Practical Neurology

Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry

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> Aims and scope
> Editorial policy
> Peer review
> Contact details
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Aims and scope
The primary research literature potentially relevant to routine clinical practice is far too much for any neurologist to read, let alone understand, critically appraise and assimilate. As the former editor of the BMJ, Richard Smith, wrote: "Most readers of medical journals don't read the original articles. They may scan the abstract, but it's the rarest of beasts who reads an article from beginning to end, critically appraising it as he or she goes. Indeed, most doctors are incapable of critically appraising an article. They have never been trained to do so" (BMJ 2004;328, doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7454.0-h). Therefore, if research is to influence clinical practice appropriately and quickly it has to be digested and provided to neurologists in an informative and convenient way. At the very least neurologists need authoritative, systematic, reliable, unbiased by personal prejudice or commercial demands, easy to read, up to date reviews of the literature concerned with the aetiology, pathophysiology, presentation, prognosis, investigation and treatment of the large number of neurological disorders they have to deal with. This is a requirement not just for general neurologists and trainees in neurology, but even for subspecialists in neurology who often do general neurology clinics. Therefore, the essential point of Practical Neurology is that it is practical in the sense of being useful for everyone who sees neurological patients and who wants to keep up to date, and safe, in managing them. Indeed, an earlier title to express this concept was 'The Journal of Jobbing Neurology' (J Job Neurol!). In other words this is a journal for jobbing neurologists - which most are for at least part of their time - who plough through the tension headaches and funny turns week in and week out. Some important general points Comprehensive coverage Practical Neurology covers the whole of what adult neurologists normally see, although we concentrate on the common things and on where research results should change clinical practice. We have limited coverage of paediatric neurology at the moment. Scientific rigour The journal is scientifically extremely rigorous with strong editorial control and peer review of the main articles, and with consistency of style throughout. Ethically it must be beyond reproach with absolutely no conflict of interest problems. International appeal The main target readers are general and subspecialist neurologists and their trainees in the UK, Europe, Australasia and the rest of the commonwealth (Malaysia, Singapore, India, Canada, Sri Lanka, etc), along with Russia and China. The journal is therefore mostly written by people from these countries. The journal and about one quarter of the editorial board are based in the UK. Visual style The articles are of different lengths, there are plenty of illustrations and tables (about one-quarter of the space), bullet points, practice point boxes, full colour, and each page should look enticing and different from the others. Size There are about 60 pages per issue, with about 800 words per page if there are no illustrations or figures. If there are, then the number of words per page are reduced and averages at about 350. A sense of fun We strongly believe that both learning and teaching should be fun because even if this doesn't enhance the learning process (which in fact it probably does), at least it passes the time congenially. A light touch here and there, a bit of irony and sarcasm, a cartoon to deflate a bit of pompous dogma, and even satire, will not detract from the very serious intent of the journal - to inform routine clinical practice. A very appropriate text for what we are about comes from an editorial by Abi Berger and Richard Smith (BMJ 13 November 1999) "The future of medical journals is still more uncertain. Medical journals that comprise mostly research articles (most of them) are almost certain to disappear. Instead research studies will be published on a huge electronic database. The primary job of the surviving journals will not be to publish research studies but rather to visit the data base, scavenge the studies that are important for clinicians (a small minority), and present them in as sexy and appealing form as they can manage". So our job in Practical Neurology is to be sexy and appealing.
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Editorial policy we are deadly serious in our intent to inform and educate and so enhance neurological practice worldwide we believe that the common and the treatable are the most important issues in neurology we are evidence-based we are systematic in our approach to the evidence we are balanced, professional and independent from any sponsoring organisations we believe that neurology is very much a part of medicine, both in hospital and in the community, it is not elitist or separate as expressed in the title of the journal, we take a pragmatic and practical approach which is not technology driven we are allowed to have some fun Finally, we are totally comfortable with uncertainty and saying "We don't know" and its immediate consequence "We had better find out". Our overarching aim is to improve the care of patients with neurological conditions worldwide by doing our best within the context of the local healthcare systems in which we work.
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Peer review We referee review articles and a few others where necessary, mostly in house or among the editorial board, unless we need to get additional expert advice. This is not anonymous, indeed we acknowledge the referees at the end of the articles. Our aim is not to reject your article but to improve on what you have written, to ask you questions if we don't understand something, to make sure the length is right, and to keep our house style consistent. Occasionally it may be necessary to ask a scientific writer to rewrite a manuscript to improve readability. We understand how difficult it can be to write well if English is not your first language (and even if it is in some cases!).
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Contact details Editorial office Professor Charles Warlow University of Edinburgh Department of Clinical Neurosciences Western General Hospital Crewe Road Edinburgh EG4 2XU United Kingdom email: cpw{at}skull.dcn.ed.ac.uk
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