Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair

Please read the guidelines below then visit Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair (NNR)’s submission site at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/nnr to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned. Remember you can log in to the submission site at any time to check on the progress of your paper through the peer review process.

Sage Publishing disseminates high-quality research and engaged scholarship globally, and we are committed to diversity and inclusion in publishing. We encourage submissions from a diverse range of authors from across all countries and backgrounds.

Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of NNR will be reviewed.

As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere. Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that NNR may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in the journal. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the journal's author archiving policy. If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.

This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.

This Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this journal, other than costs associated with printing of color images. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.

Please reference our Author Submission Check List to ensure you have completed each step of the submission process correctly. A printable version is also available here.

If you have any questions about publishing with Sage, please visit the Sage Journal Solutions Portal.
 

1. What do we publish?
   1.1 Aims & Scope
   1.2 Themes and article types
   1.3 Writing your paper
   1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
2. Editorial policies
   2.1 Peer review policy
   2.2 Authorship
   2.3 Acknowledgements
   2.3.1 Third party submissions
   2.3.2 Writing assistance
   2.4 Funding
   2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
   2.6 Research ethics and patient consent
   2.7 Clinical trials
   2.8 Reporting guidelines
   2.9 Research data
3. Publishing policies
   3.1 Publication ethics
   3.1.1 Plagiarism
   3.1.2 Prior publication
   3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
   3.3 Open access and author archiving
4. Preparing your manuscript for submission
   4.1 Formatting
   4.2 Organization of text
   4.3 Artwork, figures and other graphics
   4.4 Supplemental material
   4.5 Reference style
   4.6 English language editing services
5. Submitting your manuscript
   5.1 ORCID
   5.2 Information required for completing your submission
   5.3 Submitting a revision
   5.4 Permissions
6. On acceptance and publication
   6.1 Sage Production
   6.2 OnlineFirst publication
   6.3 Access to your published article
   6.4 Promoting your article
   6.5 Copyright
   6.6 PubMed
7. Further information
   7.1 Appealing the publication decision

 

1. What do we publish?

1.1 Aims & Scope

Before submitting your manuscript to NNR, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.

The Journal will consider for publication original articles and reviews on both basic science and clinical research relevant to recovery from neural injury. Examples of appropriate topics include cortical remodeling, mechanisms of sprouting and regeneration, the development of cell lines for transplantation and trophic factor replacement, strategies to promote functional recovery in human patients, design of outcome measures in neurologic rehabilitation, the multidisciplinary management of neurologic disease, and bioengineering and assistive devices used in the management of neurologic impairment.

1.2 Themes and article types

Themes

NNR will consider manuscripts on any clinical or basic science topic that is relevant to understanding and rehabilitating the consequences of neural injury and disease. NNR especially promotes the translation of concepts from the basic sciences to clinical trials and the care of patients. All articles are expected to address underlying neural mechanisms as appropriate, either as a specific focus of the study, and/or in the discussion of the results. Appropriate topics include, but are not limited to:

• randomized controlled clinical trials of interventions;
• well-designed pilot studies that include control subjects of physical, cognitive, language, neuropsychologic, pharmacologic, neurostimulation, and other potential approaches to augment procedural or declarative learning and function, and to lessen impairment and disability;
• fundamental mechanisms of motor, sensory, and cognitive improvements after injury or induced by rehabilitation strategies;
• neural reorganization, synaptogenesis, neurogenesis, and regeneration associated with gene expression after injury, biological interventions, and training paradigms;
• neural transplantation with behavioral outcomes;
• neurophysiologic probes of activity-dependent plasticity during rehabilitation, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging and transcranial magnetic stimulation;
• epidemiologic and longitudinal studies of disability and rehabilitation;
• novel research designs, statistical procedures, and outcome measures for neurologic rehabilitation;
• multidisciplinary approaches to lessen disability and increase participation in persons with chronic neurologic disorders;
• bioengineered, assistive, and robotic devices for training or for managing impairment and disability.

If a manuscript is not consistent with the scientific rigor or themes of interest to the journal, the editor may return the article without peer review. The associate editors and the editor make final decisions about acceptance or rejection based on their final review. Due to excessive demand, we do not provide pre-submission assessments of articles.

Article types

Please read the following carefully and ensure that your submission meets the requirements to avoid automatic return or delay in the consideration of your paper.

1. Full-Length Original Research Articles

   Full-length original research articles should have an Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. The word count of the text must not exceed 4,500. Tables and figures combined should not exceed six (6). References should not exceed 60. Additional information can be provided in supplemental materials that will be available online only. Please see below for formatting details.
    

2. Review Articles

   Review articles should have an Abstract, but the organization of the body of text is flexible. The text should not exceed 4,500 words and 75 references. Summary figures are encouraged.
    

3. Point of View/Directions for Research

   Point of View/Directions for Research articles offer an opportunity for clinical and basic researchers to examine controversies in the conceptualization of a particular research problem, in a methodology, or in the interpretation of past results that continue to influence the neurorehabilitation literature. Specific suggestions must be made and justified about how to better conduct research around that particular issue. The aim is to improve the ability of clinicians to interpret the literature, translate research studies into practices, and better direct future experiments. One format would be Introduction, The Problem, The Solution, and Recommendations for strategies to try to resolve the controversy. Include an abstract. The text should not exceed 5,000 words and 75 references.
    

4. Brief Communications

   Brief communications and case reports should be labeled as such and must offer an important new observation and not simply review the literature. These reports must contain no more than 1,000 words, 10 references, and 2 figures or tables. They should include an abstract, but subdivision into Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion is optional. In rare instances, we will consider case reports for this article type, but only if the topic is extraordinarily novel.

5. Images in Neurorehabilitation

   We will consider photographic, radiographic, or artistic images that have exceptional visual impact and have relevance to neurologic rehabilitation. These images should make up a single figure, although they may contain more than one frame. Accompanying text must be no more than 250 words.

6. Registered Reports, Pre-Data or Post-Data:   

   There are two types of Registered Reports:  

• Registered Reports – Pre-Data, i.e., before any data have been gathered
• Registered Reports – Post-Data, i.e., before already existing data have been examined and analysed.  

These submissions are reviewed in two stages. In Stage 1, a study proposal is considered for publication prior to data collection and/or analysis. Stage 1 submissions should include a complete Introduction, Methods, and Proposed Analyses. High-quality proposals will be accepted in principle before data collection and/or data analysis commences. Once the study is completed, the author will finish the article including Results and Discussion sections (Stage 2). Publication of the Stage 2 submission is guaranteed as long as the approved Stage 1 protocol is followed and the conclusions are appropriate. Full details can be found here. The Journal’s manuscript requirements should be adhered to for the stage 2 submission.

Table 1. Overview of the requirements for manuscript submissions to NNR.

* Excludes abstract, references, tables and legends

** Please format references using AMA style http://www.amamanualofstyle.com/

1.3 Writing your paper

The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.

1.3.1 Make your article discoverable

For information and guidance on how to make your article more discoverable, visit our Gateway page on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.

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2. Editorial policies

2.1 Peer review policy

NNR operates a conventional single-anonymized reviewing policy in which the reviewer’s name is always concealed from the submitting author.

Papers will be sent for review by at least two, preferably three, reviewers who will either be members of the Editorial Board or others of similar standing in the field. In order to shorten the review process and respond quickly to authors, the Editors may triage a submission and come to a decision without sending the paper for external review.

The Editors’ decision is final and no correspondence can be entered into concerning manuscripts considered unsuitable for publication in the journal. All correspondence, including notification of the Editors’ decision and requests for revisions, will be sent by email.

The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor/Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.

NNR is committed to delivering high quality, fast peer-review for your paper, and as such has partnered with Publons. Publons is a third party service that seeks to track, verify and give credit for peer review. Reviewers for NNR can opt in to Publons in order to claim their reviews or have them automatically verified and added to their reviewer profile. Reviewers claiming credit for their review will be associated with the relevant journal, but the article name, reviewer’s decision and the content of their review is not published on the site. For more information visit the Publons website.

Sage does not permit the use of author-suggested (recommended) reviewers at any stage of the submission process, be that through the web-based submission system or other communication. Reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Our policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a paper if:

•  The reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors

•  The reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper

•  The author has recommended the reviewer

•  The reviewer has provided a personal (e.g. Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail) email account and an institutional email account cannot be found after performing a basic Google search (name, department and institution). 

2.2 Authorship

Papers should only be submitted for consideration once all contributing authors give consent. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors.

The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:

1. Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data,
2. Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
3. Approved the version to be published,
4. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.

Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. When a large, multicenter group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship.

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.

Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.

Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair publishes CRediT author contribution statements. At submission stage, there will be the ability to list the roles that each author was responsible for. Please refer to the CRediT Gateway page for more information. You should not include an author contribution statement in your manuscript as this will be added at Production stage. This does not replace the Acknowledgements section.

2.3 Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

Any acknowledgements should appear first at the end of your article prior to your Declaration of Conflicting Interests (if applicable), any notes and your References.

2.3.1 Third party submissions

Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

• Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
• Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
• Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.

2.3.2 Writing assistance

Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.

2.4 Funding

NNR requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading.  Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: “This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.”

2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

It is the policy of NNR to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles.

Please ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that: “The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest.” For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations here.

When making a declaration, the disclosure information must be specific and include any financial relationship that all authors of the article have with any sponsoring organization and the for- profit interests that the organization represents, and with any for-profit product discussed or implied in the text of the article.

Any commercial or financial involvements that might represent an appearance of a conflict of interest also need to be disclosed in the covering letter accompanying your article to assist the Editor in evaluating whether sufficient disclosure has been made within the Conflict of Interest statement provided in the article.

The ICJME Conflict of Interest form is mandatory and you cannot submit your manuscript without attaching it (http://www.icmje.org/coi_instructions.html).

2.6 Research ethics and patient consent

Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.

Submitted manuscripts should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, and all papers reporting animal and/or human studies must state in the methods section that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure that you have provided the full name and institution of the review committee, in addition to the approval number.

For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal.

Information on informed consent to report individual cases or case series should be included in the manuscript text. A statement is required regarding whether written informed consent for patient information and images to be published was provided by the patient(s) or a legally authorized representative. Please do not submit the patient’s actual written informed consent with your article, as this in itself breaches the patient’s confidentiality. The Journal requests that you confirm to us, in writing, that you have obtained written informed consent but the written consent itself should be held by the authors/investigators themselves, for example in a patient’s hospital record. The confirmatory letter may be uploaded with your submission as a separate file.

Please also refer to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Protection of Research Participants.

All research involving animals submitted for publication must be approved by an ethics committee with oversight of the facility in which the studies were conducted. The Journal has adopted the ARRIVE guidelines.

2.7 Clinical trials

NNR conforms to the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrollment as a condition of consideration for publication. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract. For this purpose, a clinical trial is defined as any research project that prospectively assigns human subjects to intervention or comparison groups to study the cause-and-effect relationship between a medical intervention and a health outcome. Studies designed for other purposes, such as to study pharmacokinetics or major toxicity (e.g. phase I trials), would be exempt.

All randomized controlled trials submitted for publication in NNR must include a completed Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) flow chart. Please see section 2.8 for more information.

2.8 Reporting guidelines

The relevant EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines should be followed depending on the type of study. For example, all randomized controlled trials submitted for publication should include a completed CONSORT flow chart as a cited figure and the completed CONSORT checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplemental file. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses should include the completed PRISMA flow chart as a cited figure and the completed PRISMA checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplemental file. The EQUATOR wizard can help you identify the appropriate guideline. If your research involves animals, you will be asked to confirm that you have carefully read and adhered to the ARRIVE guidelines.

Other resources can be found at NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives.

2.9 Research data

The journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.

Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:

• share your research data in a relevant public data repository
• include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, we encourage you to consider using the statement to explain why it cannot be shared.
• cite this data in your research

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3. Publishing policies

3.1 Publication ethics

Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.

3.1.1 Plagiarism

NNR and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarized other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

3.1.2 Prior publication

If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement

Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway.

3.3 Open access and author archiving

NNR offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.

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4. Preparing your manuscript for submission

4.1 Formatting

An important goal of NNR is to foster communication between the basic and clinical research communities whose work is relevant to recovery from neural injury. Therefore, basic science articles should include sufficient explanatory information in the Introduction and elsewhere to permit reading by clinicians, and vice versa. All abbreviations and jargon terms should be defined and kept to a minimum. Other than very common measurement tools, such as the Fugl-Meyer Assessment (F-M), do not use more than 4 abbreviations for names and phrases in the text. Most non-experts cannot hold more than 4 unfamiliar terms in mind over the course of an article.

The preferred format for the text and tables of your manuscript is Word Doc and must be prepared following the formatting instructions below. Please ensure uploaded manuscript files can be edited.

All submissions should be:

• US English
• double spaced, single column
• 12 point Arial, Times or Times New Roman font
• 2.5 cm (1 inch) margins

Do not include line numbers or page numbers, as the system automatically adds these to the PDF generated for reviewers.

4.2 Organization of text

Title Page: The title page should include the following:

1. the title of the article;
2. the names, highest degrees, and full affiliations of all authors;
3. the name, mailing address, email address, and telephone number of the corresponding author to whom proofs and reprint requests should be addressed;
4. word count of the text and the number of figures and tables in the article; and
5. a running title that should not exceed 42 letters and spaces, in the upper right corner.

Abstract: Abstracts may contain up to 250 words and structured with the following subheadings: Background, Objective, Methods, Results, Conclusions. Do not simply repeat the Results in the Conclusions – state what was learned and what needs to be done next. If the study is a clinical trial, include the registry number at the end of the Abstract. It is not included in the word limit (see Section 2.7).

Key Words: Up to 6 key words or terms from MeSH terms in PubMed should be included for use by referencing sources. If you wish to have your paper cited, choose the best terms (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html).

Headings in the text should appear as follows in bold and italics (please use subheadings as needed): Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusions/Implications (if not repeating what has been stated).

The Introduction should briefly explain why you have undertaken the study/review. Explain how the study addresses an important problem. What is novel, what is incremental? State your objectives and the hypotheses that are to be tested. Use only the most critical and best studies as references.

The Methods should define the participants, how and why they were chosen, the tools you used, and their reliability and validity for your population, and how you examined your hypotheses. Include how the sample size was determined and how randomization was performed, when applicable. State your primary and secondary outcome measurements and why you chose these. Explain how anonymizing was carried out, when applicable. Justify your statistical methods for primary and secondary analyses. When relevant, the Methods must include a statement that the project was approved by an authorized institutional human research review board or institutional animal research authority.

The Results should include recruitment, baseline data, the number of participants that were in each analysis, the pre-specified statistical comparisons between groups before the analyses of pre- vs post-test results within groups, corrections for multiple comparisons, and adverse events.

The Discussion should interpret the Results, including adjusted analyses, within the hypotheses and potential biases and confounders of the Methods. What is the generalizability of the data? The rationale and significance of the reported research should be explained in terms of its relevance to recovery of neurologic function.

Implications or Conclusions may be added. Latitude to briefly consider the clinical implications of basic research findings is permitted here. Clinical researchers may use this section to suggest what clinical and basic science advances are needed to move the clinical research forward toward value for patients.

Acknowledgments: Acknowledgments should be made at the end of the text. List the agency and number for grant support. Limit personal acknowledgments. Disclosure of any commercial interest of the authors relevant to the subject of the manuscript should follow.

Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language-polishing services. Acknowledgements should appear first at the end of your article prior to your Declaration of Conflicting Interests (if applicable), any notes and your References.

4.3 Artwork, figures and other graphics

For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.   

Figures supplied in color will appear in color online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in color in the printed version. For specifically requested color reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article. The fee is $500 per image.

NNR is the official journal of the American Society of Neurorehabilitation. If you are a member of the American Society of Neurorehabilitation and you are the corresponding author, you are eligible to receive one page of color in print at no charge. You must identify yourself as a member of ASNR at time of submission, by checking the box and providing your member ID. Please identify in your cover letter which figure(s) you wish to appear in color. Any figures beyond one page that you wish to print in color will be charged at the rate of $500 per image.

Tables:

All tables must have a title, be self-explanatory, and supplement (not duplicate) the text. All abbreviations should be defined. Tables should be placed at the end of the file, following text and references, with callouts for each in the text. Elements in tables should be separated by tabs, not cells or lines.

Figures:

High-resolution figures must be uploaded as separate electronic files, with callouts for each in the text. Each figure must be labeled, include a short title, and brief legend. All abbreviations should be defined. Acceptable file formats for figures include TIFF, EPS, and JPEG, and PDF Microsoft Application Files are acceptable for vector art (line art). Figures must be at least 300 dpi for good print quality. This will permit minor revisions to be made in press without the need for authors to remake figures.

All randomized clinical trials must include a CONSORT flow diagram of subject progress through the phases of the trial, as well as meet the CONSORT checklist of items to be included when reporting a randomized trial (http://www.consort-statement.org/) (see Section 2.7).

4.4 Supplemental material

This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc.) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplemental files.

4.5 Reference style

Please note the reference limits in the Article Types section above. NNR adheres to the AMA Manual of Style. View the guide here to ensure your manuscript conforms to this style.

If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the JAMA style.

4.6 English language editing services

Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.

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5. Submitting your manuscript

NNR is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/nnr to login and submit your article online.

Please Note: Before submitting your manuscript, please ensure you carefully read and adhere to all the guidelines and instructions to authors provided. Manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.

Please ensure that you submit editable source files only. The main text should be in Microsoft Word or RTF, the tables as separate Word files, and the figures as separate EPS, JPEG or TIF files. Please ensure that your document does not include page numbers or line numbers; the NNR Sage Track system will generate them for you, and then automatically convert your manuscript to PDF for peer review. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor’s decision and requests for revisions, will be by email.

IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created.  For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help. If you need any assistance with accessing your account or editing your co-authors’ accounts, contact the NNR editorial office at nnr@kumc.edu.

5.1 ORCID

As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.

The collection of ORCID IDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID ID you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID ID will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID ID is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.

If you do not already have an ORCID ID please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.

5.2 Information required for completing your submission

A submitted manuscript will be considered for publication on the understanding that the work is original, that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, it is not previously published, and that if accepted it will not be published later in the same or similar form in any language without the consent of the publisher.

Submissions should be made by logging in and selecting the Author Center and the ‘Click here to Submit a New Manuscript’ option. Follow the instructions on each page, clicking the ‘Next’ button on each screen to save your work and advance to the next screen. If at any stage you have any questions or require the user guide, please use the ‘Get Help Now’ button at the top right of every screen.

Co-author contact details
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. All co-authors will need to have a Sage account. You can search by name or by email for co-authors who currently have a Sage account. Otherwise, you will create one by providing full contact details for the co-author including email, mailing address and telephone numbers. Academic affiliations are required for all co-authors. Please ensure you have permission from co-authors prior to creating accounts for them. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed in the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper.

Title, keywords and abstracts
Please supply a title, short title, an abstract and keywords to accompany your article. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article online through online search engines such as Google.

Cover letter
A cover letter should accompany the manuscript explaining any duplication or overlap in content with a previously published article, or stating, "No part of this work has been published." The letter should identify any commercial interest of the authors relevant to the subject of the manuscript, or state that no such conflict of interest exists. All authors must approve of the submission. State the type of article and how the manuscript relates to the stated themes provided above.

Uploading your files
To upload your files, click on the ‘Browse’ button and locate the file on your computer. Select the designation of each file (i.e. main document, conflict of interest form, figure…) in the drop down box next to the browse button. When you have selected all files you wish to upload, click the ‘Upload Files’ button. Review the system-generated PDF of your submission and then click the Submit button.

The ICJME Conflict of Interest form is mandatory and you cannot submit your manuscript without attaching it (http://www.icmje.org/coi_instructions.html).

Saving your progress
You may suspend a submission at any point before clicking the Submit button and save it to submit later. After submission, you will receive a confirmation e-mail. You can also log back into your author center at any time to check the status of your manuscript.

5.3 Submitting a revision

After review, the editors may invite submission of a revised manuscript. To create a revision, go to the ‘Manuscripts with Decisions’ option in your Author Dashboard and select ‘create a revision’ in the ‘Action’ column.

When submitting a revision, delete the original files (as these are saved with your original submission), and upload your revised manuscript only, following the usual submission guidelines. Changes to the manuscript must be marked using highlighting or track changes, and the authors’ response to the reviewers’ comments should be placed in appropriate box during the submission process. We also require that a clean, unmarked version of the revision be uploaded, in the event an original reviewer is unable to evaluate the revision.

5.4 Permissions

Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.

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6. On acceptance and publication

6.1 Sage Production

Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal Sage Edit or by email, and corrections should be made directly or notified to us promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.

6.2 OnlineFirst publication

OnlineFirst allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite OnlineFirst articles.

6.3 Access to your published article

Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.

6.4 Promoting your article

Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.

6.5 Copyright

Copyright on all published articles will be held by The American Society of Neurorehabilitation. To comply with United States copyright law, a copyright transfer form will be emailed to the corresponding author when a manuscript is accepted for publication--the corresponding author is authorized to sign on behalf of all authors. Please only submit one copyright form signed by the corresponding author.

6.6 PubMed

We have received inquiries from journal authors about our policy regarding NIH compliance, which mandates that the final, peer-reviewed manuscripts, upon acceptance for publication, be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication. The NIH policy meets our own posting policy at the first anniversary of the date of the NIH-funded article’s publication. As stated on the contributor agreement, our policy is as follows:

“No sooner than twelve (12) months after publication of the Contribution in the print edition of the Journal, the Contributor-created version of all or part of the Contribution and abstract as accepted for publication by the Journal (i.e., updated to include all changes made during the peer-review and editing process) may be posted on any non- commercial Web site or repository, provided that such electronic copy includes a hyperlink to the published version of the Contribution on the Sage Journals Online Web site, together with the following text: ‘The final, definitive version of the article is available at http://online.sagepub.com/.’ Contributor is not permitted to post the Sage PDF version of the published Contribution on any Web site or repository.”

Authors are free to provide their own author-created copies of the peer-reviewed version of the article to PubMed Central and other public repositories with the understanding that the article will not be made available until 12 months after publication. The PubMed FAQ site has information on the policy and on how to submit: http://www.nihms.nih.gov/help/faq.shtml. 

For authors with NIH funding, please review this checklist of common errors to ensure your manuscripts is compliant with the requirements.

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7. Further information

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the NNR editorial office as follows:

nnr@kumc.edu

7.1 Appealing the publication decision

Editors have very broad discretion in determining whether an article is an appropriate fit for their journal. Many manuscripts are declined with a very general statement of the rejection decision. These decisions are not eligible for formal appeal unless the author believes the decision to reject the manuscript was based on an error in the review of the article, in which case the author may appeal the decision by providing the Editor with a detailed written description of the error they believe occurred.

If an author believes the decision regarding their manuscript was affected by a publication ethics breach, the author may contact the publisher with a detailed written description of their concern, and information supporting the concern, at publication_ethics@sagepub.com.

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