biology

The Journal of Neuroscience

The Journal of Neuroscience is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Journal of Neuroscience rather than just read about it. In short: The Journal of Neuroscience, stylized as JNeurosci, is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Society for Neuroscience (SfN). It covers empirical research on all aspects of neuroscience.

Key takeaways

The Journal of Neuroscience belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Journal of Neuroscience to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Journal of Neuroscience from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Journal of Neuroscience, stylized as JNeurosci, is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Society for Neuroscience (SfN). It covers empirical research on all aspects of neuroscience. Its editor-in-chief is Sabine Kastner (Princeton University), who succeeded Marina Picciotto (Yale University) in 2024. According to the latest Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2024 impact factor of 4.0.

History The journal was established in 1981 and issues appeared monthly; as its popularity grew it switched to a biweekly schedule in 1996 and then to a weekly in July 2003.

Themes

Main themes Articles appear within one of the following five sections of the journal:

Cellular/Molecular Development/Plasticity/Repair Systems/Circuits Behavioral/Cognitive Neurobiology of Disease The journal has revised its sections over the years. In 2004, it added the Neurobiology of Disease section due to the growing number of papers on this subject. In January 2013, the journal split the section Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive into two sections, Systems/Circuits and Behavioral/Cognitive, in order to make the sections of the journal approximately the same in size. Beginning February 2025, the journal permits submission of supplemental materials.

Features In addition, some issues of the journal contain articles in the following sections:

Brief Communications Journal Club (brief reviews of articles that appeared in the Journal; written by graduate students or postdoctoral fellows; first published in September 2005)

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Journal of Neuroscience

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Journal of Neuroscience claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Journal of Neuroscience before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Journal of Neuroscience ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Journal of Neuroscience

In research: The Journal of Neuroscience appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Journal of Neuroscience in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Journal of Neuroscience is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Academic journals established in 1981, Academic journals published by learned and professional societies, English-language journals, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Journal of Neuroscience outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Journal of Neuroscience in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Journal of Neuroscience means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Journal of Neuroscience out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Journal of Neuroscience in simple terms?

Why does The Journal of Neuroscience matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Journal of Neuroscience?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Journal of Neuroscience.