The British Journal of Neurosurgery welcomes original contributions from all parts of the world. Papers are accepted for consideration on the understanding that their contents have not been published in whole or in part elsewhere, that they are subject to editorial revision and that the Editor is responsible for the order of publication. When relevant, authors must include a statement on the ethical aspects of their research including adherence to the internationally approved guidelines (http://www.mrc.ac.uk/pdf-devsoc.pdf Declaration of Helsinki-BMJ1964, II, p177) and confirmation of approval by the appropriate research ethics committee. Papers involving experiments on live animals will be considered for publication provided that the experiments have been conducted in line with UK Home Office Regulations or other national regulations.

Authors, Contributors and Guarantors

The British Journal of Neurosurgery does not believe that authorship should be artificially constrained by numbers but authors must be able to identify how they have made substantial contributions to the conception, design and conduct (including recruitment and counselling of patients) of the study, data collection and interpretation to the writing of the paper (including revising it critically for important intellectual content) and final appraisal for publication. In the new world of research governance, all authors will be held publicly responsible for the content of the paper but one author should be nominated as the guarantor. At the end of the paper authors should briefly outline their individual contributions and any conflicts of interest should be declared. (Rennie D, Flanagin A, Yank V, The contributions of authors JAMA, July 5,2000; 284(1):89-91 and www.icmje.org)

Patient Consent All papers that include identifiable patients will require consent from the patient (or assent from the family if the patient has died) to publish any information that might alone or in combination identify a patient, whether living or dead, adult or child. Case reports that include such data will not even be sent out for review until appropriate consent is provided by the authors. Download the Consent Form,obtain consent, and upload scanned copy with the submission as an attached file and not within the manuscript.

Reports of randomised controlled trials should conform to the revised Consort Statement (www.consort-statement.org) The British Journal of Neurosurgery would be prepared to review any neurosurgical trials, whether with a positive or negative outcome, which have not been published except as an abstract under the Medical Editors Trial Amnesty arrangement. ( Br J Neurosurg 1998;12:183-184)

Manuscripts should be accompanied by a cover letter signed by the corresponding author, which should be scanned and uploaded as an attached file. The cover letter should include the statement "No work resembling the enclosed article has been published or is being submitted for publication elsewhere. We certify that we have each made a substantial contribution so as to qualify for authorship as detailed at the end of the manuscript. We have disclosed all financial support for our work and other potential conflicts of interest".

Authors must declare and submit copies of any manuscripts in preparation or submitted elsewhere that are closely related to the manuscript to be considered. Potential financial interests and funding sources must be disclosed to the Editor in a covering letter and will be acknowledged at publication. Any attempts at dual publication will be referred back to the head of the author's host institution for appropriate action.

Editorial correspondence will be by e-mail to the person given as corresponding author. This should be someone whose address is likely to remain permanent until the time of possible publication and for at least a year thereafter. Preferably, the corresponding author should be the most senior author - that is a person whose address is not likely to change.

Peer review All original articles, reviews, technical notes, short reports and case reports are sent for peer review and the referees' comments on the paper will normally be transmitted (anonymously) to the authors.

The British Journal of Neurosurgery welcomes submissions in the following categories:

This should be in the form of a title page including author and institution details. The first page of the text should be a structured abstract of not more than 300 words followed by a maximum of 5 key words.

The text in originalarticlesshould be presented under the headings: Introduction, Material(s) and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion(s), Acknowledgements (including details of contribution by authors, funding, conflict of interest and ethical approval where appropriate) and up to 40 references.

Short Report

Case reports will be published in the Short Reports section of each issue and should be restricted to 1000 words, be headed by an abstract of no more than 50 words followed by Clinical Details and Discussion. A maximum of two images/tables and three most relevant references should be included.

Review Article/Invited Article

The Journal welcomes unsolicited and solicited reviews. These should cover areas of current interest and should well researched. They should be to a maximum of 6000 words and should include an abstract of 300 words, 5 key words and up to 40 relevant references.

Letters to the Editor

A letter should be up to 750 words long and may concern any item felt to be of interest to the readership, or more usually be a question or critique concerning a paper. Two relevant references and one image/table can be included. Letters may be subject to peer review and may be shortened at the discretion of the Editor in Chief.

Questions or criticisms concerning recently published papers may be sent to the Editor, who will refer them to the authors. The reader's comments and the author's reply may subsequently be published together.

Letters must be submitted through Manuscript Central.

Editorial

Editorials are normally written by invitation but the editor will be happy to consider    submitted editorials. Authors are encouraged to contact the Editor in Chief before preparing an Editorial.

It should be stressed that the opinions expressed in editorials are those of the writer alone. They are in no way intended to express the official viewpoint of the Journal, its Management Board or the Society of British Neurological Surgeons.

Technical Note

Technical notes are limited to 1000 words, 2 figures or tables and three references and be expected to focus on a technical aspect of neurosurgery.

Book Review

In general these will be by invitation from the editorial office, but independent reviews by individuals will be considered. They should be a minimum of 250 words and a maximum of 500 words in length.

Neurosurgical Images  

This should consist of a maximum of 4 images illustrating an unusual   or educational case with a text of approximately 300 words and up to 6 references.

Themed Articles

These are generally written by invitation but the Editor in Chief welcomes offers to commission multiple articles on a similar theme.

Educational Reports

Articles for the Educational Section are primarily intended for the neurosurgeon in training and are generally written at the invitation of the Editor in Chief. However suggestions for this section are welcome and authors are encouraged to contact the Editor in Chief.

Supplements

Graduate theses, monographs or proceedings of symposia may be accepted as supplements to the British Journal of Neurosurgery following application to the Editor. Printing costs will be borne by the authors and distribution costs by the Journal.

Proceedings of Meetings

The journal will be happy to publish proceedings of meetings relevant to the readership. These abstracts should be submitted in the format used by The British Society of Neurological Surgeons www.sbns.org. These are not subject to peer review and it is the responsibility of the submitting author to ensure the accuracy of the abstracts.

All manuscripts should be written in English and typed in double spacing (including references and figure legends).

All submissions should be made online at the British Journal of Neurosurgery Manuscript Central site. New users should first create an account. Once a user is logged onto the site submissions should be made via the Author Centre.

Spelling should be in English not American style, e.g. tumour and haemorrhage as opposed to tumor and hemorrhage. When referring to scales such as the Glasgow Outcome Scale, outcome should be referred to in words and not numbers in order to avoid ambiguity.

References should be denoted in the text by superscript numbers and listed at the end of the paper in the order in which they appear. Quote the titles of journals as abbreviated in Index Medicus. References should be cited according to the Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals (4th edition, 1993) the Vancouver rules, as follows:

·         Article in a journal
Gleave JRW, Macfarlane R Cauda equina syndrome: what is the relationship between timing of surgery and outcome? Br J Neurosurg 2002;16(4):325-328
(list all authors but if the number exceeds six give first three followed by et al)

·         Monograph
Jennett B, The vegetative state. Cambridge: CUP 2002

·         Book chapter
Gjerris F, Borgesen SE, Pathophysiology of cerebrospinal fluid circulation. in Crockard A, Hayward R, Hoff JT, Neurosurgery - The scientific basis of clinical practice Blackwell Science, 2000:147-168

Tables and Illustrations Type each table double-spaced on a separate sheet. Number the tables consecutively (roman numerals) and supply a brief title for each. Indicate in the left-hand margin of the manuscript the approximate position for each table and figure.

Figures Figures should be the submitted the size the authors would wish them to be printed (single column figure no more than 80mm wide and double 160mm). Costs for colour illustrations must be borne by the authors.

Colour Figures Any figure submitted as a colour original will appear in colour in the journal's online edition free of charge and can be downloaded. Paper copy colour reproduction will only be considered on condition that authors contribute to the associated costs. Charges are: 500/US$1030 for the first colour page and 250/US$515 for each colour page after per article. (Colour costs will be waived for invited Review Articles.)

Early Electronic Offprints Corresponding authors can now receive their article by email as a complete PDF. This allows the author to print up to 50 copies, free of charge and disseminate them to colleagues. In many cases this facility will be available up to two weeks prior to publication. Or alternatively, corresponding authors can receive the traditional printed 50 offprints. A copy of the journal will be sent by post to all corresponding authors after publication. Additional copies of the journal can be purchased at the authors' preferential rate of 15.00/$25.00 per copy.

Copyright It is a condition of publication that authors vest or license copyright in their articles, including abstracts, in The Neurosurgical Foundation. This enables us to ensure full copyright protection and to disseminate the article and the journal to the widest possible readership in print and electronic formats as appropriate. Authors may, as of right, use the article elsewhere after publication providing that prior permission is obtained from Informa Healthcare.

For further details and FAQs on Informa Healthcare's policy on copyright and authors' rights click here.

Editorial or Referee Misconduct The British Journal of Neurosurgery takes seriously any complaints. All referees will be asked to declare any conflict of interest or their private concerns to Editor. Where an author is dissatisfied with the Journal's response, a formal complaint will be referred to an independent ombudsman.

Disclaimer Whilst every effort is made by the publisher and Editorial Board to ensure there are no inaccuracies in this Journal, statements, opinion and data appearing in the articles and advertisements herein are the responsibility of the authors and advertisers concerned. The Editors and Publisher disclaim any responsibility or liability for such material.