Editorial Message

January 2021 marks the 26th year of continuous publications for Neurosciences journal. The major achievement for the Neurosciences journal last year was our ability to sustain the full editorial activity during the global coronavirus disease (COVID19) pandemic. A worldwide curfew was put into place with movement restrictions, but despite these global circumstances, we were able to serve our authors and readers with sustained submissions. Like many scholarly publishing industries, Neurosciences journal has responded efficiently to COVID19 pandemic, as many workplaces have shifted to the online working environment and many onsite activities were canceled, prioritizing the health and safety of the individuals.

Neurosciences journal have implemented many initiatives. We have encouraged our affiliated societies to submit consensus Statements on COVID19 that would help and support the health care providers with the updated recommendations and guidelines. Keeping the patients’ safety and limit the spread of COVID-19 in the vulnerable populations were, and still are, the main principal concerns. To publish COVID19 reports at the correct time; we have expedited any submission focused on COVID19, maintaining the standard quality of our journal. Further pressure was put on a peer-review process to complete the publication process faster than the usual standard time frame.

During the lockdown, many researchers and authors spend their curfew times at home drafting and preparing their manuscripts for the publications. Our data have shown the highest submissions occurred during the lockdown months compared with other months of 2019. On a positive note, COVID19 pandemic has proved the importance of research investment and the scientific publication.

In 2020, we increased the number of issues and published an August issue to meet the increased load of manuscripts submitted during COVID19 lockdown. Our objective was to enrich the scientific Neuroscience material presented by the journal with important topics. We also revised our editorial requirements for Case Reports to include a maximum of 4 tables or figures only. Likewise, the Brief Report material must include 15 References. These updates will be available in our Instructions to Author.

The strict check for duplicate publication and plagiarism will continue, and if detected; appropriate action will be taken based on international guidelines. A small number of articles were rejected last year due to extensive plagiarism and duplicate publication.

Highwire Migration. In the upcoming year, we will launch our new website with JCore, HighWire’s hosting platform. Highwire is a global provider of digital publishing solutions. They have led the evolution of digital publishing since the early days of the web, providing the scholarly publishing community with innovative technology and market-leading capabilities.

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Figure 1

Type of manuscripts received for the year 2020.

This year we will implement continuous publication feature to our published contents. The article will be released immediately on the website once it is ready as a final version and later will be numbered and placed in a particular issue. More features also will be added to the XML format of the articles, citation tools, article alerts, related articles and social sharing.

In 2020, our average rejection rate is 33%. Reasons for rejection included papers outside 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. We published 5 issues in 2020, with a total of 68 articles, which included: 37 originals, 3 editorial, 2 reviews, 12 case reports, 1 clinical note, 1 brief communication, 4 brief reports, 5 correspondences, and 1 systematic review. The average processing time from received to acceptance was 2.6 months, 3.2 months from acceptance to publication months, and 5.8 months from received to publications. However, the process time to publication is going to be significantly lowered with the implementation of the online continuous publications. 75% of the published articles were from Saudi Arabia, 4% from Turkey, and the remaining from Oman, Egypt, Taiwan, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, USA, UK, Germany, and Indonesia.

As associate editors of NSJ, we would like to present our special thanks to our reviewers, advisory boards, and editorial boards for their valuable comments and generous volunteer effort to maintain the standards of the journal’s publications. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank our editors for their energy and enthusiasm in promoting the journal locally and internationally, and our present and previous staff for their dedication and commitment to the journal’s work.

We would like to thank the outgoing Board member (Dr. Saleh Baeesa, Dr. Adel Alhazani, Dr. Mohammed Almekhlafi, Dr. Taim Muayail, Dr. Emilio Perucca, Dr. Joseph LaManna) who had now finished their term and would like to welcome Dr. Ahmed Abulaban, Dr. Eman Bakhsh, Dr. Ismail Khatri, Dr. Saeed Alshuhri, Dr. Fisal Alotaibi to the Board. 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.

Khalid Hundallah

Associate Editor

Waleed Khoja

Associate Editor

Afzal, Ali

Aguglia, Umberto

Akinyemi, Rufus

Al-Baradie, Raidah

AlSheikh, Fahad

Alghamdi , A

Alhammad, Othman

Almutairi, Aqeel Munahi

Aloba, Olutayo

Alotaibi, Faisal

Alshehri, Yousif

*Al-Suwaidan, Faisal

Alturki, Abdulrahman

Ambroszkiewicz, Jadwiga

Azkara, AiAdem

Azer, Samy A.

Banach, Marta

Bandaru, VCS Srinivasarao

Barnawi, Abdulwahed

Bashiri, Fahad

Baydin, Ahmet

Bermo, Mohammed S.

Bhat, Abdul Rashid

Boaventura, Paula

Bolash, Robert B.

Buck, Sarah

Campbell, Julie

Caplan, Louis R.

Chan, Lung

Chen, Bobei

Chen, Jefferson W.

Chen, Lei

Chen, Yingming Amy

Chien, Yin-Hsiu

Chowhan, Amit Kumar

Constantinescu, C. S.

Coppola, Giangennaro

Craig, Simon

Cubala, Wieslaw Jerzy

Denic, Srdjan

Dussor, Gregory

Elia, Maurizio

Elsheikh, Souda

Esteban, ANP

Farrag , MA

Feng, Zhiying

Fischer, Michael J. M.

Gao, Bulang

Garg, Ravindra Kumar

Ghoseiri, Kamiar

Gucuyener, Kivilcim

Hiew, Fu Liong

Holowatyj, Andreana N.

Huang, Ai-Bing

Hundsberger, T.

Inamasu, Joji

Inashkina, Inna

Jabri, Hussam

Jimã©Nez-Jimã©Nez, FéLix Javier

Joubert, B.

Joung, Boyoung

K, Sawanyawisuth

Kahilogullari, Gokmen

Kaufmann, Elisabeth

Keser, Zafer

Khatri, Ismail

Kluger, Gerhard

Kobayashi, Takashi

Koren, Johannes P.

Korovesis, Panagiotis

Lace, Baiba

Lambert, Simon

Langhammer, Birgitta

Leach, Paul

Li, Lai-Fung

Maessen, Jos G.

Machado, Ana CCDP

Machairas, Nikolaos

*Mahesh , PKB

Martin-Mcgill, Kirsty J.

Matar, Maher Al

Maul, Jochen

Mclachlan, Richard S.

Meguid, Nagwa

Mehta, Bharati

Mellon, Lisa

Mockus, Susan

Monroe, Eric J.

Mula, Marco

Nassim, Eman

Neuhaus, Oliver

Nikas, Demetrios C.

Noh, MSFM

Norrving, Bo

Osaka, Hitoshi

Owolabi, L. F.

Palve, Suchitra Sachin

Pandhi, Abhi

Pandian, Jeyaraj Durai

Paul, Friedemann

Peckham, Alyssa

Picket, Sarah

Primi, Caterina

Quinn, Terence Joseph

Raeisi, Sina

Raffa, Giovanni

Raina, Sunil Kumar

Renovanz, Mirjam

Rocque, Brandon G.

Rodriguez, Gustavo

Roldan-Valadez, Ernesto

Saad, Khaled

Saeed, Sahrai

Saeedi, Jameela

*Sami, Waqas

Sansone, Valeria A

Santos, Marcelo Volpon

Santos, Silvana

Schlenstedt, Christian

Shaker, Khalid

Sharma, Vijay K

Shetty, Ajoy Prasad

Shuaib, Ashfaq

Siciliano, Gabriele

Sipilã¤, Jussi

Soliman, Mohamed AR

Sonmez , FM

Spalice, Alberto

Specchio, Nicola

Stadio, Arianna Di

Starnowska-Sokol, Joanna

Stuppia, Liborio

Suzuki, Satoshi O

Szmuda, Tomasz

*Tabarki, Brahim

Taddei, Graziano

Takahashi, Satoru

Tanaka, Toshihide

Taniguchi, Masaaki

Tapia, Aniel Jessica Leticia Brambila

Tassi, Laura

Thenier-Villa, Jose Luis

Torres, Ulysses S.

Tziomalos, Konstantinos

Urbach, H

Valls-Sole, J

Vaughan-Graham, Julie

Vengadakrishnan, K.

Villard, Laurent

Wang, Shenglin

Xian, Ying

Zama, Daniele

Zaki, Maha S.

Zhu, Hua