Neuroscience Paper Checker

Validate your neuroscience manuscript for brain imaging standards, ethics requirements, and submission compliance.

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What reporting standards apply to neuroscience research?

Neuroscience research has discipline-specific reporting standards: neuroimaging studies must report acquisition parameters (scanner field strength, TR, TE, voxel size) and preprocessing pipelines; animal studies require ARRIVE guidelines compliance; human studies require IRB/ethics committee approval and participant consent. Brain imaging data should ideally follow BIDS format. Statistical reporting in neuroscience is increasingly rigorous, with requirements for effect sizes, confidence intervals, and correction for multiple comparisons.

Neuroscience compliance checks

Ethics and IRB approval statement check

Verify that ethics committee or IRB approval is declared for human participant studies.

ARRIVE compliance for animal studies

Check that animal studies report all required ARRIVE 2.0 elements.

Neuroimaging parameter reporting validation

Flag neuroimaging studies that are missing required acquisition parameters such as field strength, TR, TE, and voxel size.

Statistical completeness (effect sizes, corrections)

Check that effect sizes are reported and that corrections for multiple comparisons are described.

Data availability statement

Confirm that a data availability statement is present, linking to repositories or explaining restrictions.

Checks relevant to this topic

Part of our 80+ automated checks

Ethics statement

Ethics or IRB approval declared for human participant research.

ARRIVE guidelines (animal studies)

ARRIVE 2.0 elements reported for in vivo animal experiments.

Imaging parameters reported

Scanner parameters and preprocessing pipeline described for neuroimaging studies.

Statistical analysis completeness

Effect sizes and multiple comparison corrections reported.

Data availability

Data availability statement present with repository links or access policy.

Participant consent

Informed consent statement included for human subjects research.

Conflict of interest

Conflict of interest declaration present for all authors.

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Across disciplines and career stages, researchers reduce bottlenecks and submit with confidence: clearer drafts, easier guideline compliance, and less back and forth with co‑authors and reviewers.

I use it to review my students' papers. It instantly highlights typos, missing references, and unclear sections, helping me focus my feedback on the quality of the research instead of surface errors.

Ilyass, Professor in Mechanical Engineering, ÉTS Montréal

Ilyass

Professor in Mechanical Engineering, ÉTS Montréal

I relied on it throughout my thesis to strengthen my writing. It suggested clearer phrasing, improved flow between sections, and ensured my references were complete before the final deadline.

Manon, Master's Student in Speech Therapy

Manon

Master's Student in Speech Therapy

I write research in both Portuguese and English, and it adapts perfectly to either language. It provided precise feedback in Portuguese, helping me maintain academic tone and consistency across my drafts.

Afonso, PhD Candidate, UFPE

Afonso

PhD Candidate, UFPE

It gave excellent advice on how to rephrase and present ideas more clearly and concisely. The suggestions helped me refine my arguments and make my research more impactful.

Félix, Postdoc Researcher, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology

Félix

Postdoc Researcher, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology

A round of suggestions helped to generally refine the text of my paper and, moreover, to present some of its key points in a more focused form.

Oleg, Professor, Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University

Oleg

Professor, Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University

I use it to review my students' papers. It instantly highlights typos, missing references, and unclear sections, helping me focus my feedback on the quality of the research instead of surface errors.

Ilyass, Professor in Mechanical Engineering, ÉTS Montréal

Ilyass

Professor in Mechanical Engineering, ÉTS Montréal

I relied on it throughout my thesis to strengthen my writing. It suggested clearer phrasing, improved flow between sections, and ensured my references were complete before the final deadline.

Manon, Master's Student in Speech Therapy

Manon

Master's Student in Speech Therapy

I write research in both Portuguese and English, and it adapts perfectly to either language. It provided precise feedback in Portuguese, helping me maintain academic tone and consistency across my drafts.

Afonso, PhD Candidate, UFPE

Afonso

PhD Candidate, UFPE

It gave excellent advice on how to rephrase and present ideas more clearly and concisely. The suggestions helped me refine my arguments and make my research more impactful.

Félix, Postdoc Researcher, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology

Félix

Postdoc Researcher, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology

A round of suggestions helped to generally refine the text of my paper and, moreover, to present some of its key points in a more focused form.

Oleg, Professor, Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University

Oleg

Professor, Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University

Frequently asked questions

Neuroscience papers follow ARRIVE guidelines for animal studies, CONSORT for clinical trials, and are increasingly expected to comply with neuroimaging-specific standards for parameter reporting. Many journals also follow the recommendations of the COBIDAS committee for MRI reporting.

ARRIVE (Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments) is a reporting guideline for animal studies. ARRIVE 2.0 is the current version and is required or strongly recommended by most neuroscience journals that publish animal research.

Data sharing requirements vary by journal. Nature Neuroscience and eLife require data availability statements and encourage deposition of imaging data in repositories like OpenNeuro. Check your target journal's data sharing policy.

Neuroimaging studies are expected to report cluster-forming thresholds, family-wise error or false discovery rate corrections, effect sizes, and sample size justifications. Many journals now require pre-registration or power analyses for human neuroimaging studies.