Neuroscience Applied: a new journal is born!

As some of you may have noted, the official ECNP journal European Neuropsychopharmacology got a new subtitle a few years ago: Neuroscience Applied.

This was done in recognition of the key mission of the College, which is to focus on clinical and basic scientific contributions that advance our understanding of brain function and human behaviour and enable translation into improved treatments and enhanced public health impact in neuropsychiatry.

Over the last decades we have seen substantial advances in basic knowledge and available experimental techniques in neuroscience, (epi)genomics and other -omics. At ECNP we wish to help the clinical translation of such findings and, consistent with this, European Neuropsychopharmacology has strived to narrow the translation gap by promoting findings that are expected to have a major impact on both our understanding of the biological bases of mental disorders and the development and improvement of treatments, ideally paving the way for prevention and recovery.

Within the College we have often debated whether the term “neuropsychopharmacology” could be viewed as too restrictive for our wider goal of translation of basic science into clinical practice. Moreover, members have repeatedly requested that the ECNP journal be a full open access journal, as open access is increasingly demanded by funding agencies and national entities. Finally, it has been a long-standing wish that ECNP should fully own its own journal, and European Neuropsychopharmacology is – and will remain – co-owned by the publisher Elsevier. For these reasons the decision has been taken to launch an additional, open access, and fully ECNP-owned journal with the name Neuroscience Applied.  

Neuroscience Applied is an international peer-reviewed, rapid-publication, open-access scientific journal and an official publication of ECNP. As the ability of the neurosciences to address the complexity of brain function and dysfunction increases exponentially, so do their applications in understanding, treating and preventing brain disorders. The journal aims to rapidly publish the best research in this area, encompassing original basic, clinical and integrative research that has translational relevance for mental health. We especially welcome submissions on mechanisms of disorders, biological, psychological and social treatments, prevention and policy that apply a neuroscientific approach to brain disorders. That is, the scope of Neuroscience Applied will be distinct from European Neuropsychopharmacology, which will continue to focus on clinical and basic science contributions that advance our understanding of biological treatments of neuropsychiatric disorders, including the best research in drug development, pharmacology, brain and behavioural mechanisms linked to treatment, and clinical studies aimed at the development and improvement of therapies, with a view to opening new avenues for recovery, with a focus on brain disorders.

As the statutory term for editor-in-chief of European Neuropsychopharmacology comes to a close, it is my great pleasure to welcome the new editor, Eduard Vieta, who is an ECNP fellow and long-standing associate editor for the journal. I want to extend a huge thanks to Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg for the enormous work he has done as editor-in-chief of European Neuropsychopharmacology during his six-year term. Fortunately, Andreas will remain with ECNP, becoming the first editor-in-chief of Neuroscience Applied.

I hope you will welcome these developments by sending us some of your best scientific results in applied and translational neuroscience – now with two excellent journals to choose from!

Gitte Moos Knudsen
ECNP President