Cognitive Neuroscience

Cognitive Neuroscience: For Authors

Accepting Submissions Now!

Cognitive Neuroscience is not restrictive with regards to the methodologies that are considered suitable for inclusion. For example, electrophysiology, haemodynamic brain responses, and behavioural measures (e.g. reaction times) are all related to brain function and cognition, even if some are more direct measures of neural activity than others. The methodology only needs to be appropriate to the theoretical questions addressed.

Inclusion of articles in the journal is based on two principles: (1) excellence and (2) it addresses brain-based theories of cognition.

Cognitive Neuroscience publishes three kinds of article:

New articles should be submitted through our Manuscript Central online submission site.

All manuscripts must comply with the following:

Short Reports

Short Reports are intended for high quality empirical work in any area of Cognitive Neuroscience. The maximum word limit is 4000 words including abstract and references, but excluding tables, legends and figures. Tables and figures should be kept to a minimum, and should not exceed five in total. We do not publish Supplementary Online Material so your writing style and arguments will need to be clear and concise.

The layout of each short report should be as follows:

Multiple experiments should be numbered Experiment 1, 2, etc. and, in such cases, 'Results' should be 'Results and Discussion'.

Short Reports should be submitted online using Manuscript Central. Please highlight any matters of importance to the Action Editor in a covering letter which can be uploaded with your manuscript. You should also select up to three potential reviewers for your manuscript.

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Discussion Papers

Discussion Papers are an opportunity to evaluate and synthesise a significant body of research and to present new models and theories. They should not normally include new empirical data, but they may include meta-analyses or new models of existing data (including of a computational nature). As well as meeting the general criteria for publication in the journal (i.e. excellence and relevance to brain-based theories of cognition), Discussion Papers should meet the additional criteria of being appropriate for published peer commentary. This may be achieved in several ways. For example, the paper may bring together evidence from a wide range of fields (including but not limited to Cognitive Neuroscience) or it may present an idea that runs counter to prevailing trends (although arguments must be well reasoned and evidence-based).

Discussion Papers should be 8000 words in length including a 200 word abstract, but excluding references, tables and figures. They should be submitted online using Manuscript Central, and should be accompanied by a covering letter which makes it clear why the manuscript merits peer commentary. You should also select up to three potential reviewers for your manuscript.

Pre-submission enquiries are welcomed for Discussion Papers, and potential authors should contact the Editor.

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Commentaries on Discussion Papers

When a Discussion Paper is accepted, it will be posted on the web and there will be a call for peer commentary for a limited amount of time. The purpose of a Commentary is to discuss one substantial issue (or a small set of closely connected issues) arising from the Discussion Paper. The Commentary can either by positively or negatively disposed to the main thesis of the Discussion Paper, but it must contribute something new and relevant. This may be achieved, for example, by pointing out potential flaws in the logic or by drawing attention to other lines of evidence not previously considered.

Commentaries should be no more than 800 words in length including references (in APA format) and an abstract of no more than 100 words. The length will be reduced if tables or figures are included, as we aim to fit each Commentary on to a single published page. As the Commentaries will be collated after the Discussion Paper, there is no need to cite this article in the title of the Commentary or the reference list. The title should reflect the content of your Commentary (e.g. "Working memory is the temporary activation of long-term memory") rather than being of the style "A Reply to X and Y, 2010".

Commentaries should be submitted online using Manuscript Central and should be accompanied by a covering letter which makes it clear which Discussion Paper it is a commentary of. You may discuss your Commentary with the Editor in advance, but it is not essential to do so. Commentaries will be selected for publication based upon quality of argument, relevance, and originality (we won't publish multiple commentaries making essentially the same argument).

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Format for References

References follow the format of the American Psychological Association (APA).

Reference citations within the text.

Use authors' last names, with the year of publication in parentheses after the last author's name, e.g., "Jones and Smith (1987)"; alternatively, "(Brown, 1982; Jones & Smith, 1987; White, Johnson, & Thomas, 1990)".

On first citation of references with three to six authors, give all names in full, thereafter use first author "et al.".

If more than one article by the same author(s) in the same year is cited, the letters a, b, c etc. should follow the year.

Reference list.

A full list of references quoted in the text should be given at the end of the paper in alphabetical order of authors' surnames (or chronologically for a group of references by the same authors), commencing as a new sheet, typed double spaced.

Titles of journals and books should be given in full, e.g.:

Books:

Baddeley, A. D. (1999). Essentials of human memory. Hove, UK: Psychology Press.

Chapter in edited book:

Plomin, R., & Dale, P. S. (2000). Genetics and early language development: A UK study of twins. In D. V. M. Bishop & L. B. Leonard (Eds.), Speech and language impairments in children: Causes, characteristics, intervention and outcome (pp. 35-51). Hove, UK: Psychology Press.

Journal article:

Schwartz, M. F., & Hodgson, C. (2002). A new multiword naming deficit: Evidence and interpretation. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 19, 263-288.

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Formatting for Tables and Figures

Tables

Each of these should be submitted as a separate file. Instructions for placing the table should be given in parentheses in the text, e.g., "(Table 2 about here)". These should be kept to the minimum. Each table should be typed double spaced, giving the heading, e.g., "Table 2", in Arabic numerals, followed by the legend, followed by the table. Make sure that appropriate units are given.

Figures

Color figures will be included in the journal at no cost to the author.

Each of these should be submitted as a separate file. Instructions for placing the figures should be given in parentheses in the text, e.g., "(Figure 2 about here)".

Figures should only be used when essential and the same data should not be presented both as a figure and in a table. Where possible, related diagrams should be grouped together to form a single figure.

Figures should be drawn to professional standards and it is recommended that the linear dimensions of figures be approximately twice those intended for the final printed version. Figures will be reproduced directly from originals supplied by the author(s). These must be of good quality, clearly and completely lettered. Make sure that axes of graphs are properly labeled, and that appropriate units are given. Photocopies will reproduce poorly, as will pale or broken originals.

The figure captions should be typed in a separate section, headed, e.g., "Figure 2", in Arabic numerals. Instructions for placing the figure should be given in parentheses in the text, e.g., "(Figure 2 about here)".

More detailed Guidelines for the Preparation of Figure Artwork are available from the publisher: Psychology Press Ltd, 27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FA, UK, or email Psychology Press.

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General Formatting

Headings

Indicate headings and subheadings for different sections of the paper clearly. Do not number headings.

Acknowledgements

These should be as brief as possible and typed on a separate sheet at the beginning of the text.

Permission to quote

Any direct quotation, regardless of length, must be accompanied by a reference citation that includes a page number. Any quote over six manuscript lines should have formal written permission to quote from the copyright owner. It is the author's responsibility to determine whether permission is required from the copyright owner and, if so, to obtain it. (See the bottom of the page for a template of a letter seeking copyright permission.)

Footnotes

These should be avoided unless absolutely necessary. Essential footnotes should be indicated by superscript figures in the text and collected on a separate sheet at the end of the manuscript.

Statistics

Results of statistical tests should be given in the following form:

"... results showed an effect of group, F(2, 21) = 13.74, MSE = 451.98, p < .001, but there was no effect of repeated trials, F(5, 105) = 1.44, MSE = 17.70, and no interaction, F(10, 105) = 1.34, MSE = 17.70."

Other tests should be reported in a similar manner to the above example of an F-ratio. For a fuller explanation of statistical presentation, see pages 136-147 of the APA Publication Manual (5th ed.). For guidelines on presenting statistical significance, see pages 24-25.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations that are specific to a particular manuscript or to a very specific area of research should be avoided, and authors will be asked to spell out in full any such abbreviations throughout the text. Standard abbreviations such as RT for reaction time, SOA for stimulus onset asynchrony or other standard abbreviations that will be readily understood by readers of the journal are acceptable. Experimental conditions should be named in full, except in tables and figures.

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After Acceptance of Publication in the Journal

Proofs

Page proofs and queries that may be raised by the copy-editor will be sent to the specified corresponding author of the article to check for typesetting accuracy. No changes to the original typescript will be permitted at this stage.

Free article access

Once your article is available online you will be granted access to the article. If you do not have a username, one is created for you, and an email will be sent to you containing your login details. On informaworld, you can access both HTML and PDF versions of your article. You may download a PDF version, which will contain a watermark noting this is an author copy. You are free to circulate this PDF to up to 50 colleagues by email, or make 50 printed copies and circulate by mail. This acceptable use policy does NOT permit distribution to more than 50 individuals of the PDF by authors or editors without express permission from the publisher. Prohibited uses include the distribution of the PDF via professional or personal listservs or posting to personal, organizational, or institutional websites in a format that would allow downloading or printing.

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Copyright Permission

It is a condition of publication that authors assign copyright or license the publication rights in their articles, including abstracts, to Taylor & Francis. This enables us to ensure full copyright protection and to disseminate the article, and of course the Journal, to the widest possible readership in print and electronic formats as appropriate. Authors retain many rights under the Taylor & Francis rights policies, which can be found on this informaworld page. Authors are themselves responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyright material from other sources.

Contributors are required to secure permission for the reproduction of any figure, table, or extensive (more than six manuscript lines) extract from the text, from a source which is copyrighted—or owned—by a party other than Psychology Press or the contributor. This applies both to direct reproduction or "derivative reproduction" — when the contributor has created a new figure or table which derives substantially from a copyrighted source.

The following form of words can be used in seeking permission:

Dear [COPYRIGHT HOLDER]

I/we are preparing for publication an article entitled

[STATE TITLE]

to be published by Psychology Press in Cognitive Neuroscience.

I/we should be grateful if you would grant us permission to include the following materials:

[STATE FIGURE NUMBER AND ORIGINAL SOURCE]

We are requesting non-exclusive rights in this edition and in all forms. It is understood, of course, that full acknowledgement will be given to the source.

Please note that Psychology Press are signatories of and respect the spirit of the STM Agreement regarding the free sharing and dissemination of scholarly information.

Your prompt consideration of this request would be greatly appreciated.

Yours faithfully

Volume contents and author index

The list of contents and the author index for the whole of the year's issues are published in the last issue of the year of each journal. For Cognitive Neuroscience, this is issue 4 (December).

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Ethics and Consent Standards

When reporting experiments on human subjects, authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 1983. Do not use patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material. Papers including animal experiments or clinical trials must be conducted with approval by the local animal care or human subject committees, respectively.

Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication.

Informed consent for this purpose requires that the patient be shown the manuscript to be published.

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Declared Conflicts of Interest

Authors are requested to disclose any commercial or other associations that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article. All funding sources supporting the work, and institutional and corporate affiliations of the authors must be acknowledged.

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