Pusateri

Ali Kitis

Alia Alghwiri

Amber Douglass

Ana Gutierrez Garcia

Anand Moodley

Andreas Goebel

Ariane Kansas Lewis

Aroub Lahham

Arzu Genc

Asaff Harel

Ashraf Georgey

Asiri Faisal

Atilla Yilmaz

Brahim Tabarki Melaiki*

C. Barnett

Christian King

Em Coppen

Faizan Zaffar Kashoo

Ferhan Soyuer’Oksuz Cigdem

Francisney Nascimento

Fu Liong Hiew

Georgene Hergenroeder

Ghada Taha

Gioia Mura

Hana Malikova

Ignacio Capparelli

Imen Sohaibani

Jerome Engel

Jithangi Wanigasinghe

Jo EE Sam

Jose Berciano

Joseph Lamanna*

Juan Undurraga

Jude Ohaeri

L. Chen

L.A. Harvey

Leonardo Emberti Gialbreti

M Khashram

Maria Devita

Maria Luisa Scattoni

Marion Masingue

Mark Salzer

Martha Welch

Martyn Bracewell

Massimo Penta

Matthew Cherian

Matthias Boentert

Michelle Farrar*

Michihiro Osumi

Murat Baykara

Mustafa, Aydin

Neva Coce

Nisreen Mohammad Al- Namnam

Olga Taraschenko

Palmira Bernocchi

Paolo Curatolo

Pedro Sanchez Lopez

Raidah Albaradie

Renee Dufault

Roope Manniko

S. Prenton

Saeed Bohlega

Samad Esmaeilzadeh

Serkan Kirik

Seyedmehdi Payabvash

Silvia Albu1

Simona Lattanzi

Simone Gambazza

Slaven Pikija*

Sven Falk

Taim Muayqil*

Tatsuya Tanaka

Thejaswini Venkatesh

Tianxiao Li

Tim Wilkinson

Tiziana Nava

Tomasz Szmuda

Ulf Jensen Kondering

Uwe Walter

V. Bochkezanian

V. Upadhyaya

Wa Wan Sulaiman

Yohannes Woldeamanuel

Yulia Valko