Surgical Neurology International® (SNI) is an open access, Internet-only journal that publishes the latest developments in the field of neurosurgery and related clinical and basic neurosciences. SNI® will also discuss timely and controversial clinical, social, ethical, and political subjects related to the neurosciences of its readers worldwide. SNI® is an independent publication that is not affiliated with any society or organization. The journal welcomes papers and opinions from neurosurgeons and clinical and basic neuroscientists everywhere. Articles submitted to SNI must undergo a double-blind peer review process. SNI publishes on a continuous basis, currently averaging 25 articles per month. Its papers can be downloaded for free by anyone.

Since its inception, SNI is and has been apolitical; it does not discriminate in any way regarding an author’s political, religious, racial, geographical, sexual, or any other characteristic in its publications. The material published must be fact-based. SNI understands that facts may be interpreted differently by different readers. We will publish the information from any source for all to read as long as the source follows those same principles. This policy also applies to commentaries in response to published material. SNI is open to all opinions and to a fair free exchange of information so people can decide the truth from those opinions. "Do unto others as you would have done unto you” is the fundamental principle that SNI follows. 

Mission Statement

SNI is a peer-reviewed, international medical journal dedicated to neuroscience and neurosurgery, and all aspects related to these disciplines. SNI is owned by the James I. and Carolyn R. Ausman Educational Foundation (a 501c3, tax-deductable private operating foundation), and is not affiliated with any medical society or organization. SNI is free to neuroscientists as well as to the general public, in the interest of medical education and the advancement of science; as such, its articles can be downloaded by anyone. The highest goal of SNI is to arrive at truth by the scientific method, with integrity in its published scientific research, and by the defense of the interests of patients worldwide. In SNI, the patient-doctor relationship is paramount; patients come first, ahead of third-party payers, ahead of the medical and pharmaceutical industries, and ahead of any interests of the State.

Unlike other consensual medical journals that refrain from discussing controversial issues, SNI will encourage debate in our editorials, commentaries, and letters to the editors. We want all sides of the issues to be heard. This includes discussions in bioethics, neuroethics, medical ethics, socio-economics, health care policy, and medical politics. Our editorials will challenge dogmatism and orthodoxy when the need arises with logical reasoning, valid data, and the scientific method (when applicable) in the pursuit of free inquiry, the free exchange of ideas, and the quest for scientific truth.

Surgical Neurology International will also strive to counteract medical misinformation, correct errors of fact and logic in the medical literature -- particularly in neurosurgical practice and in neuroscience research -- impacting current socioeconomic issues affecting health care policy. Nevertheless, science for SNI comes first, and scientific research papers and original clinical articles will be the journal's main content.

Editorial and review processes

Manuscripts submitted to SNI are subjected to an unbiased double-blinded peer-review process, wherein the reviewers and authors are unaware of each other’s identity. The manuscript is sent to at least two external reviewers, and if required, it is sent to a third reviewer to act as a tie-breaker. The comments and suggestions (acceptance/rejection/amendments to the manuscript) received from reviewers are conveyed to the author. The author is requested to provide a point-by-point response to reviewers’ comments and submit a revised manuscript. This process is repeated until reviewers and editors are either satisfied with the manuscript, or the manuscript is rejected. For acceptance, a completed review by two reviewers recommending the acceptance of the manuscript for publication is preferred. Decisions on accepting or rejecting manuscripts for publication are solely based on the peer-review process and the Editor’s discretion, and the decisions are final. The only exception to this peer-review process are articles submitted to the SNI supplement Revista Argentina de Neurocirugía (RANC); these articles are first peer-reviewed by the RANC Editorial Board, then submitted to SNI for further review, after which a decision of acceptance or rejection is made.

Manuscripts accepted for publication are copy-edited for grammar, punctuation, print style, and format. Galley proofs are sent to the author. The author is expected to return the corrected proofs within three days. It may not be possible to incorporate corrections received after that period. The process of submitting the manuscript to the final decision and sending and receiving proofs is completed online. To achieve faster and greater dissemination of knowledge and information, the journal publishes articles online immediately on final acceptance.

Manuscripts that do not conform to the Author Guidelines or exceed the Maximums set for Articles may be returned to the author without review. Authors can resubmit after complying with the requirements.

Editorial team

The editorial board comprises a panel of experts in neurosurgery from multiple countries to provide their expertise and guidance to the Editor-In-Chief in maintaining the clarity of content and focus of the journal’s purpose.

Journal Ethics

SNI and Scientific Scholar are committed to meeting and upholding standards of ethical behaviour at all stages of the publication process. We closely follow the industry associations, such as the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), that set standards and provide guidelines for best practices in order to meet these requirements. For a summary of our specific policies regarding duplicate publication, conflicts of interest, patient consent, etc., please visit https://scientificscholar.com/ethical-guidelines.php

Advertisements

While advertisements are crucial to this journal to be able to keep all content free for everyone, ethical considerations are in place to ensure the integrity of the journal and its content:

  • “Pop-up” and “banner” ads appear on a random, rotating basis. The advertiser has no control or input over the pages where their ads appear.
  • The Editorial Board has full and final approval over the content of all advertisements.
  • Advertisers will never be shown any manuscripts or other content prior to publication.

Abstracting and Indexing Information:

The journal is registered with the following abstracting partners:

Baidu Scholar, CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure), EBSCO Publishing's Electronic Databases, Ex Libris – Primo Central, Google Scholar, Hinari, Infotrieve, National Science Library, ProQuest, TdNet, Wanfang Data

The journal is indexed with, or included in, the following:

PubMed Central, Scimago Journal Ranking, SCOPUS

Open Access Publication and Creative Commons Licensing

This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.

Digital Archiving

Scientific Scholar provides for long-term digital preservation through its partnership with Portico.

Portico is a leading digital preservation service worldwide. The content is preserved as an archival version and is not publicly accessible via Portico, but is provided when required under specific conditions, such as discontinuation of the collection or catastrophic failure of the website.

Publisher of Surgical Neurology International - Scientific Scholar

Scientific Scholar LLC (scientificscholar.com) is a well-respected medical publisher that fully supports open access publishing models, Subscription and Society based journal models through its own in-house peer-review management system – EditorialAssist (journalmanagement.org). The head office of Scientific Scholar is in Rochester, NY, USA and has a subsidiary arm in India.

The mission of the Scientific Scholar is “Share, Learn and Improve”.

View our Editorial Board