Brain Science Advances
Brain Science Advances (BSA) is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal which publishes original research articles, review articles and case reports on all aspects of brain sciences with a focus on molecular and cellular neuroscience, clinical neuroscience, and neural engineering across the Asia-Pacific region. It is published quarterly by Tsinghua University Press and SAGE Publishing.
Please see the Aims and Scopes tab for further information.
This journal flipped to open access on September 1, 2018.
Why publish in BSA?
- Multidisciplinary brain sciences journal for the dissemination of high quality content
- High profile, expert international editorial board led by the Chinese clinical neurologist Professor Yuqi Zhang, providing high quality peer-review
- Gold open access journal with no barriers to access. All APCs covered by Tsinghua University Press
- Tsinghua University Press provides a language polishing service at no cost to authors.
Open access information
The journal is financially supported by Tsinghua University Press and therefore does not charge an article processing charge (APC) for open access publication.
Submission information
Submit your manuscript today at https://mc03.manuscriptcentral.com/brainsa.
Please see the Submission Guidelines tab for more information on how to submit your article to the journal.
Contact
Please direct any queries to the editorial office at Tsinghua University Press:
Songyue Chen, Publishing Editor
Chensy@tup.tsinghua.edu.cn
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Brain Science Advances (BSA) is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal which publishes original research articles, review articles and case reports on all aspects of brain sciences with a focus on molecular and cellular neuroscience, clinical neuroscience, and neural engineering.
In the background of China Brain Project, the journal aims to be an international multidisciplinary forum disseminating and promoting the research around brain sciences. The journal publishes original research articles and case reports from all fields and disciplines of brain sciences.
Manuscripts dealing with (but not limited to) the following subject areas will be considered for publication:
- Molecular and cellular neuroscience
- Clinical neuroscience
- Cognitive and developmental neuroscience
- Computational neuroscience
- Neural engineering
- Neuroimaging
| Yuqi Zhang | Tsinghua University, Beijing, China |
| Jiong Shi | University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China |
| Li Hu | Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China |
| Harry W. Steinbusch | Maastricht University, the Netherlands |
| Akira Teramoto | Nippon Medical School, Japan |
| Yuanhan Yang | Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan, China |
| Xiaobin Yi | Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, USA |
| Sue Barnett | University of Glasgow, UK |
| Gerson Chadi | University of Sao Paulo, Brazil |
| Lukui Chen | Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China |
| Yelin Chen | Chinese Academy of Sciences, China |
| Azhar S. Daoud | Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan |
| Jisong Guan | ShanghaiTech University, China |
| Fabin Han | Liaocheng University, Liaocheng, China |
| Ji Hu | ShanghaiTech University, China |
| Li Hu | Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China |
| Jiming Kong | University of Manitoba, Canada |
| Vladimir M. Kovalzon | Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia |
| Wenbin Li | Capital Medical University, Beijing, China |
| Akira Matsuno | Teikyo University, Japan |
| Gustavo Moviglia | Maimonides University, Argentina |
| Peter Franz Riederer | University of Würzburg, Germany |
| Anna Sarnowska | Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland |
| Hari Shanker Sharma | Uppsala University, Sweden |
| Ashok K. Shetty | Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, USA |
| Lin Shi | The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China |
| Dario Siniscalco | Second University of Naples, Italy |
| Byung-chul Son | Catholic University of Korea, South Korea |
| Karen Spruyt | Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium |
| Shirong Wang | Beijing Institute of Technology, China |
| Xiumei Wang | Tsinghua University, Beijing, China |
| Ping Wu | University of Texas Medical Branch, USA |
| Guohua Xi | University of Michigan, Michigan, USA |
| Jun Xu | Capital Medical University, China |
| Tianyi Yan | Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China |
| Jintai Yu | Fudan University, Shanghai, China |
| Rutong Yu | Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, China |
| Dan Zhang | Tsinghua University, China |
| Yong Zhang | Soochow University, Soochow, China |
| Zhentao Zhang | Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China |
| He Chen | Tsinghua University Press, China |
| Hejia Wu | Tsinghua University Press, Beijing, China |
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
- Open Access
- Article processing charge (APC)
- What do we publish?
3.1 Aims & scope
3.2 Article types
3.3 Writing your paper - Editorial policies
4.1 Peer review policy
4.2 Authorship
4.3 Acknowledgements
4.4 Funding
4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
4.6 Research ethics and patient consent
4.7 Clinical trials
4.8 Reporting guidelines
4.9 Data - Publishing policies
5.1 Publication ethics
5.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement - Preparing your manuscript
6.1 Word processing formats
6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
6.3 Supplementary material
6.4 Reference style - Submitting your manuscript
7.1 How to submit your manuscript
7.2 Title, keywords and abstracts
7.3 Information required for completing your submission
7.4 ORCID
7.5 Permissions - On acceptance and publication
8.1 Production
8.2 Online publication
8.3 Promoting your article - Further information
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).
Please read the guidelines below then visit the journal’s submission site https://mc03.manuscriptcentral.com/brainsa 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.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Brain Science Advances 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, 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, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.
1. Open Access
Brain Science Advances is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. Each article accepted by peer review is made freely available online immediately upon publication, is published under a Creative Commons license and will be hosted online in perpetuity. Publication costs of the journal are covered by the collection of article processing charges which are paid by Tsinghua University Press thus authors don’t need to pay any article processing charges. There is no charge for submitting a paper to the journal either.
For general information on open access at Sage please visit the Open Access page or view our Open Access FAQs.
2. Article processing charge (APC)
This journal is financially supported by Tsinghua University Press and therefore does not charge an article processing charge for open access publication.
3. What do we publish?
3.1 Aims & Scope
Before submitting your manuscript to Brain Science Advances, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
3.2 Article Types
Brain Science Advances offers a range of article types for authors to contribute to the brain science community.
Research article
- This category is for full-length reports on original research.
- A structured abstract of no more than 300 words is required (Purpose, Methods, Results, and Conclusion)
- Manuscripts in this category should use the following structure: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusions.
Review
- This category is for both synthetic and narrative reviews.
- An unstructured abstract of no more than 200 words is required.
Case report
- This category is for describing a single case or a small series.
- A case report must be unique, groundbreaking and/or educational and draw attention to important or unusual clinical situations, concepts, new treatments, or complications.
- A structured abstract of no more than 300 words is required (Purpose, Methods, Results, and Conclusion)
Editorial (Invited Only)
- This category is opinion or perspective on the content of Cancer Innovation or of relevance to the field of brain science.
Opinion
- This category is for standards, guidelines, expert consensus in related subjects.
Meta-Analysis
- This category is for systematic, critical assessments of current literature pertaining to clinical topics, emphasizing factors such as cause, diagnosis, prognosis, therapy, or prevention.
- An unstructured abstract of no more than 200 words is required.
Study Protocol
- This category is for proposed or ongoing research, and should provide a detailed account of the hypothesis, rationale and methodology of the study.
- A structured abstract of no more than 300 words is required (Purpose, Methods, Results, and Conclusion)
Clinical Guideline
- This category is for systematically developed, evidence-based/evidence-informed statements and recommendations.
- Clinical Guidelines are developed by multidisciplinary panels of experts based on evidence from a rigorous systematic review and evaluation of the published medical literature.
Technical Report
- This category is for Extensions or updates to previously published research, reporting additional controls; projects that did not yield publishable results but represent valuable information regarding brain science;
Letter (Short communication)
- This category is for concise, focused reports of original research that present particularly novel or exciting results, introduce new theories or ideas, or offer new methodological approaches in the field of brain science. The papers should be highly original and representing ideas that will challenge current paradigms or approaches. They should stimulate thoughts, serving as precursors to new research programs or working groups.
3.3 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.
3.3.1 Making your article discoverable
When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online
4. Editorial policies
4.1 Peer review policy
The journal’s policy is to have manuscripts reviewed by two expert reviewers. Brain Science Advances utilizes a single-anonymize peer review process in which the reviewer’s name and information is withheld from the author. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, while maintaining rigor. Reviewers make comments to the author and recommendations to the Editor-in-Chief who then makes the final decision.
4.2 Authorship
Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. 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:
- Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data,
- Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
- Approved the version to be published,
Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.
When a large, multicentre 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.
4.3 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.
4.3.1 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.
4.3.2 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.
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.
4.4 Funding
Brain Science Advances 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.
4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
It is the policy of Brain Science Advances 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.
4.6 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 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.
4.7 Clinical trials
Brain Science Advances 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 enrolment 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.
4.8 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 supplementary 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 supplementary file. The EQUATOR wizard can help you identify the appropriate guideline.
Other resources can be found at NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives.
4.9 Data
At Sage we are committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research. Brain Science Advances requires authors to share their research data in a suitable public repository as a condition of publication. This is subject to ethical considerations and in such cases the journal editor may grant an exception and authors should contact the Editorial Office at weihj@tup.tsinghua.edu.cn. Authors are also required to include a data accessibility statement in their manuscript file and to follow data citation principles. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway, which includes information about Sage’s partnership with the data repository Figshare.Sage acknowledges the importance of research data availability as an integral part of the research and verification process for academic journal articles.
5. Publishing policies
5.1 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.
5.1.1 Plagiarism
Brain Science Advances 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.
5.1.2 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.
5.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement
Before publication Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Brain Science Advances publishes manuscripts under Creative Commons licenses. The standard license for the journal is Creative Commons by Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC), which allows others to re-use the work without permission as long as the work is properly referenced and the use is non-commercial. For more information, you are advised to visit Sage's OA licenses page.
Alternative license arrangements are available, for example, to meet particular funder mandates, made at the author’s request.
6. Preparing your manuscript
6.1 Word processing formats
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word.. Word template is available to download here: http://bsa.tsinghuajournals.com/EN/column/column8040.shtml
6.2 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.
6.3 Supplementary material
This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. These will be subjected to peer-review alongside the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files, which can be found within our Manuscript Submission Guidelines page.
6.4 Reference style
Brain Science Advances adheres to the Sage Vancouver reference style. Please review the guidelines on Sage Vancouver to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Brain Science Advances output file here.
7. Submitting your manuscript
7.1 How to submit your manuscript
Brain Science Advances is hosted on a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc03.manuscriptcentral.com/brainsa to login and submit your article online.
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.
7.2 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. Please refer to the information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords by visiting the Sage Journal Author Gateway for guidelines on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
7.3 Information required for completing your submission
Provide full contact details for the corresponding author including email, mailing address and telephone numbers. Academic affiliations are required for all co-authors. These details should be presented separately to the main text of the article to facilitate anonymous peer review.
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. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
7.4 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.
We encourage all authors and co-authors to link their ORCIDs 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. We collect ORCID iDs during the manuscript submission process and your ORCID iD then becomes 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.
7.5 Permissions
Authors are responsible for obtaining 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 visit our Frequently Asked Questions on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
8. On acceptance and publication
If your paper is accepted for publication after peer review, you will first be asked to complete the contributor’s publishing agreement. Once your manuscript files have been accepted, your article will be prepared for publication and can appear online within an average of 30 working days.
8.1 Production
Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal Sage Edit, or by email to the corresponding author and should be returned 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. Please note that if there are any changes to the author list at this stage all authors will be required to complete and sign a form authorizing the change.
8.2 Online publication
One of the many benefits of publishing your research in an open access journal is the speed to publication. With no page count constraints, your article will be published online in a fully citable form with a DOI number as soon as it has completed the production process. At this time it will be completely free to view and download for all.
8.3 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.
9. Further information
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the Manuscript Submission process should be sent to the Brain Science Advances editorial office as follows:
Hejia Wei, Publishing Editor, weihj@tup.tsinghua.edu.cn