There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this journal.

Figures supplied in color will appear in color online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in color in the printed version. For specifically requested color reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article. The fee is $500 per image.

NNR is the official journal of the American Society of Neurorehabilitation. If you are a member of the American Society of Neurorehabilitation and you are the corresponding author, you are eligible to receive one page of color in print at no charge. You must identify yourself as a member of ASNR at time of submission, by checking the box and providing your member ID. Please identify in your cover letter which figure(s) you wish to appear in color. Any figures beyond one page that you wish to print in color will be charged at the rate of $500 per image.

Optional open access publishing is available for a fee via the Sage Choice program, and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. Open Access agreement eligibility is determined by the corresponding author’s affiliation matching an agreement at acceptance. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access.

For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.

Open access fees do not cover color charges and are charged separately.

Manuscripts must fall clearly within the scope of Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair and meet the journal’s standards for scientific rigor, originality, and relevance. Submissions that do not meet these criteria will be returned without external review. Authors are strongly encouraged to review the journal’s Aims and Scope before submission.

The manuscript must be your original work, you must have the rights to the work, and you must have obtained and be able to supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, including figures, illustrations, tables, lengthy quotations, or other material previously published elsewhere.

Article types

Themes

Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair considers manuscripts addressing clinical or basic science questions relevant to understanding, promoting, or measuring recovery following neural injury or disease. The journal emphasizes the translation of discoveries from the basic sciences to human studies, clinical trials, and rehabilitation practice. As appropriate to the study design, manuscripts are expected to address underlying neural mechanisms, either as a primary focus or as part of the interpretation of results.

Appropriate topics include, but are not limited to:

• randomized controlled trials and well-designed clinical studies of rehabilitation-relevant interventions;
• rigorously designed pilot or feasibility studies with appropriate control conditions, particularly when addressing mechanisms, dose, feasibility, or signal detection;
• neural and physiological mechanisms underlying motor, sensory, cognitive, or behavioral change following neural injury or rehabilitation interventions;
• neural reorganization, plasticity, regeneration, and associated molecular or cellular processes induced by injury, biological interventions, or training paradigms;
• biological or neuromodulatory interventions studied in relation to learning, plasticity, or functional change, including preclinical or translational models with clear relevance to rehabilitation;
• neurophysiological and neuroimaging approaches used to probe activity-dependent plasticity, network organization, or learning during rehabilitation;
• longitudinal, epidemiologic, or trajectory-based studies that inform recovery, disability, participation, or response to rehabilitation;
• innovative research designs, analytical methods, outcome measures, or technologies that advance the study or delivery of neurorehabilitation;
• multidisciplinary approaches that integrate behavioral, technological, biological, and clinical perspectives to reduce disability and enhance participation in individuals with neurologic conditions;
• assistive, bioengineered, digital, or robotic technologies developed for rehabilitation training, assessment, or management of impairment and disability

Manuscripts that do not meet the journal’s standards for scientific rigor or fall outside these themes may be returned without external peer review. Final decisions regarding acceptance or rejection are made by the Associate Editors and Editor. Due to the volume of submissions, pre-submission assessments are not provided.

 Article Types

Authors should carefully review the article type descriptions and requirements below before submission. Manuscripts that do not conform to the specified criteria may be returned without external review or delayed in processing.

1. Full-Length Original Research Articles
   
   These articles report hypothesis-driven clinical or basic science studies relevant to neurorehabilitation. Full-length original research articles should include an Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. The main text must not exceed 4,500 words. A combined maximum of six (6) tables and figures is permitted, and references should not exceed 60. Additional material may be included as online-only supplemental content. Formatting requirements are described below.
   
   
2. Translational Mechanisms Reports
   
   Short, rigorous mechanistic papers that link neural processes to rehabilitation-relevant functional outcomes. Ideal for small but high-impact datasets that push mechanistic understanding forward.
   
   Appropriate content:
   •    Cortical, network, synaptic, or physiological mechanisms associated with recovery
   •    Early biomarker evidence with strong biological plausibility
   •    Short mechanistic interventions (e.g., acute plasticity induction) with translational relevance
   •    Compact experiments testing a specific mechanistic hypothesis tied to clinical recovery theories
   
   Requirements:
   •    Mechanistic clarity: explicit link to rehabilitation theory or practice
   •    Data must be original and rigorous; small samples are acceptable but must be justified
   •    Discussion must articulate translational implications
   
   Translational Mechanisms Reports should include an Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. The main text must not exceed 2,500 words. A combined maximum of four (4) tables and figures is permitted, and references should not exceed 40. Additional material may be included as online-only supplemental content.
   
   
3. Review Articles
   
   Review articles provide critical, integrative syntheses of the literature that advance understanding of neurorehabilitation and neural repair. Reviews, including systematic reviews, should go beyond descriptive summaries to offer conceptual insight, address underlying mechanisms where appropriate, and clarify implications for future research or clinical translation.
   
   Review articles should include an Abstract; the organization of the main text is flexible. The main text must not exceed 4,500 words, and references should not exceed 75. Summary figures are encouraged. Reviews that do not provide sufficient novelty, conceptual advance, or mechanistic insight may be returned without external review.
   
   
4. Methods & Technologies in Neurorehabilitation
   
   A venue for innovative methods, protocols, instruments, analytical tools, and neurotechnology platforms with direct relevance to neurorehabilitation research or practice. These papers showcase tools that improve measurement, intervention delivery, modeling, or mechanistic probing.
   
   Appropriate content:
   •    Novel neurophysiologic measurement protocols (EEG, TMS-EEG, fNIRS, kinematic modeling, connectomics)
   •    Rehabilitation robotics and sensor technologies with initial validation
   •    Computational tools (machine learning pipelines, prediction models, analysis frameworks)
   •    Innovations in behavioral quantification or experimental paradigms
   •    New dosing/parameterization strategies in neuromodulation relevant to rehab
   
   Requirements:
   •    Clear justification of innovation relative to existing methods
   •    Evidence of feasibility, reliability, or validity (pilot data acceptable)
   •    Explicit statement of how the method supports translational rehabilitation science
   
   Methods & Technologies articles should include an Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. The main text must not exceed 3,500 words. A combined maximum of five (5) tables and figures is permitted, and references should not exceed 50. Additional material, including technical details, validation data, or code documentation, may be included as online-only supplemental content.

5. Point of View/Directions for Research
   
   Point of View / Directions for Research articles provide a forum for clinical and basic researchers to critically examine unresolved issues, controversies, or methodological challenges that influence the neurorehabilitation literature. These articles should present a clear, evidence-based perspective on a focused problem and articulate specific, justified recommendations for advancing research in that area.
   
   Submissions may address conceptual, theoretical, or methodological issues and may include broader conceptual frameworks when they are directly tied to identifying problems and proposing directions for future work. These articles are not intended to provide comprehensive literature reviews.
   
   Point of View / Directions for Research articles should include an Abstract. One acceptable structure is Introduction, The Problem, The Perspective or Proposed Framework, and Recommendations for Future Research, although alternative formats may be used. The main text must not exceed 5,000 words, and references should not exceed 75.

6. Brief Communications
   
   Brief Communications report concise, focused findings that offer an important new observation relevant to neurorehabilitation. These submissions should present original data and are not intended as literature reviews or as abbreviated reports of intervention efficacy.
   
   Brief Communications must not exceed 1,000 words, may include up to 10 references, and are limited to a combined maximum of two (2) figures or tables. An Abstract is required; subdivision into Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion is optional.
   
   In rare instances, case reports may be considered under this article type, but only when the observation is extraordinarily novel and provides clear mechanistic or translational insight.

7. Registered Reports
   
   Registered Reports are intended to promote transparency, methodological rigor, and reproducibility by evaluating study rationale, design, and analysis plans prior to data analysis and, when applicable, prior to data collection.
   
   Registered Reports are reviewed in two stages. Stage 1 submissions are evaluated prior to data collection and/or analysis and must include a complete Introduction, Methods, and Proposed Analyses. The main text must not exceed 4,500 words. A combined maximum of six (6) tables and figures is permitted, and references should not exceed 60. Additional material may be included as online-only supplemental content. Submissions judged to be of high quality will receive in-principle acceptance. Following completion of the study, authors submit the full manuscript, including Results and Discussion, as a Stage 2 submission.
   
   Publication of the Stage 2 manuscript is guaranteed provided that the approved Stage 1 protocol is followed and the conclusions are appropriately supported by the results. Stage 2 submissions must conform to the journal’s standard manuscript requirements. Additional details are available at the Registered Reports information page.

 * Excludes abstract, references, tables and legends

 ** Please format references using AMA style

Reporting guidelines

Your manuscript must follow the relevant EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines, depending on the type of study. The EQUATOR wizard can help identify the appropriate guideline. You will need to upload the appropriate checklist with your submission.

Other resources can be found at NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives.

If your research involves animals, you will be asked to confirm that you have carefully read and adhered to the ARRIVE guidelines.

As part of the submission process you will need to confirm that this is your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that this is for first publication in this Journal, that it is not being considered for/has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.

Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that the journal may accept submissions of manuscripts that have been posted on preprint servers.

Submission site

Submit your manuscript online via Sage Track.

IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in Sage Track before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

Manuscripts should only be submitted with the consent of all contributing authors. The individual responsible for submitting the manuscript should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the manuscript are listed as authors.

Ensure you upload all relevant manuscript files, including any additional supplemental files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

Authorship

Please view our authorship policies, which includes information on criteria for authorship, who should be the corresponding author and more.

Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.

Files

Organization of the text

Title Page: The title page should include the following:

1. the title of the article;
2. the names, highest degrees, and full affiliations of all authors;
3. the name, mailing address, email address, and telephone number of the corresponding author to whom proofs and reprint requests should be addressed;
4. word count of the text and the number of figures and tables in the article; and
5. a running title that should not exceed 42 letters and spaces, in the upper right corner.

Abstract: Abstracts may contain up to 250 words and structured with the following subheadings: Background, Objective, Methods, Results, Conclusions. Do not simply repeat the Results in the Conclusions – state what was learned and what needs to be done next. If the study is a clinical trial, include the registry number at the end of the Abstract. It is not included in the word limit (see Section 2.7).

Key Words: Up to 6 key words or terms from MeSH terms in PubMed should be included for use by referencing sources. If you wish to have your paper cited, choose the best terms (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html).

Headings in the text should appear as follows in bold and italics (please use subheadings as needed): Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusions/Implications (if not repeating what has been stated).

The Introduction should briefly explain why you have undertaken the study/review. Explain how the study addresses an important problem. What is novel, what is incremental? State your objectives and the hypotheses that are to be tested. Use only the most critical and best studies as references.

The Methods should define the participants, how and why they were chosen, the tools you used, and their reliability and validity for your population, and how you examined your hypotheses. Include how the sample size was determined and how randomization was performed, when applicable. State your primary and secondary outcome measurements and why you chose these. Explain how anonymizing was carried out, when applicable. Justify your statistical methods for primary and secondary analyses. When relevant, the Methods must include a statement that the project was approved by an authorized institutional human research review board or institutional animal research authority.

The Results should include recruitment, baseline data, the number of participants that were in each analysis, the pre-specified statistical comparisons between groups before the analyses of pre- vs post-test results within groups, corrections for multiple comparisons, and adverse events.

The Discussion should interpret the Results, including adjusted analyses, within the hypotheses and potential biases and confounders of the Methods. What is the generalizability of the data? The rationale and significance of the reported research should be explained in terms of its relevance to recovery of neurologic function.

Implications or Conclusions may be added. Latitude to briefly consider the clinical implications of basic research findings is permitted here. Clinical researchers may use this section to suggest what clinical and basic science advances are needed to move the clinical research forward toward value for patients.

Acknowledgments: Acknowledgments should be made at the end of the text. List the agency and number for grant support. Limit personal acknowledgments. Disclosure of any commercial interest of the authors relevant to the subject of the manuscript should follow.

Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language-polishing services. Acknowledgements should appear first at the end of your article prior to your Declaration of Conflicting Interests (if applicable), any notes and your References.

Completing your submission

A submitted manuscript will be considered for publication on the understanding that the work is original, that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, it is not previously published, and that if accepted it will not be published later in the same or similar form in any language without the consent of the publisher.

Submissions should be made by logging in and selecting the Author Center and the ‘Click here to Submit a New Manuscript’ option. Follow the instructions on each page, clicking the ‘Next’ button on each screen to save your work and advance to the next screen. If at any stage you have any questions or require the user guide, please use the ‘Get Help Now’ button at the top right of every screen.

Co-author contact details
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. All co-authors will need to have a Sage account. You can search by name or by email for co-authors who currently have a Sage account. Otherwise, you will create one by providing full contact details for the co-author including email, mailing address and telephone numbers. Academic affiliations are required for all co-authors. Please ensure you have permission from co-authors prior to creating accounts for them. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed in the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper.

Title, keywords and abstracts
Please supply a title, short title, an abstract and keywords to accompany your article. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article online through online search engines such as Google.

Cover letter
A cover letter should accompany the manuscript explaining any duplication or overlap in content with a previously published article, or stating, "No part of this work has been published." The letter should identify any commercial interest of the authors relevant to the subject of the manuscript, or state that no such conflict of interest exists. All authors must approve of the submission. State the type of article and how the manuscript relates to the stated themes provided above.

Uploading your files
To upload your files, click on the ‘Browse’ button and locate the file on your computer. Select the designation of each file (i.e. main document, conflict of interest form, figure…) in the drop down box next to the browse button. When you have selected all files you wish to upload, click the ‘Upload Files’ button. Review the system-generated PDF of your submission and then click the Submit button.

The ICJME Conflict of Interest form is mandatory and you cannot submit your manuscript without attaching it (http://www.icmje.org/coi_instructions.html).

Saving your progress
You may suspend a submission at any point before clicking the Submit button and save it to submit later. After submission, you will receive a confirmation e-mail. You can also log back into your author center at any time to check the status of your manuscript.

Submitting a revision

After review, the editors may invite submission of a revised manuscript. To create a revision, go to the ‘Manuscripts with Decisions’ option in your Author Dashboard and select ‘create a revision’ in the ‘Action’ column.

When submitting a revision, delete the original files (as these are saved with your original submission), and upload your revised manuscript only, following the usual submission guidelines. Changes to the manuscript must be marked using highlighting or track changes, and the authors’ response to the reviewers’ comments should be placed in appropriate box during the submission process. We also require that a clean, unmarked version of the revision be uploaded, in the event an original reviewer is unable to evaluate the revision.

• Complete list of authors, with their institutional affiliations.
• The author information you enter at submission must exactly match what is included on your manuscript and/or title page, including full names, academic affiliations, and corresponding author contact details.
• The listed affiliation should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a note at the end of the manuscript.
• All listed authors must meet the criteria for authorship (above).
• All persons eligible for authorship must be included at the time of submission.
• All authors must have given consent for the manuscript to be submitted in its current form.
• Keywords: During submission, you may be asked to select or enter keywords for your manuscript. These keywords are used to match appropriate reviewers to your manuscript.
• The number of figures, tables, and words in your manuscript.
• Funder information: Name, grant/award number.
• You may be required to enter your declaration of conflicting interest as part of the submission process, in addition to listing it on your manuscript and/or title page. Please have it on hand.

• If you have posted your manuscript to a preprint server, you will be asked to supply the DOI (this does not prohibit submission, but no changes should be made to the preprint version while your manuscript is under evaluation in this journal). Please see our guidelines on prior publication. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the journal's author archiving policy. If your manuscript is accepted, you must include a link in your preprint to the final version of your published article.

The following summary describes the peer review process for this journal:
Identity transparency: Single-anonymized
Reviewer interacts with: Editor
Review information published: None

Your manuscript will undergo an initial evaluation. If it does not conform to the requirements laid out in these guidelines, it will be returned to you for amendments prior to peer review. Manuscripts may be desk rejected without peer review at this point if they are out of scope for the journal or otherwise unsuitable.

After passing the initial evaluation, your manuscript will then be peer reviewed. You can log in at any time to check the status of your manuscript. We will notify you when a decision has been reached.

NNR operates a conventional single-anonymized reviewing policy in which the reviewer’s name is always concealed from the submitting author. At least two, preferably three, independent reviews are required for a manuscript to reach a Revise or Accept decision.

To ensure the integrity of the peer review process we assign reviewers and cannot accept author recommendations.

All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, while maintaining rigor. Reviewers make comments to the author and recommendations to the Editor who then makes the final decision on all manuscripts, including those appearing in a special issue or special collection. The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the Journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor/Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.

As a COPE member we engage with multiple forms of post-publication discussion in line with wider guidance from Sage: Commentaries, Critiques and Responses.

You can view our complaints and appeals policy here.

Read Sage's complete peer review policy.

Plagiarism

The journal and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. Please read Sage's complete policy on plagiarism and the actions we may take.

Contributor’s Publishing Agreement

Before publication, we require the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive license agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and license to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Journal Author Gateway.

Copyright on all published articles will be held by The American Society of Neurorehabilitation. To comply with United States copyright law, a copyright transfer form will be emailed to the corresponding author when a manuscript is accepted for publication. The corresponding author is authorized to sign on behalf of all authors. Please only submit one copyright form signed by the corresponding author.

Preprints

If your manuscript was posted on a preprint server prior to acceptance, you must include a link in your preprint to the final published version of your published article.

Production

Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal, Sage Edit, or by email, and should be returned promptly to avoid delaying publication. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence, and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate. This is the final opportunity to make changes to your manuscript. Further corrections will not be possible after publication. Changes to the author list are not permitted at this stage.

Publication

OnlineFirst publication: This enables us to publish final articles online immediately, without waiting for assignment to a future issue of the Journal. This usually significantly reduces publication lead time. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite OnlineFirst articles.

Access to your published article: We provide you with online access to your published article. The online access link is provided to the corresponding author for sharing with their co-authors.

Promoting your article

Publication is not the end of the process. Between us, we can ensure that your article is found, read, downloaded and cited as widely as possible. Many of the most effective tactics are those you can do quickly and easily to your network of contacts and peers. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway for numerous resources to help you promote your work.

PubMed

We have received inquiries from journal authors about our policy regarding NIH compliance, which mandates that the final, peer-reviewed manuscripts, upon acceptance for publication, be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication. The NIH policy meets our own posting policy at the first anniversary of the date of the NIH-funded article’s publication. As stated on the contributor agreement, our policy is as follows:

“No sooner than twelve (12) months after publication of the Contribution in the print edition of the Journal, the Contributor-created version of all or part of the Contribution and abstract as accepted for publication by the Journal (i.e., updated to include all changes made during the peer-review and editing process) may be posted on any non- commercial Web site or repository, provided that such electronic copy includes a hyperlink to the published version of the Contribution on the Sage Journals Online Web site, together with the following text: ‘The final, definitive version of the article is available at http://online.sagepub.com/.’ Contributor is not permitted to post the Sage PDF version of the published Contribution on any Web site or repository.”

Authors are free to provide their own author-created copies of the peer-reviewed version of the article to PubMed Central and other public repositories with the understanding that the article will not be made available until 12 months after publication. The PubMed FAQ site has information on the policy and on how to submit: http://www.nihms.nih.gov/help/faq.shtml. 

For authors with NIH funding, please review this checklist of common errors to ensure your manuscripts is compliant with the requirements.

The Sage Journal Author Gateway has some general advice on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance your article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.

If you have any questions about publishing with Sage, please visit the Sage Journals Solutions Portal.

You can view our complaints and appeals procedure.

Contact us

You can direct any questions to the journal’s editorial office:

nnr@kumc.edu