Society for Neuroscience to Launch New Open Access, Online Journal for Emerging Brain Research

The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) has announced its intent to launch a new, open access (OA), online-only journal to serve the field of neuroscience. The journal, expected to launch as early as fall 2014, will provide a fully open access, rapid publication option for neuroscientists, adding another high-quality publishing venue available through the field’s leading nonprofit scientific society.

The new OA journal, which has not yet been named, will publish articles that are scientifically excellent, technically sound, and move the field of neuroscience forward. It will have streamlined peer review and production processes distinct from The Journal of Neuroscience (JN), the Society’s flagship scientific publication. Like JN, the new journal will cover a broad spectrum of areas in the field.

“SfN’s Council is very excited to be creating a new publishing option for the rapidly expanding global neuroscience community,” said SfN President Carol Mason. “The field has expressed great enthusiasm for an open access journal from SfN, recognizing the Society’s strong reputation for high-quality neuroscience publishing. SfN is well positioned to lead the way to create an open access journal with swift review that maintains the innovation, rigor and breadth for which The Journal of Neuroscience has become known.”

The new journal’s objective is to provide a quality publication that can also incubate experimentation with emerging publishing and peer review concepts. It will ensure that the peer-review process is of high quality, fair, and fast. While details will be finalized and formalized by the first editorial board, it is expected the process will generally not require additional experiments and require no more than 1-2 review cycles.

The search for an editor in chief for the new journal will launch shortly. It will take place alongside a planned, separate-but-complementary search for a successor to outgoing JN editor in chief John Maunsell, who has served since 2008.

“The Society is grateful to John Maunsell for his exceptional leadership of JN over the last seven years. He has maintained and raised the bar for excellence in neuroscience publishing,” Carol Mason said. “We look forward to launching the search for the next editors to lead both a new and an established journal, and ensuring that such excellence endures in all SfN forums for scientific exchange.”

A single search committee will conduct the search for the two editors in chief. Past SfN President Moses Chao of New York University will lead it. Other members include Hollis Cline of The Scripps Research Institute, Barry Everitt of the University of Cambridge, David Fitzpatrick of the Max Planck Florida Institute, and Eve Marder of Brandeis University.

The Journal of Neuroscience is published by the Society for Neuroscience, an organization of nearly 40,000 basic scientists and clinicians who study the brain and nervous system. More information on the brain can be found by clicking on the company website link below.