Annual Development Report 2024

Introduction

Exploration of Neuroscience (EN) is an open-access, peer-reviewed online journal dedicated to publishing high-quality research in the field of neuroscience. Since its inception, EN has prioritized novel insights into the nervous system, including its function, disease mechanisms, molecular biomarkers, therapeutic targets, and treatments. In 2024, EN experienced significant growth in submissions, publications, citations, and international visibility, while demonstrating promising momentum toward database indexing applications. In 2025, we still keep the “Zero Fee” policy to attract more authors to contribute to us.

Key Achievements in 2024

Submissions & Publications

Growth Trends

Submissions: 96 submissions in 2024 (+18.5% vs. 2023).

Publications: 36 articles published in 2024 (+50% vs. 2023).

The main article types of submissions and publications are Original Article (OA) and Review. Notably, OA submissions have risen from 17% in 2022 to 43% in 2024, with OA publications increasing from 0% to 28%. This growth underscores the journal's commitment to high-quality, innovative research and its increasing recognition among researchers. We strive to recommend more valuable academic articles for our readers.

Global Reach

Publications in 2024 originated from 19 countries (Figure 1). A landmark submission, Melatonin Regulation of Phase Separation in Neuro-PASC: Out-Maneuvering Janus-Faced Amyloids, from Prof. Russel J. Reiter (H-index 183), a pioneer in neuroscience and antioxidant research, underscores EN’s rising credibility and international influence. His work is slated for publication in March 2025. Let’s look forward to its publishing.

Figure 1. Country Distribution of Corresponding Authors of EN Publications 2024

Manuscript Processing

Rejection Rate

In 2024, a total of 33 manuscripts were received and 52 manuscripts were rejected, with a rejection rate of 61%, compared with 62.5% in 2023, which decreased slightly.

Speed

According to statistics, the average time for a Preliminary Check is only 4.6 days. Of the 55 rejected manuscripts, 41 are rejected during the Preliminary Check stage.

The average total time for accepting manuscripts is 62.9 days, which includes some manuscripts undergoing two rounds of peer review and two rounds of revisions. While pursuing high efficiency, we also ensure the high quality of manuscripts and maximize the value of peer review.

For manuscript production, according to the latest journal policy, manuscripts received in the current month should be published in the same month, that is, all accepted manuscripts can be published online within one month at the latest. This will greatly improve the speed of manuscript production, and better meet the requirements of authors to publish as soon as possible.

Reviewer: In 2024, 101 reviewers from 28 countries participated in the review work, with an average H-index of 22. The average number of review reports per manuscript is 2.4 to make the review suggestions more comprehensive and objective. With the reviewer pool expanding, the future peer-review time will also be shortened further.  

Feedback of Publications

Views & Downloads

Up to December 31, 2024, the total views of publications exceeded 117,400 times and downloads reached 3276 times. Among them, the view of Current therapeutics for Alzheimer's disease and clinical trials published at the end of June, increased to 3,916 times and its downloads increased to 123 times at the end of December 2024, being the article with the most downloads times in the journal.

Citations

Up to December 31, 2024, the total number of citations is 70, an increase of 58 compared with 2023, with an average of 1.03 citations.

From the above data, it is not difficult to see that the influence of EN journals is constantly improving. It is gaining more readers. The content of published articles has gradually entered the vision of more readers and authors, and been acknowledged by them, thus bringing about a surge in citations.

Editorial Board

In 2024, EN successfully renewed 37 editorial board members. Currently, there are 51 experts (16 Associate Editors and 35 Editorial Board Members) from 19 countries joined us (Figure 2), with an average H-index of 47. The members’ research interests cover multiple fields such as vascular neurology, neuroimmunology, neurodegenerative diseases, neurogenetics, sleep, and epilepsy.

Figure 2. Country Distribution of EN Editorial Board

In 2025, we plan to expand the editorial board to 55-60 members, particularly inviting more authoritative experts in Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease, Depression, and Psychosis to further enhance the journal's international influence and academic authority. The diverse backgrounds of the editorial board members will promote interdisciplinary research and increase the journal's diversity.

Special Issue

EN launched 5 new special issues in 2024, led by international Guest Editors:

Table 1. Details of the 5 Newly Launched Special Issues

Highlight

S19 can be regarded as Issue 2 of Epilepsy. The latter was completed with 11 publications, and the guest editor, Prof. Zhang wrote an editorial as the end and led the S19 to further discuss such a topic.

Prof. Russel J. Reiter’s article is expected to be published in S15 in March 2025, and in addition, Prof. Dirk. M. Hermann, the Editor-in-Chief of EN, and Prof. Ertugrul Kilic, the Associate Editor of EN, have co-authored an editorial to review Prof. Reiter's works in Nature and Science to celebrate the 60th anniversary of these publications. We welcome all of you to read these articles after their publishing.

Database Indexing

Current Indexing: DOAJ, Google Scholar, Dimensions, J-Gate

2025 Application Plan: Scopus

This year, we will apply for inclusion in the Scopus database which requires a new journal to have two years of publishing history before application. We have four sister journals already indexed in Scopus. Based on their experience, we plan to apply for Scopus in April or May 2025. We are confident in our application, as the four sister journals were accepted on their first attempt. As the fifth journal from the same publisher, EN's application for Scopus indexing is expected to proceed smoothly.

2025 Strategic Vision

Based on the current development status of the journal, the following are our goals for Exploration of Neuroscience in 2025:

• We will strive to better address authors' queries, maintain and further improve the efficiency of manuscript processing and article production, and enhance author satisfaction.

• We will strictly adhere to peer review guidelines, accurately match academic editors based on the research field of the manuscript, and ensure the quality of published articles.

• We will organize more than 5 high-quality special issues, focusing on the latest hot topics and research, and publish more cutting-edge articles, especially OA articles, aiming to increase the proportion of OA publications to 35%.

• We will expand the editorial board to 56-60 members, further enhance the journal's international influence, ensure academic authority, promote interdisciplinary research, and increase the journal's diversity.

• We will actively engage in collaborations with international academic conferences to boost the journal's global influence and visibility, maintain sensitivity to academic research, and lay the foundation for applying to Scopus in 2025 and the subsequent PubMed database.

We thank all readers, authors, reviewers, and editorial board members for their support and trust. We look forward to witnessing the continued growth and success of the Exploration of Neuroscience together!

EN Annual Development Report 2024.pdf