Submissions

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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • The manuscript is original, has not been previously published, and is not currently under consideration by another journal. Any prior dissemination, including preprints, conference abstracts, dissertations, or related publications, has been disclosed to the editors.
  • The manuscript is complete and includes the author names, affiliations, corresponding-author information, acknowledgments, funding information, competing-interest declaration, and other required declarations. The manuscript has not been anonymized, and a separate title page is not required.
  • The manuscript is submitted as a .doc or .docx file using Letter or A4 page size, approximately 1-inch or 2.5-cm margins, an 11- or 12-point professional font, 1.5 or double line spacing, left alignment, page numbers, and clearly defined and consistently numbered sections and subsections. Main sections should follow the sequence 1, 2, 3; subsections should follow 1.1, 1.2; and lower-level subsections should follow 1.1.1, 1.1.2, where applicable. Continuous line numbering is recommended.
  • All figures and tables are included in the complete manuscript, numbered, cited in the text, and accompanied by clear titles, notes, or captions. Separate figure or table files have been uploaded only when needed to preserve image quality, resolution, editability, formatting, or production usability.
  • All references cited in the manuscript appear in the reference list, and all entries in the reference list are cited in the manuscript. DOI links have been included where available.
  • The research complies with applicable ethical standards. Approval or exemption from an appropriate ethics review body, and informed consent where applicable, are reported in the manuscript.
  • All funding sources, institutional support, and competing interests have been fully disclosed in the submission metadata and manuscript.
  • The authors have obtained permission to reproduce any copyrighted material, identifiable participant content, assessment instruments, images, or other third-party material included in the submission.
  • Any data, code, research materials, instruments, or supplementary files necessary to evaluate the submission have been included within the manuscript, uploaded as Supplementary Material or Other, or clearly described in the data-availability statement, including any access restrictions.
  • Any use of generative AI or AI-assisted tools in preparing the submission has been disclosed, where applicable.
  • All listed authors meet JERN’s authorship criteria, have approved the submitted version, and agree to be accountable for the work. For manuscripts with more than one author, an author-contribution statement using CRediT roles, where applicable, has been included and approved by all authors.

Author Guidelines

Before submitting, authors must review the complete JERN Guide for Authors.

The Guide for Authors contains the journal’s complete requirements for manuscript structure, formatting, references, tables, figures, declarations, and supplementary materials.


JOURNAL SCOPE AND MECHANISTIC ORIENTATION

JERN publishes rigorous scholarship on how experience shapes cognitive, behavioural, neural, developmental, and adaptive systems.

Submissions do not need to identify or experimentally test a mechanism directly in every case. However, authors must explain how the evidence, theory, synthesis, method, or resource tests, constrains, refines, challenges, or enables mechanistic accounts of experience-related change. Mechanistic claims must remain proportionate to the study design and evidence.


ARTICLE TYPES

Authors must select one of the following article types:

• Research Articles: typically 8,000–10,000 words; abstract maximum 250 words.

• Review Articles: typically 8,000–10,000 words; abstract maximum 300 words.

• Theory Articles: typically 5,000–9,000 words; abstract maximum 250 words.

• Methods and Resources Articles: typically 4,000–8,000 words; abstract maximum 250 words.

These word ranges are flexible recommendations rather than strict limits. Word counts exclude the abstract, references, tables, figures, appendices, and supplementary materials.


SUBMISSION FILES

Authors must submit one complete manuscript as an editable Microsoft Word file in .doc or .docx format.

The complete manuscript must include, as applicable:

• article title;

• author names and affiliations;

• corresponding-author information;

• ORCID iDs, where available;

• abstract and keywords;

• main manuscript text;

• acknowledgments;

• required declarations;

• references;

• tables; and

• figures.

Tables and figures should be included within the complete manuscript so that editors and reviewers can read them in context.

Authors may also upload tables and figures as separate files when this is needed to preserve resolution, image quality, formatting, editability, or production usability.

Do not use JERN’s final two-column publication template for the initial submission. Accepted manuscripts will be formatted in the journal’s publication layout during production.

The online submission system provides the following file categories:

• Cover Letter — for information intended for the editor;

• Manuscript — the complete primary submission file;

• Figures — for additional separate figure files, where needed;

• Tables — for additional separate table files, where needed;

• Supplementary Material — for files that supplement the manuscript;

• Other — for supporting files that do not fit another category.

Authors should upload only the supporting files relevant to their submission. Separate supporting files supplement the complete manuscript; they do not replace information that editors and reviewers need in order to evaluate the submission.


SINGLE-BLIND PEER REVIEW

JERN uses a single-blind peer-review process.

Reviewers remain anonymous to authors, while reviewers may see the authors’ names and affiliations.

Authors should not anonymize the manuscript.

Author names, affiliations, acknowledgments, funding information, competing-interest information, and other required declarations should remain in the submitted manuscript.

A separate title page is not required.


ABSTRACT AND KEYWORDS

Authors must provide an abstract that complies with the limit for the selected article type:

• Research Articles: maximum 250 words;

• Review Articles: maximum 300 words;

• Theory Articles: maximum 250 words;

• Methods and Resources Articles: maximum 250 words.

Provide 4–6 keywords.


MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

Authors must follow the complete manuscript-formatting and organization requirements provided in the JERN Guide for Authors.

For initial submission, the manuscript must:

• be submitted as a Microsoft Word file in .doc or .docx format;

• use Letter or A4 page size;

• use margins of approximately 1 inch or 2.5 cm;

• use an 11- or 12-point professional font, such as Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman;

• use 1.5 or double line spacing;

• be left aligned;

• include page numbers;

• preferably include continuous line numbering; and

• use clearly defined and consistently numbered sections and subsections.

Main sections should be numbered 1, 2, 3, and so forth.

Subsections should be numbered 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and so forth.

Lower-level subsections should be numbered 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, and so forth, where applicable.

The abstract should appear under the heading “Abstract” and should not be assigned a section number. The numbered sequence should begin with the first section of the main text, normally the Introduction.

Authors should use Microsoft Word’s built-in heading styles where possible and apply each heading level consistently.

When referring to another section within the manuscript, authors should use the relevant section number rather than wording such as “the section above” or “the text below.”

Acknowledgments, funding information, conflict-of-interest statements, data-availability statements, author-contribution statements, references, appendices, and supplementary-material descriptions should not normally be included in the main section-numbering sequence.

Authors should not add JERN branding, article numbers, DOI information, copyright notices, publication headers, or decorative footers. These elements will be added during production after acceptance.

A short running title may be included in the header but is not required. Additional footer text is not required.

JERN uses the current edition of APA style.

Every in-text citation must have a corresponding reference-list entry, and every reference-list entry must be cited in the manuscript.

DOI links should be included where available.

All tables and figures must be included in the complete manuscript, numbered, cited in the text, and accompanied by appropriate titles, notes, or captions.

Separate figure or table files may also be uploaded when needed to preserve quality, resolution, editability, formatting, or production usability.


REQUIRED DECLARATIONS

Authors must include all declarations relevant to their submission.

A funding statement and competing-interest statement must be included in every manuscript.

When these do not apply, authors should state this explicitly, for example:

“No external funding was received.”

“No competing interests were declared.”

Other declarations should be included where applicable:

• ethics approval or exemption;

• informed-consent information;

• data-availability statement;

• author-contribution statement;

• preregistration information; and

• access information for supplementary files or other supporting materials.


ORIGINALITY AND AUTHORSHIP

Submissions must be original and must not be under consideration by another journal.

Authors must disclose related preprints, conference abstracts, dissertations, reports, registered protocols, overlapping manuscripts, or other prior public dissemination.

All listed authors must meet JERN’s authorship criteria, approve the submitted version, and appear in the same order in both the manuscript and the online submission metadata.


AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

For manuscripts with more than one author, JERN requires an author-contribution statement.

Contributions should be described using the CRediT Contributor Roles Taxonomy where applicable.

Relevant roles may include:

• Conceptualization;

• Methodology;

• Investigation;

• Formal analysis;

• Data curation;

• Software;

• Visualization;

• Supervision;

• Funding acquisition;

• Project administration;

• Writing – original draft; and

• Writing – review and editing.

Each author may be assigned more than one role, and the same role may be assigned to more than one author.

All authors must approve the final contribution statement.

Example:

A.B.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft. C.D.: Investigation, Data curation, Visualization, Writing – review and editing. E.F.: Supervision, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Writing – review and editing.


GENERATIVE AI DISCLOSURE

Authors must disclose the use of generative AI or AI-assisted tools in writing, analysis, coding, translation, or the preparation of figures and other submission materials.

AI tools cannot be listed as authors.

Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, confidentiality, and appropriate attribution of all submitted content.


FINAL SUBMISSION CHECK

Before completing the submission, authors should confirm that the manuscript and all supporting files comply with the JERN Guide for Authors and the JERN Submission Preparation Checklist.

Research Articles

Research Articles report original empirical work examining how experience shapes cognitive, behavioural, or neural systems. JERN welcomes experimental, longitudinal, developmental, observational, intervention, replication, and other rigorous research designs across the lifespan and across domains of experience.

Submissions should clearly identify the experience-related phenomenon under investigation, explain the theoretical or mechanistic question motivating the study, and show how the findings test, constrain, refine, challenge, or enable mechanistic accounts of experience-related change. Mechanistic claims must remain proportionate to the study design and evidence.

Research Articles should report methods and analyses with sufficient transparency to support rigorous evaluation and, where possible, replication. Authors should distinguish confirmatory, exploratory, and post hoc analyses; report null and unexpected findings; and provide appropriate information about ethics, funding, competing interests, data, materials, code, and preregistration where applicable.

Research Articles are typically around 8,000–10,000 words, excluding the abstract, references, tables, figures, appendices, and supplementary materials. This is flexible guidance rather than a strict limit. Shorter or longer manuscripts may be considered when justified by the study design, methodological complexity, interdisciplinary scope, or scholarly contribution.

Review Articles

Review Articles synthesize and critically evaluate research relevant to experience-related neuroplasticity. This category includes systematic reviews, scoping reviews, meta-analyses, and focused integrative reviews.

Submissions should extend beyond summarizing the literature by identifying explanatory mechanisms, evaluating competing accounts, clarifying boundary conditions, integrating evidence across disciplines or levels of analysis, and developing productive directions for future research.

Authors should clearly define the review question and scope, explain how evidence was identified and selected, and describe the methods used to evaluate and synthesize the literature. Systematic reviews, scoping reviews, and meta-analyses should follow appropriate reporting standards and provide sufficient methodological detail to support transparency and reproducibility.

Review Articles are typically around 8,000–10,000 words, excluding the abstract, references, tables, figures, appendices, and supplementary materials. This is flexible guidance rather than a strict limit. Shorter or longer manuscripts may be considered when justified by the breadth, methodological approach, interdisciplinary scope, or scholarly contribution of the review.

Theory Articles

Theory Articles introduce a new theoretical framework or substantially develop, revise, integrate, or challenge an existing account of experience-related change. New empirical data are not required, but the article must make a clear and original explanatory contribution.

Submissions should identify the central explanatory problem, define key concepts and assumptions, and specify the proposed mechanism or mechanisms with sufficient precision. Authors should explain the level or levels of analysis addressed, the explanatory scope of the account, and the conditions under which it is expected—or not expected—to apply.

Theory Articles should engage critically and fairly with relevant evidence and competing explanations. Authors must distinguish established findings from theoretical interpretation, acknowledge evidence that is inconsistent with the proposed account, and explain how the new framework differs from, integrates, or improves upon existing theories.

Strong submissions should generate clear, testable predictions and identify observations or findings that would support, constrain, challenge, or require revision of the proposed account. Mechanistic claims must remain proportionate to the available evidence and should not be presented as established causal processes when they remain theoretical proposals.

Authors are encouraged to include a conceptual figure, model, or table that summarizes the proposed mechanisms, relationships among constructs, temporal sequence, boundary conditions, or principal predictions. Formal or computational models are welcome but are not required.

Theory Articles are typically around 5,000–9,000 words, excluding the abstract, references, tables, figures, appendices, and supplementary materials. This is flexible guidance rather than a strict limit. Shorter or longer manuscripts may be considered when justified by the conceptual scope, interdisciplinary integration, formal complexity, or scholarly contribution.

Methods and Resources Articles

Methods and Resources Articles present new or substantially improved methods, measures, experimental paradigms, analytic approaches, datasets, software, protocols, or other research resources relevant to experience-related neuroplasticity.

Submissions should identify the scientific or methodological problem addressed and explain how the contribution improves the measurement, analysis, interpretation, reproducibility, or mechanistic investigation of experience-related change. The relevance to JERN’s scope must be explicit; the presentation of a method, dataset, or tool alone is not sufficient.

Authors should describe the development and implementation of the method or resource in enough detail to support evaluation, replication, and reuse. Appropriate validation, benchmarking, reliability assessment, or comparison with existing alternatives should be provided. Claims regarding accuracy, performance, validity, or utility must remain proportionate to the evidence presented.

Manuscripts should clearly define the intended applications, users, assumptions, requirements, and limitations of the contribution. Where relevant, authors should include an illustrative application or use case showing how the method or resource can support research on experience-related neuroplasticity.

Software, datasets, protocols, instruments, and other reusable resources should be deposited in an appropriate stable repository whenever ethically and legally possible. Authors should provide persistent links, version information, documentation, licensing or reuse terms, metadata, access instructions, and any code or materials necessary to reproduce the validation or demonstration. Restrictions on access must be clearly explained.

Dataset-focused submissions should describe how the data were generated or collected, what the deposited records contain, how data quality was assessed, and how the resource may appropriately be reused. Methods and Resources Articles should not merely announce a resource; they must provide adequate documentation, validation, and evidence of practical scholarly value.

Methods and Resources Articles are typically around 4,000–8,000 words, excluding the abstract, references, tables, figures, appendices, documentation, and supplementary materials. This is flexible guidance rather than a strict limit. Shorter or longer manuscripts may be considered when justified by the technical complexity, validation requirements, scale of the resource, or scholarly contribution.

Copyright Notice

Authors retain copyright in their submitted and published work.

By submitting to the Journal of Experience-Related Neuroplasticity (JERN), authors grant ERN Press the right of first publication and permission to publish, distribute, archive, and identify the work as originally published in JERN.

Accepted articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This license permits others to share and adapt the work for any purpose, provided that appropriate credit is given, a link to the license is provided, and any changes are indicated.

Authors confirm that they have the authority to grant these rights and that the submission does not infringe the copyright or other rights of any third party.

Privacy Statement

The names, email addresses, affiliations, and other personal information entered on this journal site will be used only for the stated purposes of the Journal of Experience-Related Neuroplasticity, including account administration, manuscript submission, peer review, editorial communication, publication, and journal notifications. Personal information will be shared only as necessary to operate the journal, meet legal or ethical obligations, or with the user’s consent. It will not be sold or used for unrelated commercial purposes.