Studies reporting on the development of scales, measures or questionnaires
All research papers whose primary purpose is reporting the development or testing of scales /
measures / questionnaires must include a copy of the full instrument as a supplementary file at
submission stage so it can be published as an appendix online. The IJNS does not accept instrument
development papers which are not accompanied by a copy. We are unlikely to consider papers where
there is no validation against a robust criterion, where findings indicate that the version published
requires further development or where the underlying constructs are not well established.
Authors are required to obtain written permission from the copyright owner of the instrument to
reproduce it, and ensure that it is credited appropriately and the correct copyright line qualifying the
permission to use/translate the instrument is supplied underneath the submitted scale. If authors
want to retain copyright of their own scale they can do so and indicate that it is reproduced with
their permission.
If the instrument is in a language other than English, then it must be accompanied by an English
translation in addition to the original version. If the newly developed scale is a translation of an existing
scale then the IJNS requires author(s) to obtain written permission from the copyright owner of the
original scale to publish the translated version with full credit given also to the original scale (an English
translation is still also required). We are unlikely to publish instrument translations from one language
AUTHOR INFORMATION PACK 8 Nov 2015 www.elsevier.com/locate/ijns 6
to another unless the scale is useful for directly guiding clinical practice (e.g. diagnostic/ screening
instruments) related to important and defined outcomes or there is some other clear contribution to
the wider international literature from the publication.
Where questionnaires or existing scales are used as measures to address a substantive question in the
paper authors are strongly encouraged to submit the instrument for publication as an online appendix.