About Cerebrospinal Fluid Research

What is Cerebrospinal Fluid Research?

Cerebrospinal Fluid Research is an open access, peer-reviewed, online journal that considers manuscripts on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and all brain barrier and fluid systems in health and disease.

Maintenance of the internal environment of the brain through the CSF and brain barriers is vital for health of the organism. The CSF, its composition, circulation and absorption, has multiple roles in both normal and abnormal brain function. The brain barrier systems as a whole are important for chemical signalling, physical and chemical buffering, neurodevelopment and neurodevelopmental disorders such as hydrocephalus and neural tube defects, brain inflammation, brain injury and repair, normal pressure hydrocephalus and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis. The CSF can be used for the diagnosis of neurological diseases, and together with the blood-brain barrier, as a route for drug delivery to the brain. Cerebrospinal Fluid Research aims to provide a dedicated avenue for the dissemination of research into all molecular and physiological aspects of the brain barrier systems and related disorders.

The CSF and brain barriers in general, are subject areas that do not have a specialist platform. Until recently, articles have been published in a variety of different journals. This journal provides the platform, offering quality peer-review of manuscripts on secretory physiology, barrier exchange, transporter biology, peptides and marker molecules as they relate to brain homeostasis, CSF, neurological diseases and cerebral malformations. It brings together basic science and clinical experts in various aspects of the brain barrier systems and promotes synthesis and dialogue.

Content overview

Cerebrospinal Fluid Research considers the following types of articles:

• Research - reports of data from original research.
• Book reviews - short summaries about the strengths and weaknesses of a book. They should evaluate its overall usefulness to the intended audience.
• Commentaries - short, focussed and opinionated articles on any subject within the scope of the journal. These articles are usually related to a contemporary issue of a recent research finding.
• Reviews - comprehensive, authoritative descriptions of any subject within the scope of the journal. These articles are usually written by opinion leaders that have been invited by the Editorial Board.
• Short papers - brief reports of data from original research.

The journal also publishes, as supplements, the proceedings of scientific meetings in relevant subject areas.

Peer review policies

• All peer review for Cerebrospinal Fluid Research is closed, meaning that referees' confidentiality is maintained and referees reports are not made publicly available.
• A minimum of two reviews will be obtained for each submission.
• Reviewers may be members of the Editorial Board or external experts in the field.
• Reviewers are asked to declare any competing interests they may have in reviewing a manuscript.
• The journal aims for a first decision to be made within 8 weeks of receipt of the submission.
• The Editor-in-Chief will make the final decision on publication.
• If an author is unhappy with, or formally appeals, an editorial decision, then the procedures outlined in the COPE Code of Conduct for Editors will be followed.

Edited by Hazel C Jones, Cerebrospinal Fluid Research is supported by an expert Editorial Board.

Publishing in Cerebrospinal Fluid Research

All articles are listed in PubMed immediately upon acceptance (after peer review), and are covered by PubMed Central, CAS and Scopus.

Articles in Cerebrospinal Fluid Research should be cited in the same way as articles in a traditional journal. However, because articles in this journal are not printed, they do not have page numbers. Instead, they have a unique article number.

The following citation:

Cerebrospinal Fluid Res 2004, 2:1

refers to article 1 from volume 2 of the journal.

As an online journal, Cerebrospinal Fluid Research does not have issue numbers. Each volume corresponds to a calendar year.

To keep up to date with the latest articles from Cerebrospinal Fluid Research, why not register to receive alerts? Registration also enables you to customise your subject areas of interest, store your searches, and submit your manuscripts.

Submission of manuscripts

Manuscripts should be submitted electronically to Cerebrospinal Fluid Research using the online submission system. Full details of how to submit a manuscript are given in the instructions for authors.

General journal policies

Cerebrospinal Fluid Research is published by BioMed Central, part of Springer Science+Business Media. BioMed Central is committed to ensuring peer-reviewed biomedical research is open access. That means it is freely and universally accessible online, it is archived in at least one internationally recognised free access repository, and its authors retain copyright, allowing anyone to reproduce or disseminate articles, according to the BioMed Central copyright and licence agreement. Cerebrospinal Fluid Research however, has taken this further by making all its content open access.

Cerebrospinal Fluid Research's articles are archived in PubMed Central, the US National Library of Medicine's full-text repository of life science literature, and also at INIST in France and in e-Depot, the National Library of the Netherlands' digital archive of all electronic publications. The journal is also participating in the British Library's e-journals pilot project, and plans to deposit copies of all articles with the British Library.

BioMed Central is working closely with Thomson Reuters (ISI) to ensure that citation analysis of articles published in Cerebrospinal Fluid Research will be available.

Cerebrospinal Fluid Research is able to deliver summaries of frequently updated content via Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds. These are accessible via the orange "XML" button at the top of the list of recent articles or the list of most accessed articles. For more information about RSS feeds see our publisher's website.

For further information about general policies please see the instructions for authors.