Overview
Submission Instructions
Recent Publications
Frequently Asked Questions
Research Topics
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Molecular Brain is the official journal of the Association for the Study of Neurons and Disease and publishes open access, peer-reviewed research on the nervous system at the genetic, molecular, cellular, and systems levels, including studies using molecular biology, genomics, proteomics, imaging, electrophysiology, and theoretical modelling to advance understanding of physiological and pathological brain processes.
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Subject
Neurosciences
Impact Factor
2.9
Quartile
Q2
Open Access Type
Open
eISSN
1756-6606
Invitation Only
No
Cost Range
APC: £2190.00 GBP / $2890.00 USD / €2490.00 EUR; Micro Report APC: £1305.00 GBP / $1815.00 USD / €1525.00 EUR.
Submission Instructions
Molecular Brain accepts the following article types. Click on an article type to view submission instructions.
Research
Cover Letter
A cover letter is required. The cover letter must explain why the manuscript should be published in Molecular Brain, address any issues relating to journal policies, declare any potential competing interests, confirm all authors approved the manuscript for submission, confirm the content has not been published or submitted elsewhere, and name the special issue if applicable.
Abstract
An abstract is required. Abstract must not exceed 350 words. Abstract must be unstructured as a single paragraph and must not be split into introduction, result, and conclusion parts.
Manuscript
Manuscript must include Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and a Declarations section, and a separate Conclusion section is not needed. Manuscript must include three to ten keywords, a list of abbreviations if abbreviations are used, and a Declarations section with the subheadings 'Ethics approval and consent to participate', 'Consent for publication', 'Availability of data and materials', 'Competing interests', 'Funding', 'Authors' contributions', 'Acknowledgements', and 'Authors' information', using 'Not applicable' for any irrelevant subsection, and any use of a large language model must be documented in the Methods section or another suitable part of the manuscript.
References
References must follow Vancouver style. Only published, in-press, or publicly available articles, clinical trial registration records, and abstracts may be cited, unpublished abstracts, unpublished data, and personal communications must not appear in the reference list, journal abbreviations must follow Index Medicus/MEDLINE, and all web links and URLs must be numbered and included in the reference list.
Figures & Tables
Figure titles and legends must be provided in the main manuscript rather than in the graphic file, tables shorter than one page can be placed within the manuscript, and longer tables can be placed at the end of the document. Figures must be numbered and uploaded in the order first mentioned in the text with multi-panel figures submitted as a single composite file, and tables must be numbered and cited in sequence and created using the word processor's Table object rather than embedded as figures or spreadsheet files.
Review
Cover Letter
A cover letter is required. The cover letter must explain why the manuscript should be published in Molecular Brain, address any issues relating to journal policies, declare any potential competing interests, confirm all authors approved the submission, confirm the manuscript is not published or under consideration elsewhere, and name the special issue if applicable.
Abstract
An abstract is required for Reviews. The abstract must not exceed 350 words. The abstract must be unstructured as a single paragraph and must not be split into introduction, result, or conclusion parts. No abstract headings are permitted because the abstract must be a single unstructured paragraph.
Manuscript
Reviews must include a title page, an abstract, three to ten keywords, an Introduction, a Main text section, and a Declarations section with all required subheadings, and a separate Conclusion section is not needed. The manuscript must include three to ten keywords, an Availability of data and materials statement, a Competing interests section, an Authors' contributions section, an Acknowledgements section, a list of abbreviations if abbreviations are used, required Declarations subheadings marked 'Not applicable' when irrelevant, and any use of a large language model must be documented in the Methods section or another suitable section.
References
References must follow Vancouver reference style. Web links and URLs must be included in the reference list with a reference number and given in full with the site title, URL, and access date, journal abbreviations must follow Index Medicus/MEDLINE, and unpublished abstracts, unpublished data, and personal communications must not appear in the reference list.
Figures & Tables
Tables less than one page may be placed within the manuscript, tables larger than one page may be placed at the end of the document, figure titles and legends must be provided in the main manuscript rather than the graphic file, and figures must be uploaded separately in the order first cited. Figures and tables must be numbered in the order cited in the text, multi-panel figures must be submitted as a single composite file, and tables must not be embedded as figures or spreadsheet files.
Short Report
Cover Letter
A cover letter is required. The cover letter must explain why the manuscript should be published, address any issues relating to journal policies, declare any potential competing interests, confirm all authors approved submission, and confirm the manuscript has not been published or submitted elsewhere.
Abstract
An abstract is required. The abstract must not exceed 250 words. The abstract must briefly summarize the aim, findings, or purpose of the article and must minimize abbreviations and not cite references.
Manuscript
Short reports must include a title page, an abstract, main text that may be divided into short informative subsections, and a Declarations section with all required subheadings. The manuscript must include three to ten keywords, a list of abbreviations if abbreviations are used, an Availability of data and materials statement, declarations including any Large Language Model use, and all Declarations subheadings must be present with 'Not applicable' where irrelevant.
References
References must follow Vancouver style. Only published, in-press, or publicly available preprint articles, trial records, and abstracts may be cited, unpublished abstracts/data/personal communications must be excluded from the reference list, URLs must appear as numbered references, journal abbreviations must follow Index Medicus/MEDLINE, and dataset citations should include a persistent identifier such as a DOI.
Figures & Tables
Figure titles and legends must be provided in the main manuscript rather than in the graphic file, tables shorter than one page can be placed within the manuscript and longer tables at the end, and figures must be uploaded separately in the order cited. Figures and tables must be numbered in citation order, multi-panel figures submitted as single composite files, tables created with the word processor's table function rather than as figures, and footnotes must not contain figures or tables.
Micro Report
Cover Letter
A cover letter is required. The cover letter must explain why the manuscript should be published in Molecular Brain, explain any issues relating to journal policies, declare any potential competing interests, confirm all authors approved the submission, confirm the manuscript is not published or under consideration elsewhere, and name the special issue if applicable.
Abstract
An abstract is required. The abstract must be 250 words or less. The abstract must be a single-paragraph unstructured summary. The abstract must summarize the aim, findings, or purpose of the article and must not include references.
Manuscript
The manuscript must not exceed 1200 words excluding the title, author list, abbreviation list, declarations, figure legends, tables, and references. The manuscript must include keywords, main text, acknowledgments, declarations, and author contributions, and the main text must contain brief background, methods, and results that enable replication of the study. The manuscript must include a Declarations section with the subheadings Ethics approval and consent to participate, Consent for publication, Availability of data and materials, Competing interests, Funding, Authors' contributions, and Acknowledgements, with 'Not applicable' used where a section is irrelevant.
References
The manuscript must include no more than 15 references. References must use Vancouver style. Publicly available data supporting the conclusions should be cited with a persistent identifier such as a DOI expressed as a full URL, and all web links and URLs must be numbered and included in the reference list in full with the site title and access date.
Figures & Tables
The manuscript must contain no more than one figure or table. Tables shorter than one page may be placed within the manuscript and figure titles and legends must be provided in the main manuscript rather than in the figure file. Figures and tables must be numbered in the order first cited in the text, and tables must not be embedded as figures or spreadsheet files.
Letter To The Editor
Cover Letter
A cover letter is required. The cover letter must explain why the manuscript should be published, address any journal policy issues, declare any potential competing interests, confirm all authors approved the submission, confirm the manuscript has not been published or submitted elsewhere, and name any special issue if applicable.
Abstract
An abstract is required. The abstract must not exceed 250 words. The abstract should be unstructured, briefly summarizing the aim, findings, or purpose of the article. No mandatory abstract headings are specified.
Manuscript
Letter To The Editor manuscripts must include a title page, abstract, three to ten keywords, main text, and a Declarations section with all required subheadings marked 'Not applicable' when irrelevant. The manuscript must include three to ten keywords, an Availability of data and materials statement, competing interests, authors' contributions, acknowledgements, funding, and disclosure of any large language model use in the Methods section or another suitable section if no Methods section is available.
References
References must follow Vancouver style. Only published or in-press articles, clinical trial registration records, abstracts, and publicly available preprints may be cited, unpublished abstracts, unpublished data, and personal communications must not appear in the reference list, web links must be included as numbered references, journal abbreviations must follow Index Medicus/MEDLINE, and publicly available dataset citations should include a persistent identifier such as a DOI.
Figures & Tables
Figure titles and legends must be provided in the main manuscript rather than in the graphic file, tables shorter than one page may be placed within the manuscript, and longer tables may be placed at the end of the document. Figures must be numbered and uploaded in the order first cited and multi-panel figures submitted as single composite files, while tables must be numbered in sequence, created with the word processor's table function rather than embedded as figures, and any table footnotes must use superscript lower-case letters or asterisks for significance values.
Recent Publications
PAK1 expression protects cellular and behavioral defects in animal models of Parkinson’ s disease
Jeong Eun Kim, Kina Lee, Hee Jeong Kim, Won-Jong Oh, Hyong Kyu Kim
10.1186/s13041-026-01320-3
View Publication
Diabetes reprograms brain and systemic immune landscapes to impair repair after injury
Keon Ah Lee, Su Yeon Kim, Jin Soo Lee, Haijie Yang, Jiawei An, Sang Myun Park, Eun Jeong Lee, Eun-Hye Joe
10.1186/s13041-026-01310-5
View Publication
Leveraging single-cell and spatial omics for brain tumour insights to improve therapeutic strategies
Subham Roy, Maher Nassor, Fahmida Zahin, Saim Chaudhry, Kay Paulina K. Odei, Princess Afia Nkrumah-Boateng, Andrew Awuah Wireko
10.1186/s13041-026-01319-w
View Publication
The CDK4/6 inhibitor abemaciclib attenuates cognitive impairment and neuroinflammation via DYRK1A in human tau transgenic mice
Hyun-ju Lee, Hyang-Sook Hoe
10.1186/s13041-026-01318-x
View Publication
Organoids as next-generation models for investigating intracranial tumours
Subham Roy, Fahmida Zahin, Princess Afia Nkrumah-Boateng, Saim Chaudhry, Maher Nassor, Maame Fosuah Appiah Kwarteng, Akosua Bempomaa Owusu-Boampong, Andrew Awuah Wireko
10.1186/s13041-026-01317-y
View Publication
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to publish?
Submission to first decision (median): 13 days.
Reformat to Molecular Brain using Livewrite PremiumIs a cover letter required?
A cover letter is required. It should explain why the manuscript should be published in Molecular Brain, address any issues relating to journal policies, declare potential competing interests, confirm all authors approved the submission, confirm the work has not been published or submitted elsewhere, and name the special issue if applicable. Authors may also suggest preferred and non-preferred peer reviewers in the cover letter.
Reformat to Molecular Brain using Livewrite PremiumWhat are the publication costs?
Article processing charge: £2190.00 GBP / $2890.00 USD / €2490.00 EUR. Micro Report article processing charge: £1305.00 GBP / $1815.00 USD / €1525.00 EUR.
Reformat to Molecular Brain using Livewrite PremiumResearch Topics
Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
Neurogenesis and neuroplasticity mechanisms
Memory and Neural Mechanisms
Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms
Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
Pain Mechanisms and Treatments
Ion channel regulation and function
Genetics and Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Parkinson's Disease Mechanisms and Treatments
Receptor Mechanisms and Signaling
Nerve injury and regeneration
Stress Responses and Cortisol
Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
Neural dynamics and brain function
Cellular transport and secretion
Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
Mitochondrial Function and Pathology
Tryptophan and brain disorders
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Research
Sleep and Wakefulness Research
Photoreceptor and optogenetics research
Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
Genetic Neurodegenerative Diseases
RNA Research and Splicing
Retinal Development and Disorders