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Information for Contributors to Learning & Memory

Learning & Memory welcomes high-quality original work covering all areas of neuronal plasticity, learning, memory, and their models, conducted in humans and other vertebrate and invertebrate species with the following approaches: behavior, cognition, computation, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neuropharmacology, biochemistry, genetics, and cell and molecular biology. The journal publishes Research Papers and Brief Communications, as well as commissioned and submitted Reviews and Commentaries.

Open Access Option:
All papers are freely available online twelve months after publication. In addition, Learning & Memory is now offering an Open Access option in which authors may pay a surcharge of $2000 to make their paper freely available online immediately upon publication. Authors may choose this option when page proofs are returned to Journals Production; choosing this option will have no effect on acceptance and publication of submitted papers.

Questions that are not addressed here should be directed to the Learning & Memory Editorial Office at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press (phone: +1-516-422-4012; e-mail: lm@cshl.org).

Instructions for Manuscript Preparation and Submission

All papers must be submitted by the authors through the online manuscript submission and processing system. E-mailed or hard-copy submissions cannot be considered. Authors should be aware of the following items before uploading their manuscript to Learning & Memory:

1. Article type. Authors will be required to specify the type of article submitted to the journal, and the article should be formatted appropriately (see below under number 8, “Manuscript text and images”). Article types considered by the journal include the following: Research Paper, Brief Communication, Commentary, and Review.

2. Title. In addition to the main title of the paper, a running title must be provided. The running title has a maximum length of 50 characters (including spaces).

3. Keywords. At least two keywords must be included.

4. Cover letter. The cover letter should include: (a) the name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, and fax number of the author responsible for correspondence regarding the manuscript, (b) a statement specifying the article type (Research Paper, Brief Communication, etc.), (c) a paragraph highlighting the main points of the work, (d) a statement that the manuscript has been seen and approved by all listed authors, (e) specific requirements for reproduction of art, and (f) the status of any permissions needed.

5. Genes and proteins: Nomenclature, formatting, and accession numbers. Approved nomenclature must be used for all genes and proteins mentioned in the text, figure legends, and tables. Nomenclature rules are species-specific and can be accessed here for rat, mouse, and human. In addition, please note that it is journal style to set all gene symbols, alleles, and loci in italics, while all proteins must be in Roman type.

Any new nucleic acid or protein sequences must be submitted to the appropriate data bank and be publically available upon publication of the manuscript. GenBank serves as the main repository for all new DNA and RNA sequences.

Researchers should also be prepared to make materials needed to duplicate their results available to qualified academic researchers. It is a condition of publication that reagents, clones, cell lines, etc. generated during the course of the work described will be made available on request to qualified members of the research community.

6. Referees. During the online submission process, authors may suggest up to five names of qualified referees and may indicate individuals they feel are in conflict. However, referees are selected at the discretion of the editors.

7. Authors. The first name, last name, and institutional affiliation are required for each author. A valid e-mail address for the corresponding author must also be provided.

8. Manuscript text and images. During the online submission process, authors will have the opportunity to specify the number of electronic files they intend to upload. All text and image files will then be converted into a single PDF (Portable Document File) file to be used in the review process. Authors are cautioned that when they specify the number of files to upload on the “File Upload Metadata” page, they cannot change this number at a later stage.

For ease of submission, we recommend that all authors create a single PDF (Portable Document File) that includes all text and figures, and upload only this one file. If you choose to upload each text and figure file separately, please see below (under number 11, “Figures”) for acceptable image file formats.

Specific formats for the different article types are as follows:

Research Papers describe original results of exceptional importance and of very broad appeal. Sections of the manuscript must be presented in the following order: Title Page, Abstract, Introduction, Results, Discussion, Materials and Methods, Acknowledgements, References, Tables, and Figure Legends. Research Papers will occupy no more than 12 journal pages. A manuscript of 28-32 double-spaced pages with 27 lines of 11-point text per page (a manuscript of 63,000 characters, including spaces) with 4-6 figures and 1-2 tables will translate to 12 printed pages in the journal. The Abstract should be about 200 words long and should summarize the aim of the report, the methodological approach, and the significance of the results.

Brief Communications are high-quality complete yet shorter bodies of work that provide compelling, novel, and important conclusions. Brief Communications may be more restricted in breadth of analysis or cover a more defined area of a particular field, but the work must still be of interest to a broad range of researchers. Manuscripts must be less than 2500 words and contain no section headings. The word limit is exclusive of abstract, literature cited and figure legends. Abstracts should contain less than 100 words. There is a limit of 3 figures.

Commentaries are invited by the editors to highlight an original research article published in the same issue. The format requirements are the same as for Brief Communications.

Review articles, both commissioned and submitted, are published on timely and important topics of broad interest to the community. We ask all review authors to present a fair and balanced view of the topic and not dwell excessively on the work of any one group. All commissioned review articles submitted to Learning & Memory are peer-reviewed; acceptance is at the discretion of the editors. Article length and format are the same as described above for Research Papers.

9. References. In the body of the manuscript, references are cited by name and date; please do not cite by number. If only one author, then cite the last name of the author before the year (e.g., Loftus 1993); if two authors, then cite both authors’ last names and then the year (e.g. Okado and Stark 2005); if more than two authors, then cite the first author, et al., and then the year (e.g., Scoboria et al. 2002). Undated citations (unpublished, in preparation, submitted, or personal communication) should include the first initials and last names of each author.

Unpublished work does not appear in the reference list; only articles that are published or in press should be included. "Et al." should be used ONLY after 10 authors. Bibliographic information should be supplied in the following formats:

Journal articles:
Ouyang, M., Hellman, K., Abel, T., and Thomas, S.A. 2004. Adrenergic signaling plays a role in the maintenance of waking and in the regulation of REM sleep. J. Neurophysiol. 92: 2071-2082.

Book chapters:
Petrulis, A. and Eichenbaum, H. 2003. Olfactory memory. In Handbook of olfaction and gustation, Vol. 2 (ed. R.L. Doty), pp. 409-438. Marcel Dekker, New York.

Books:
Paxinos, G. and Watson, C. 1997. The rat brain in stereotaxic coordinates. Elsevier Academic Press, Amsterdam.

10. Tables. Tabular data should be presented concisely and logically. Tables should be numbered consecutively according to the order cited in the text. Use only horizontal rules and make sure column headings are unambiguous in indicating the columns to which they refer. Each table should have a title, and table legends and footnotes should be included where needed. If tables are reprinted from another source or if data included are from another source, permission to reprint is required. Please note that we are unable to process Excel (.xls) files; all Excel files should be converted to Word documents before submission.

11. Figures. For online submission, each figure number should be clearly indicated on the front of the image. As mentioned above (under number 8, “Manuscript text and images”), we recommend that authors convert all text and image files to a single PDF before submitting online. Authors are advised in advance, however, that manuscripts accepted for publication (see below under “Manuscripts Accepted for Publication”) have very stringent electronic file criteria and that PDF files cannot be processed for production. In addition, authors are forewarned that color art incurs additional publication charges, and authors wishing to publish color art must pay the associated fees. Fees may be waived at the discretion of the editor in cases where the authors cannot cover color art fees but the figures must be presented in color.

For color artwork, if more than one color is used, please choose colors that are far enough apart on the color spectrum in order to preserve maximum color distinction (e.g., black and some blues, as well as red and some oranges, can be difficult to distinguish when artwork is scaled for the journal page). Please also avoid using very light colors, such as pale yellow, since these tend to fade out and reproduce poorly. Use Helvetica typeface in point sizes no smaller than 8 pt and no larger than 10 pt, except for the main callouts (e.g., A, B, C), which should be 12-pt boldface.

If your images are included in your manuscript file, you do not need to upload them separately. However, if you choose to upload figure images as separate files, several file types are acceptable for reviewing purposes, including GIF, TIFF, EPS, and JPEG. Each figure file should be named with the author’s last name and figure number (e.g., Smith_Fig1). Formats that are not supported include the following: any file utilizing OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) technology to display information or embed files, Bitmap (.bmp), PICT (.pict), Excel (.xls), Photoshop (.psd), Canvas (.cnv), CorelDRAW (.cdr) and locked or encrypted PDFs. Multi-page PowerPoint (.ppt) files may not be supported; one slide per file is acceptable.

12. Permissions. It is the author’s responsibility to obtain permission from the publisher to reproduce, modify, or adapt any previously published figure or table for use both in print and online in Learning & Memory. Most scientific journals list instructions for obtaining reprint permissions on their Web sites. All data or information obtained through personal communication also requires a letter of approval. Authors must include permission letters at the time of manuscript submission.

Figure and table legends that incorporate reprinted, modified, or adapted work should contain the relevant information according to the following example:

Reprinted from Paxinos and Watson 1998, with permission from Elsevier © 1998.

The URL of the original work should also be included if the publisher requires it, as stated in the permissions letter. The complete reference for the original work must be included in the Reference list.

PLEASE NOTE: All authors must obtain permission from Elsevier to use any diagrams from the following atlases (including other editions and CD ROM versions):

Paxinos, G. and Watson, C. 1998. The rat brain in stereotaxic coordinates. Academic Press, San Diego, CA.

Franklin, B.J. and Paxinos, G. 1997. The mouse brain in stereotaxic coordinates. Academic Press, San Diego, CA.

13. Supplementary material. At this time, Learning & Memory does not accept or process supplementary material for review or publication.

Manuscripts Returned for Revision after Review

For manuscripts returned for revision after review, authors are allowed three months to address the concerns of the referees and to submit their revised manuscript to the journal. To submit a revised manuscript online, authors should log into the Learning & Memory online manuscript submission and processing system, go into their “Author Area,” click on “Submit a revision,” and proceed by following the online instructions.

After this three-month window has passed, the online system automatically closes the manuscript record; all revised manuscripts after this point must be considered as new submissions. During the online submission of a revised manuscript after the revision period has passed, authors must indicate that the manuscript is a “resubmission” and include the previous manuscript ID number (e.g. LEARNMEM/2005/001234). Authors are advised to contact the journal (lm@cshl.org) should additional time beyond three months be required for the submission of a revised manuscript.

Manuscripts Accepted Subject to Revision

For manuscripts accepted subject to revision, only one revised version will be considered; it should be submitted within two months of provisional acceptance.

Manuscripts Accepted for Publication

Publication time from the date of acceptance is approximately two months. In order to prevent any delay in publication, authors are advised to carefully read the letter that they receive upon acceptance of their manuscript and to follow all instructions detailed therein. The following items are particularly important at this stage:

1. Manuscript text. The editorial office requires a Word document of the each accepted manuscript; we cannot process PDF files at this stage. In addition, any line-by-line changes to the accepted version of the manuscript must be communicated to the editorial office within 48 hours of acceptance.

2. Artwork.

Two high-quality hard copies of each piece of art must be submitted, whether or not digital art is also submitted. All digital art must be created in either Illustrator or Photoshop and saved as an .eps or .tiff file. This applies to all art types listed below.

Note: Make sure that the weight of all rules used in artwork is 1/2-point or heavier. Lighter-weight lines will not be picked up.
Note: If you are working in Illustrator CS3, please back-save to Illustrator CS2 before sending the file. Art files saved in Illustrator CS3 format are currently not yet usable by our compositor.

Line Art
Line art (without halftone dots) should be scanned or produced at a minimum of 800 dpi in bitmap mode.

Halftone or Grayscale Art
Art to be reproduced as halftones should be scanned or produced at 300 dpi in grayscale mode. This is for halftone/grayscale art only (art that doesn't also have line art within it). If within the halftone artwork there also exists line art, please follow the dpi specifications for Combo Art instead. When in doubt with halftone art, always default to the Combo Art specifications to ensure that halftone digital art will be used.

Combo Art
Combo art, which means both halftone art and line art within the same piece of art, must be 800 dpi in grayscale mode.

Color Art
Color art to be reproduced as halftones should be scanned or produced at 300 dpi in CMYK mode. Always save your color scans into the CMYK color space. Never submit color electronic files in the RGB mode. When color files are converted from RGB into CMYK, the color can change significantly and type can be lost. Please convert any RBG files to CMYK files prior to submitting such artwork to make sure the file is correct. Also, make sure not to choose the ICC selection; CMYK MUST be selected in all color art files. (If a digital color art file is submitted with ICC selected, the digital art file will be rejected and will not be used.

Authors are forewarned that charges incur for artwork that is published in color. Authors who are unable to meet these charges should include a letter of explanation upon acceptance for publication; inability to meet these charges will have no effect on acceptance or publication of submitted papers.

3. Author approval. We require signatures from every author on the accepted manuscript to verify that each author has read and approved the manuscript.

4. Proofs. Proofs are considered to be the final form of the paper, and corrections to proofs can be made only in the case of factual errors. If additional information must be added at this stage, it should be in the form of a “Note added in proof,” which is subject to the approval of the editors.

An order form for reprints will be included with the proofs. In addition, to help defray the cost of publication, a charge of $30 per page will be made for publication in Learning & Memory. Authors unable to meet these charges should include a letter of explanation upon acceptance for publication; inability to meet these changes will have no effect on acceptance and publication of submitted papers.