Publication Guide
The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) is the world's largest professional society for brain science, founded in 1969 and best known for its annual meeting - and for publishing two of the field's core journals. The Journal of Neuroscience (JNeurosci), launched in 1981 as one of the first journals devoted specifically to neuroscience, remains the society's selective flagship. eNeuro, launched in 2014, is SfN's fully open-access journal, notable for double-blind consultative review and for welcoming article types many journals decline: replication studies, negative results, and open-source tools and methods papers.
As a non-profit society publisher, SfN's editorial boards are composed of active neuroscientists, and publication fees fund the society's scientific mission rather than shareholder returns. This guide covers how to choose between the two journals, what each costs, how peer review works, and how to submit.
Which SfN journal fits your paper?
| You're most likely to... | Choose this route |
|---|---|
| Have a significant advance you want in the field's flagship venue | JNeurosci - selective, transdisciplinary, weekly. Publication fee 2,595 (nonmembers); optional Open Choice surcharge of $3,840 for immediate CC-BY open access. |
| Need or want gold open access from day one | eNeuro - fully OA under CC BY 4.0 from publication. APC 3,915 (nonmembers) for research articles accepted from January 2026. |
| Have a replication study, negative result, or registered report | eNeuro - explicitly welcomes these article types across all areas of neuroscience. |
| Have an open-source tool or method to share | eNeuro - Open Source Tools and Methods papers carry a reduced fee of $1,305. |
| Want a mandate-compliant route without paying an OA fee | JNeurosci standard route - the version of record becomes publicly accessible 6 months after publication, and posting to bioRxiv before submission is fine. |
What SfN actually publishes
2 peer-reviewed journals, both covering the full breadth of neuroscience:
- The Journal of Neuroscience (JNeurosci) - the flagship, publishing weekly since 2003 (monthly at launch in 1981). Research Articles across molecular, cellular, developmental, systems, behavioral, cognitive, computational, translational, and clinical neuroscience, plus Journal Club pieces written by graduate students and postdocs, and invited feature articles (Reviews, TechSights, Dual Perspectives, Viewpoints). Editor-in-chief: Sabine Kastner (Princeton), since 2024.
- eNeuro - the society's gold open-access journal, edited by Christophe Bernard (Inserm). Publishes research articles, reviews, commentaries, registered reports, replication studies, negative results, and Open Source Tools and Methods papers. All content is CC BY 4.0 from the moment of publication.
SfN is not a book or conference-proceedings publisher; its portfolio is deliberately small and neuroscience-only.
Open access and publication fees
SfN operates a mixed model. Fees below are the 2026 rates posted on each journal's site (USD); SfN membership meaningfully reduces them, and rates are revised periodically, so check the journal fee pages before submission.
| Route | Fee (members) | Fee (nonmembers) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| JNeurosci publication fee | $1,945 | $2,595 | Standard route; version of record free to read 6 months after publication |
| JNeurosci Open Choice | +$3,840 surcharge | +$3,840 surcharge | Immediate open access under CC-BY; selected at submission |
| eNeuro research articles | $3,260 | $3,915 | Gold OA, CC BY 4.0; rates for articles accepted from Jan 1, 2026 |
| eNeuro Open Source Tools and Methods | $1,305 | $1,305 | Reduced flat fee |
| eNeuro Commentaries and Opinions | $1,305 | $1,945 | Reduced fee |
Other points worth knowing: authors retain copyright at JNeurosci and grant SfN an exclusive publishing license; posting preprints to bioRxiv (or an institutional site) is explicitly permitted and bioRxiv direct transfer is supported; and JNeurosci articles can comply with the NIH Public Access Policy without paying the Open Choice fee. SfN does not publish a blanket low-and-middle-income-country waiver policy - contact the editorial office about fee assistance.
Peer review
- JNeurosci: consultative peer review run by an editorial board of active scientists; the journal's stated goal is transparent, rapid, and fair review. Reviewer identities are confidential.
- eNeuro: double-blind review - the identities of both authors and reviewers are concealed - typically with two independent reviewers, after which the Reviewing Editor synthesizes the feedback into a single consensus-style decision letter.
- Review transfer: manuscripts declined at JNeurosci can be transferred, with reviews, for consideration at eNeuro.
Neither journal publishes an official average time to first decision; both emphasize efficient handling.
How to submit
- Pick the journal. Use the decision table above - selectivity and immediate OA are the main forks.
- Read the Information for Authors. Each journal posts detailed, regularly updated author instructions (word limits: 250-word abstract, 650-word introduction, 1,500-word discussion at JNeurosci).
- Prepare your manuscript. Use the SfN journal template on SciSpace; references follow the journals' author-year style, alphabetized by first author.
- Submit online. Both journals use eJournalPress-based submission portals; bioRxiv direct transfer is available.
- Choose your access route. JNeurosci authors select (or decline) Open Choice at submission; eNeuro is OA by default.
Ethics and integrity
SfN maintains its own Policy on Ethics and Guidelines for Responsible Conduct Regarding Scientific Communication, and JNeurosci follows Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) procedures when misconduct is suspected. The journals enforce strict image-manipulation screening at revision and after acceptance, require an Experimental Design and Statistical Analysis subsection in every research manuscript, and mandate deposition of sequence, genomic, and proteomic data in public repositories. Use of AI tools or language-editing services must be disclosed in the Acknowledgments.
