News from the EJN Editors-in-chief

The change of year is a convenient opportunity to inform the FENS community about new developments and the increasing impact of EJN.

During the last 6 months of 2008, the acceptance rate for new manuscripts was 20%. This figure reflects the increasing attractiveness of EJN for authors as well as the commitment of the editors to increase the quality and impact of EJN.

Last year, four major new features were introduced to EJN:

• To enhance the visibility and impact of individual contributions, the journal has been divided into five sections: Molecular and Developmental Neuroscience, Synaptic Mechanisms, Neurosystems, Behavioral Neuroscience, and Cognitive Neuroscience. The number of submissions is roughly equal across the five sections, indicating the broad spectrum of neuroscience research published in EJN.

• Each issue highlights a Featured Article, selected for its originality and scientific quality. This article, along with its accompanying commentary, is available on-line without restrictions. The EJN Featured articles may become a favorite for your “Journal Clubs”.

• The editors are committed to ensure that articles provide a complete description of information essential for a sound and reproducible report. To this end, we have published a Technical Spotlight discussing important methodological issues relevant for studies utilizing immunohistochemical methods (issue 28/12) and an editorial that will assist authors to provide informative descriptions of statistical methods and results (also in issue 28/12). We encourage EJN authors to consult these documents and the EJN Author Guidelines (all available on-line of EJN website) when preparing a manuscript.

• Finally, in collaboration with FENS and Wiley-Blackwell, we have launched the EJN Best Publication Award. This prize will be bestowed for the first time in 2009 to the first author of the best article published in EJN in the two preceding years (2007 and 2008 for the 2009 Award). The award will be presented at the biennial FENS Featured Regional Meeting in Warsaw. Please consult the FENS or EJN websites for details and instructions for submitting nominations.

In 2009, EJN will publish several Special Issues on emergent topics. Furthermore, several important reviews and Technical Spotlights are in the works.

We are looking forward to an interesting new year at EJN and to working with you. Submitting your best work to EJN is key to facilitating the role and impact of your primary neuroscience journal.

Best wishes for 2009.

Jean-Marc Fritschy and Martin Sarter