Journal of Neurosurgery

The Journal of Neurosurgery is an international, peer-reviewed neurosurgical journal, published by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (formerly the Harvey Cushing Society). It is the flagship of four journals produced monthly by the Journal of Neurosurgery Publishing Group.

JNS Publishing Group
The Journal of Neurosurgery Publishing Group is based in Charlottesville, Virginia, and publishes four, monthly, peer-reviewed neurosurgical journals, for a total of 48 issues per year. These four journals are:

Journal of Neurosurgery

Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine

Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics

Neurosurgical Focus (online only)

After acceptance, all articles are subjected to a rigorous substantive editing and copyediting process. Editorial tasks and article layout are performed in-house.

History
1944: The first issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery is published in January under the direction of its first editor, neuropathologist Louise Eisenhardt, MD. The journal is originally distributed 6 times per year.

1962: The Journal of Neurosurgery begins publishing monthly.

1996: First issue of Neurosurgical Focus appears online.

1999: J Neurosurg: Spine is first published as a quarterly supplement.

2004: J Neurosurg: Pediatrics is first published as a quarterly supplement.

2005: J Neurosurg: Spine and J Neurosurg: Pediatrics are converted to monthly journals.

Editors-in-Chief
John A. Jane, Sr., MD, PhD, FRCSC (1992–present)

Thoralf Sundt, Jr., MD (1989–1992)

William Collins Jr., MD (1985–1989)

Henry Schwartz, MD (1975–1985)

Henry Heyl, MD (1965–1975)

Louise Eisenhardt, MD (1944–1965)

Peer Review
Manuscripts submitted to all four journals go through a unique peer review process before they are accepted for publication. Instead of papers being sent out to all reviewers simultaneously (as is typical), the review process progresses sequentially so that in addition to examining the paper, each reviewer can read the comments of the previous reviewer. The reviewers are not blinded to the identities of the authors or to that of the other reviewers. In general, all reviewers are members of the editorial board of the particular journal to which the paper was submitted, although occasionally an outside specialist is asked to review a particular article. In 2006, the acceptance rate was approximately 30% for the three print journals (2959 papers were submitted and 894 were accepted). Neurosurgical Focus tends to have a higher rate of acceptance: in 2006, 181 papers were submitted and 160 were accepted.

Open Access Policy

 * All articles published in the last 1–10 years are available online, free of charge. Articles published within the past 12 months, or more than 10 years ago are available with a paid subscription or for a per article fee. All content going back to 1944 is now available online. The JNS is a participant in the World Health Organization HINARI initiative, making all content available free of charge to persons in the least developed countries.


 * Neurosurgical Focus is a free, entirely open access, online-only publication.

Electronic Access

 * The Neurosurgical Focus podcast feature was launched in March of 2007. Since then, podcasts consisting of in-depth interviews with an author of an article in each month's issue have been released. These interviews have featured discussions of neurosurgical theory and practice and complication avoidance with experts in the field. Past topics have included stem cell research, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, and vascular neurosurgery.


 * As of early 2009, articles in the Journal of Neurosurgery are published online ahead of print. After acceptance to the Journal of Neurosurgery (not to JNS: Pediatrics and JNS: Spine), authors are guaranteed online publication of their article in its final edited, copyedited, and formatted form within 30 days. The articles published online are considered to be in their final form, issued a DOI number (digital object identifier), and are not changed in any way before they appear in the print edition.


 * As of summer 2009 all content for the Journal of Neurosurgery, dating back to 1944, is available for download.

Related Journals
''Acta Neurochirurgica  Acta Neuropathologica  Advances and Technical Standards in Neurosurgery  American Journal of Neuroradiology  Annals of Neurology  Archives of Neurology  British Journal of Neurosurgery  Clinical Neurosurgery  Critical Reviews in Neurosurgery  European Spine Journal  Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry  Journal of Neurooncology  Journal of Neurotrauma  Neurochirurgica  Neurosurgery  Pediatric Neurosurgery  Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery  Surgical Neurology  Spine (journal)  The Spine Journal ''