In case folks here haven't heard of this... this is an awesome opportunity for young scientists. <i>The Journal of Neuroscience</i> has a publication forum for graduate students and postdocs in the format of a mini-review called "Journal Club". I wrote one of these a few months ago and got the acceptance email the day after I submit it. It took about a day to write, so even if it had not been accepted, I would not have lost a lot of time. The cost benefit makes it well worth it. Good luck with your submissions... if anyone does this, please let us know!

Here's some info about it from the "www.jneurosci.org/misc/ifa_...tml":
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The purpose of the Journal Club is to provide scholarly reviews of papers recently published in The Journal of Neuroscience. Journal Club submissions are exclusively limited to current graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Journal Club will appear in the Features section at the front of each issue and will be citable as a publication similar to a short review. This format provides an opportunity to share journal clubs with a wider audience and provides an opportunity for junior scientists to test their analytical and writing skills. We encourage submissions that represent a group effort of several graduate students within a graduate program. For graduate students, the affiliation should be listed as the Graduate Program or Department. We expect that submitters of Journal Club submissions will be working on a related topic and thus familiar with the experimental approach. The editors may solicit submissions, but unsolicited submissions are encouraged.

<b>Format</b>:
The format follows that of journal clubs that are presented by graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in neuroscience departments across the country. The submission may follow a presentation at a local journal club, a good "first draft" approach before submitting a Journal Club. We encourage honest and critical reviews, but comments must be accurate, well-reasoned, and diplomatic. Overly critical reviews, or glowing reviews of your best friend's work, will be not be considered. The editors will review submissions to determine their suitability for publication. In general, the text of the Journal Club should have 3 components: a short overview of the relevant background for the paper, critical data-based review of the key findings, and a brief summary of the significance of the paper. The Journal Club should be written in a style that is understandable to all readers of the Journal of Neuroscience, although it is expected that such brief summaries may involve technical detail or comments that would require additional reading for full understanding.

<b>Submission Requirements</b>:
Submissions must be submitted through the Journal of Neuroscience submission site and do not require a submission fee. In using the on-line submission site, please follow these instructions:

1. Indicate JOURNAL CLUB as the "Manuscript Type"
2. Select FEATURE EDITOR as the "Manuscript Section"
3. Place the words "Journal Club" in the box intended for abstracts (no abstract is necessary).
4. If you are prompted to pay the submission fee, do NOT enter your payment information. Instead, please contact the Central Office (jn@sfn.org) just prior to submission so the submission fee can be waived

Journal Club submissions must be concise. The length is limited to 1-1 1/2 pages, approximately 1000 words. A single schematic or explanatory figure is suggested. References to the figures in the reviewed paper will be hot-linked to the Journal Club. In the text, please refer to the original figures with the authors name, e.g. “(Author et al., Figure 1A)“. References are limited to 5 or less.

<b>Topics and Review Procedures</b>:
The article to be reviewed must have been published within the past 2 months in the Journal of Neuroscience. Articles that are featured on the This Week in the Journal page will generally not be used for Journal Club. An author interested in preparing a Journal Club submission may contact the Editor-In-Chief for suggested articles. Submissions will be screened by the editors for accuracy and appropriateness, and may be sent for review. However, submission requiring more than minor revisions will not be accepted for publication due to the time deadlines. It is expected that submissions will be published within 1 month of initial submission. The authors of the paper that is reviewed will also be provided an opportunity to read the Journal Club submission prior to publication. If the authors choose to reply, their response will be hot-linked to the online Journal Club page. The editors reserve the right to balance acceptances between sections and institutions.