Editorial Message

Neurosciences journal is now in its 23rd year and since its establishment the journal has been improved in the contents, quality and the circulation around the world.

In 2017, we invited all the local societies related to neurosciences field to set an agreement between the journal and the society. The society should contribute to the journal scientifically and the journal will be the official journal to the society in return. We congratulate both Pan Arab Union of Neurological Societies and Saudi Association of Neurological Surgery to be the affiliated societies in our journal and we are looking forward for more contribution.

In 2018, we aim to increase the number of issues to meet the increased load of manuscripts. Our objective is to enrich the scientific Neuroscience material presented by the journal with important topic reviews and regular neuroscience quizzes to achieve high citations. We will continue to promote our new web-based manuscript submission interface; strive to reduce the time from received to acceptance and acceptance to publication to no more than 3 to 4 months each; attend regional conferences, and participate in academic activities to encourage submission of high quality articles; and commission our best reviewers to write good articles and encourage editorial board members to contribute material for a regular editorial feature on topical issues. The journal also is introducing a new look, and a new logo. We also change the layout of the journal. We also plan for a web based manuscript submission interface system.

The journal started the implementation of CARE Case Report Guideline1 as a mandatory requirement for case report submissions.1 Prior to submission, authors should read the CARE Checklist and write the article following the guideline’s essential requirements. This hopes to raise the clinical value of case reports published.

We are also conducting a regular critical auditing to the performance of the Journal. We are very meticulous with regards to the accuracy of the editing; medical writing is different from other professional writing, an excellent scientific experiment with novel ideas may still be rejected due to poor writing. Most authors in this region have difficulty in incorporating the objective, methods and knowledge in a proper English language.

The editors observed that poor language quality is one of the factors that delays the peer review process. Occasionally, reviewers were unable to assess the paper due to poor writing. Language should not be a barrier in scientific publication especially for non-native English speakers. Subsequently, articles with language deficiencies also take significant time in the editing stage and delay the publication process. To overcome this, we strongly suggest that prior to submission, authors should have their articles edited for correct use of grammar, syntax, flow and clarity and submit only once the language has been improved. As a pre-submission requirement, strict compliance shall be observed.

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Figure 1

Number and type of manuscripts processed for the year 2017.

The discoverability and accessibility of scientific content to various relevant platforms is very important in today’s digital age. We take this time to announce the indexing of Neurosciences Journal in Cengage. Cengage Company is a global leader with thousands of partner libraries around the world and has a large digital archive of research databases, reference books, eBooks and more. With the recent inclusion in this database, we anticipate enhanced visibility and accessibility of our articles.

In 2017, 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, of 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 2017, we published a total number of 55 articles which include: 21 originals, 1 editorial, 5 reviews, 2 systematic reviews, 12 case reports, 2 clinical notes, 6 brief communications, 2 correspondences, 1 clinical practice guidelines and 3 MCQs. The average processing time from received to acceptance was 3.35 (1-10) months, mode=2 months, 3.28 (1-8) months from acceptance to publication and 6.63 months from received to publications (3-15) months mode=6 months. Fifty-three percent of published articles were from KSA, with 7% from Turkey, 15% from China, 4% from Iraq and 4% from Jordan. The remaining 17% of published articles we received from UK, Germany, Oman, India, Iran, Nigeria, and Pakistan.

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 2018. We would like to thank the outgoing Advisory Board member (Mohamed Tariq) who had now finished his term and would like to welcome Brahim Tabarki and Joseph Lamanna 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 books for the year 2017.

Abdulrahman Jafar Sabbagh

Afif Hentati

Ahmed Alfares

*Ahmed Ammar

Ajay Panwar

Ali Genc

Ali Kitis

Ali Omrani

Alireza Majdi

Allan Coates

Amal Bakry Abdul-Sattar

Antonio Montinaro

Atilla Ozcan Ozdemir

Avanti Dey

Bassam Bassam

Bassem Yamout

Berrin Gunaydin

*Brahim Tabarki Melaiki

Carlos Hernandez Giron

Cavit Boz

Christoph Helmstaedter

Clare Brown

Claudia Christina Hilt Pfleger

Cynthia Rothblum-Oviatt

Dawn Simpson

Denchai Laiwattana

Dengue Alcy Torres

Eduardo Espinet Coll

Edvard Ehler

Eiichiro Nagata

Emili Montserrat

Ezequiel Uribe

Faisal Alotaibi

Fatma Yesim Klingberg

Federico Abreu Calderon

Fenghua Chen

Frank Witter

Hasn Karsen

Hernadez Giron Carlos

Hussein A Algahtanin

Irene Navalpotro Gomez

Jameelah Saeedi

James Balogun

Jerome Engel

Jesus Rivera-Navarro

Jihad Inshasi

Joao Pedro Marto

Johannes Haberle

Johannes Honekopp

Joji Inamasu

Jorgen Alving

*Joseph C. LaManna

Julian Little

Karthik Babu

Khalid Al-Quliti

Kuhn Anna Luisa

Mahmoud Fawzi

Maja Rogic Vidakovic

Mandy Maredza

Marecel Marcikic

Mashahiro Yuasa

Mathias Zink

Mcy De Wit

Mehmet Akif Topcuoglu

Miao Sun

Michael Ivan

Mohammad Ali Sahraian

Mohammad Ehlayel

Mohammad Kabiraj

Mohammed Almakhlafi

Mohammed Jan

Mohammed Saadah

Murat Gulekin

Murat Terzi

Myoung Soo Kim

Nader Honjol

Norito Kokubun

Norlinah Mohamed Ibrahim

Olga Lidia Vera-Lastra

Patricia Rzezak

Raed AlRoughani

Raphael Schiffmann

Rashmi Shah

Ravi Kanojia

Riaz Ahmed Syed

Richard S McLachlan

Rigmor Jensen

Robert Gaiser

Roberta La Piana

Saeed Bohlega

SallyAnn Wakeford

Sami Harik

Sarah Griffiths

Shaimaa Abdelsattar Mohammad

Simona Lattanzi

Slobodan Vlajkovic

Sonja Hochmeister

Sophia Hulbert

Stephanie Mathieson

Steve Simpson

Subhi Mahmood Alghanem

Sumit Thakar

Tarek Mirdad

Tengfei Wang

Theodore Nash

Tiziana Nava

Tomasz Szmuda

Wolfgang Herrmann

Wouter Vanderplasschen

Venkatesan Nagarajan

Vykuntaraju Gowda

Xisngyun Li

Yan Yin

Yavuz Samanci