Submissions

Author Guidelines

In the face of Russia's unprecedented military aggression against Ukraine, the Editorial Board of ANE decided to join the restrictions announced by the Ministry of Science and Education and the Polish Academy of Sciences and suspend the publication of manuscripts submitted by authors with the affiliation of the Russian Federation until further notice.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS

GENERAL INFORMATION

Acta Neurobiologiae Experimentalis (ANE) publishes original brain research papers. The language of the journal is English in the American spelling and usage.

ANE accepts both research papers and review articles.

ANE does not accept case studies; articles with relevance to the clinical practice only; theoretical articles; phytopharmaceutical studies using crude extracts and/or with unknown concentration of active ingredients; large-scale (transcriptomic, proteomic, metabolomic, etc..) bioinformatic analyses without experimental validation or computational validation on independent datasets. Technical communications will be processed only exceptionally if they make a significant improvement to current methods.

POLICY ISSUES

Copyright

Acta Neurobiologiae Experimentalis publishes original works only. The authors must complete and sign ANE Copyright Assignment and send it to the Editorial Office immediately after final acceptance of the article. If a submitted manuscript contains previously published material, the authors should obtain the copyright holder/previous publisher’s permission to republish this material, both in print and online.

Ethical policies

For studies using human subjects, manuscripts must be accompanied by a statement that the experiments were conducted with the understanding and written consent of each subject. The study has to be approved by a relevant Ethics Committee and the approval should be cited in the Methods section. All data have to be obtained in accordance with the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki - Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/)

For studies using animal subjects, the methods section should clearly indicate that adequate measures were taken to minimize the pain or discomfort of animals. Experiments should be conducted in accordance with Directive 2010/63/Eu of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 September 2010 on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes (available at: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2010:276:0033:0079:en:PDF) or with the Guidelines of the U.S. Public Health Service and NIH regarding the care and use of animals for experimentation (https://olaw.nih.gov/guidance). If in the country where the research was done, it is legally obligatory that researchers should obtain permission from an appropriate authority before performing the experiments, it should be stated in the Methods section that such permission was obtained. The editors reserve the right to reject a manuscript if there are doubts about whether ethically appropriate experimental procedures were used.

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE

On-line submission

An article should be submitted online only at the webpage: www.ane.pl. It should be submitted as separate files: (i) cover letter, (ii) text with tables and figure captions in Word or RTF, and (iii) figures.

Please do not import any graphics or tables into the text file!

ORGANIZATION OF THE MANUSCRIPT

Original research papers

The manuscript of a research paper should be organized according to the following order of headings:

• Title page
• Abstract and keywords
• Introduction
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion(s)
• Acknowledgment(s)
• References
• Tables (on separate pages)
• Figure legends (on separate pages)
• Figures (on separate pages)

Title page

The first page of the manuscript should contain the following information: title of the manuscript, name(s) of the author(s) with full first name(s), departmental and institutional affiliation(s), and address(es).

An institutional e-mail address of the corresponding author has to be indicated. The corresponding author has to provide an ORCID number in the submission process. Providing the ORCID number of all authors is encouraged. The ORCID account has to contain public institutional affiliation information. Multiple authors having different affiliations should be linked to their respective affiliations through the use of numerical superscripts.

The title should be a succinct description of the work reported, containing the subject species used in the experiments, and be no more than 150 characters in length. A running title of no more than 45 characters should be included.

Abstract and keywords

The second page of the manuscript should contain the Abstract, a brief description of the contents of the manuscript that should not exceed 1800 characters with spaces. The abstract page should be titled with the word Abstract followed by a single, non-indented paragraph of the abstract itself. References and numerical statistical values are not usually permitted in the abstract. Only very obvious abbreviations are permitted without definition in the abstract (e.g. CNS, EEG). A list of keywords suitable for indexing should be typed below the abstract.

Introduction

On the page, following that of the Abstract, the main body of the paper should begin with an Introduction to the empirical work. The purpose of the Introduction is to explain the rationale or justification of the work described in the manuscript. Extensive reviews of literature in the Introduction are discouraged.

Methods

This section immediately follows the Introduction and should be titled with the word Methods. The Methods section should clearly convey the exact empirical strategy so that a competent and knowledgeable reader can replicate the study. If the Methods section is brief, all descriptions of the empirical manipulations may be combined. However, this section may be divided into subtitled parts (e.g. Subjects, Apparatus, Reagents, Procedures, etc.). When describing the subject organisms used in the experiment, their species, race or strain, number, sex, and age should be indicated. Weight and any general conditions relating to their housing or maintenance may be also indicated, if necessary. The description of procedures should clearly indicate the sequence of empirical events. The independent and dependent variables should be defined and their units indicated using the International System of Units (SI) – see Barry N. Taylor “Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (SI)” available at: http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/pdf/sp811.pdf. Particular methods of scaling or mathematical transformations should be specified, and a brief statement of the type of statistical analysis should be included.

Results

All measurements should be expressed according to the SI System, except when exceptions are permitted by conventions concerning specific areas. The Results section should present the essential, objective results with discussion limited to necessary explications of the findings. Subdivision of this section is permitted, however, the manner of subdivision should follow a coherent scheme. The use of figures and tables should be selective, and careful consideration should ensure that obvious or redundant findings are not included among figures, tables, and text. Significant statistical results should be integrated into the narrative. Analysis of variance tables is usually not acceptable unless extremely complex analyses are reported. The author can indicate the approximate place for figures and tables.

The report of statistical information should be guided by the following rules:

1) It is suggested that statistically significant findings include the name of the test, the degrees of freedom, and the confidence level of the Type I error. Indicating the degrees of freedom by subscripts, the format for statistical data should be as follows:

(t₁₄=5.83, P<0.01)

(F_3,92=4.31, P<0.001)

Note that the letter of the test (e.g., t, F) and the probability symbol (P) are italicized in the journal.

2) If the statistical analysis is non-significant, simply state that it was not significant so that the reader is given a report of the complete experimental design.

For example, if the main effects in a two-way analysis of variance are significant, but the interaction is not, it is critical to give not only the values of the significant effect but also a statement that their interaction was not significant.

Authors of ablation, injection, and registration studies must provide figures showing reconstructions of the area involved.

Discussion

The Discussion is rarely divided into subsections. The Discussion should indicate the extent to which the results confirmed predictions based on the previous literature reviewed in the introduction section. Accordingly, the Discussion should be limited to those empirical and theoretical issues for which data are provided.

Conclusion(s)

This section immediately follows the Discussion and summarizes the major findings of the study and their practical usefulness. 

Acknowledgement(s)

Acknowledgement(s) of assistance in aspects of the research should be given after the Discussion and be clearly labeled. A statement describing the source of financial support may be indicated, if appropriate.

References

This section should begin on a new page, titled with the word References, and only those references that were cited in the text should be listed. APA 7th referencing style should be used.

The reference list should contain only articles published or in press. Citing unpublished data or submitted manuscripts is allowed only in the text if the phrase “unpublished results” is provided in parentheses, e.g., Jones and Smith (unpublished results).

References should be arranged in alphabetical order.

The following are correct citation forms in the APA 7^th referencing style:

An article in a print journal

Konorski, J. (1968). A review of the brain research carried out in the Department of Neurophysiology of the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology. Acta Biol Exp (Warsz), 28(4), 257-289.

An article in an electronic journal

Bednarczyk, J., Dębski, K. J., Bot, A. M., & Lukasiuk, K. (2016). MBD3 expression and DNA binding patterns are altered in a rat model of temporal lobe epilepsy. Sci Rep, 6, 33736. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep33736

Book chapter

Banerjee, P.N., & Hauser, W. A. (2008). Incidence and prevalence. In J. Engel & T. A. Pedley (Eds.), Epilepsy. A comprehensive textbook (2nd ed., Vol. 1, pp. 45-56). Wolters Kluwer (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins).

Book

Katzman, R., & Bick, K. (2000). Alzheimer Disease: The Changing View. Academic Press, San Diego, CA.

Citations

Citations are referenced in the text in brackets by indicating author’s last name and year of the publication, e.g.: (Konorski, 1968).

For two authors both of their last names should be cited with symbol “&” in between”, e.g.: (Banerjee & Hauser, 2008).

If there is more than two authors only last name of the first one should be indicated followed by “et al.”, e.g.: (Bednarczyk et al. 2016).

If in one citation there is more than one publication, they should be separated by a semicolon, e.g.: (Bednarczyk et al., 2016; Konorski, 1968; Banerjee & Hauser, 2008)

Non-English literature

Citing the literature written in a language other than English is not permitted.

Tables

Only unique information, carefully selected, should be included in a table. All tables should be visually simple and easy to read, and extra lines blocking off a table from the text should be omitted. Column and row labels should be clear and easy to understand by the reader. Tables are ordered by Roman numerals (e.g. Table III). The table caption appears above the table. Each table is prepared on a separate page.

Figures

Electronic versions of the figures should be submitted in the format described below (see Manuscript preparation - Technical Requirements).

To defray the costs of printing color illustrations, Acta Neurobiologiae Experimentalis charges the authors 200 euros per printed page containing a color figure.

Figures should be simple and uncluttered to have the greatest effect. Axis labels should be brief and clear, of the same typesetting throughout the paper and the scaling should be obvious to the reader.

Figure legends

All figure legends are listed successively with Arabic numbers. Each legend should contain a clear description (in coherent and not telegraphic English) of the figure's content.

Following this brief description, definitions of the symbols used in the figure should be given. It is preferred that definitions of symbols and functions be given in the legend rather than in the figure.

If the figure contains several parts (e.g., multiple panels), the respective descriptions of each part must be clearly distinguished, e.g.:

Fig. 1. Title. This figure shows (A) a histogram of the variable; (B) the function of the variable as in (A). Note that the definition of symbols should follow the following form: Structures: (ENL) left entorhinal cortex; (HVL) left ventral hippocampus.

Authors should take care that figures are self-explanatory to the extent possible.

Review articles

Manuscript submitted as a review paper should describe, summarize, and discuss results of recent publications on an important problem that had not been reviewed elsewhere. It should come to conclusions concerning investigated phenomena and/or experimental methods, raise questions and propose new hypotheses. Typically, more than 50 papers should be reviewed.

The manuscript of a review paper should be organized according to the following order of headings:

• Title, name, affiliation, address, and running title
• Abstract and keywords
• Introduction
• Titles of parts of the review appropriate for the reviewed problems or methods
• Conclusion(s)
• Acknowledgment(s)
• References
• Tables (on separate pages)
• Figure legends (on separate pages)
• Figures (on separate pages)

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION – TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

Text

All manuscripts should be typed using Times New Roman (12 p) font with 1.5 spacing. The margins should be 25 mm at the top, bottom and right-hand side, and 30 mm on the left-hand side. Beginning with the title page as page 1, all typed pages should be consecutively numbered.

Each paragraph should start at the extreme left (do not introduce Tabs or spaces) and end with Enter. Use single spacing between words and non-adjusted right-hand margins.

Authors should avoid the use of unnecessary abbreviations and all abbreviations must be defined in the text.

Italic print is reserved for non-English (Greek, Latin) phrases (e.g., in vivo, per se, via, versus), including names of species (Bufo viridis), and for the names of genes (c-fos, fos-B).

Please do not use numberings, bullets, underlining, bold, or italic print in the text to indicate important fragments of the article!

Authors whose first language is other than English are strongly encouraged to examine scientific style guides designed for English scientific expression.

Figures

Vector graphics (e.g. line artwork) in Encapsulated Postscript Format (EPS) or PDF and bitmap files (e.g. halftones) in Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) with at least 300 dpi resolution are accepted.

Each illustration should fit a single- or double-column format on the journal page: 

• Single column 20 cm (max) 8.5 cm (max)
• Double column 20 cm (max) 17.5 cm (max)

All labels should be written using Times New Roman or Arial font (at least 10 p). Please do not use lines thinner than 0.1 p.

When preparing color graphics always use CMYK format. In case you have to use a scanned illustration, we strongly recommend scanning on a high-quality scanner of optical density over 3.3. Line artwork (without halftone dots) should be produced at a minimum of 600 dpi. Halftone and/or color artwork – at a minimum of 300 dpi. In the case of combination artwork (line/tone/color), illustration should be produced at 500 dpi.

Proofs

A galley proof of the accepted article will be sent via email to the corresponding author; authors’ corrections should be sent back within 72 hours. Otherwise, the article will be published without authors’ final approval.