Aims and scope

The Journal of Computational Neuroscience provides a forum for papers that fit the interface between computational and experimental work in the neurosciences. The Journal of Computational Neuroscience publishes full length original papers, rapid communications and review articles describing theoretical and experimental work relevant to computations in the brain and nervous system. Papers that combine theoretical and experimental work are especially encouraged. Primarily theoretical papers should deal with issues of obvious relevance to biological nervous systems. Experimental papers should have implications for the computational function of the nervous system, and may report results using any of a variety of approaches including anatomy, electrophysiology, biophysics, imaging, and molecular biology. Papers investigating the physiological mechanisms underlying pathologies of the nervous system, or papers that report novel technologies of interest to researchers in computational neuroscience, including advances in neural data analysis methods yielding insights into the function of the nervous system, are also welcomed (in this case, methodological papers should include an application of the new method, exemplifying the insights that it yields).It is anticipated that all levels of analysis from cognitive to cellular will be represented in the Journal of Computational Neuroscience.

Prospective authors are strongly encouraged to consult recent issues of  the Journal to be sure that their submissions are in scope.   The  Journal focuses on understanding brain function at the level of neurons and circuits via computational and model-based approaches that are tied to biology and are experimentally testable.  Examples of work that is not within the Journal's scope include (i) presentations of signal-processing algorithms that are purely methodological or for biomedical applications such as brain-computer interfaces or seizure detection, and (ii) computational analysis of genomic data without a clear tie-in to neural mechanisms of brain function.

Before submitting your manuscript to this journal, please consider these two important points:

    Does this paper contain a model, which may be computational, theoretical or mathematical?  Please note that computational and/or statistical analysis, without a model, is not appropriate for this journal.

    Does this paper investigate some aspect of brain function, which may be cellular, circuit, large-scale or cognitive?  Please note that papers that use machine learning or related methods to analyze neural data, but do not address function, are not appropriate for this journal.

Prospective authors who are unsure of whether their manuscript is in the scope of the Journal are encouraged to contact one of the Editors in Chief prior to submission.