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Cortex 40th Anniversary
EDITORIAL CORTEX 40th ANNIVERSARY
The first BASIC programme was running on a computer, Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment, Martin Luther King was the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, the United States of America commenced saturation bombing in Vietnam, Mary Poppins won eight Oscars, Bob Dylan wrote the epic song “The Times They Are A-Changin”, BBC2 started broadcasting, and the Addams Family TV series became a hit. The year was 1964 and amidst the cardinal events of that year, Ennio De Renzi launched the first issue of Cortex (De Renzi, 2001; Della Sala and Grafman, 2001a). De Renzi remained at the helm as editor-in-chief of Cortex for 36 years; we took over in 2001 teaming up with Roberto Cubelli as managing editor. In these last three years, thanks to the invaluable contribution of the associate and consulting editors, and with the permission of the publisher, we tried to keep up with the changing times by establishing Cortex-on-line (Grafman and Della Sala, 2002a), a free-access web site (www.cortex-online.org) making available recently published articles (Harnad, 2002; Suber, 2002), and an archive of previous issues. The web page also contains CortExtra, which is designed to make available additional material (like statistical programmes, long appendices, tests or questionnaires) that cannot find space in the journal proper, as well as a section geared at e-publishing peer-reviewed negative findings and replication failures (Rossetti, 2003). We are also encouraging (Goldenberg, 2001) proposals from our vast readership to translate (and comment on) classic papers (eg, Goldenberg, 2003; Spatt, 2003; Della Sala and Young, 2003) and have planned a series of Guest Edited issues (eg on Memory, edited by J. Foster, and on neglect, honouring the work of Edoardo Bisiach, edited by J. Marshall and G. Vallar, which will be published as issue 2, 2004) as well as Guest Edited sections (e.g. Grammatical Gender, edited by Cacciari and Cubelli, issue 3, 2003). We have, in addition, introduced a new Book and Media Review section (Carey, 2001), a Forum section (Della Sala and Grafman, 2001b) devoted to discussion topics (eg. Buchtel, 2001; Della Sala and Grafman, 2002; Dunn and Kirsner, 2003), viewpoints and comments on target articles (e.g. Pickering, 2001; Humphreys and Riddoch, 2002; Chockron, 2002; Eslinger, 2002; Mattingley, 2002; Semenza, 2002; McCarthy, 2002; Bishop, 2002; Beaton, 2002; Schweinberger and Burton, 2003; Stone and Valentine, 2003), and will soon introduce a section on neuropsychological methodology, edited by J. Crawford and R. Morris. Cortex, (2004) 40, 1-2
Being responsive to author concerns, we try to process the manuscripts submitted to Cortex as fast as possible. Our policy is to ask reviewers to respond within three weeks (our current average time from submission to first decision is 63 days). We have added other services for our authors. For instance we sought to offer free editorial advice to non-English speaking authors. Karalyn Patterson kindly volunteered for this chore and has done an admirable job. Work submitted to Cortex comes from labs located in different geographical regions: 52% of submitted manuscripts come from Europe, 23% from North America, 15% from Asia, 7% from Australia, 3% from Africa or South America and we intend to support better science in, and more submissions from, developing countries. As noted above, we are aware that the quality of a journal depends upon the thoroughness and swiftness of the peer-reviewing process. Since it would be financially impossible for us to compensate reviewers for their time and competence, we decided to take literally the assumption that the reviewing process can be a bit of a lottery and entered all referees for Cortex who return their reviews within three weeks into a real lottery, initiating a practice of reviewing for reward (Grafman and Della Sala, 2002b). Finally, the publisher (Masson) agreed to increase the annual number of pages to 1000 (5 issues), to print colour figures free of charge when they are central to the theme of the paper, and, at the same time, decrease the cost of the individual annual subscription rate to 110 Euros. In addition, PDF or WORD attachments are now the standard format for submission (Grafman and Della Sala, 2002c). We will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Cortex organising a series of events throughout the year. A “Cortex” seminar will be held at the 22nd European Workshop on Cognitive Neuropsychology in Bressanone, Italy, in January 2005 (the first volume of Cortex was published as 1964/65). Moreover, Cortex will be supporting the First Congress of the European Neuropsychological Societies, to be held in Modena in April, 2004. As another way of honouring the 40th Anniversary of Cortex, we have asked contemporary authors to comment on key papers published in Cortex Volume 1. These papers will be published later in the year. “Forty” has always been a magic, mysterious number. Whether one fasts in the desert, survives a massive flood, or meditates on a mountain, 40 days seems to be the limit. Indeed, we keep dogs quarantined in a kennel for forty days after
2
Editorial
crossing the ocean, our grandparents were held for forty days on Ellis Island if they had the flu, and we are advised to restrain from sex forty days after our baby is born. Furthermore, people commemorate “ruby” anniversaries and celebrate their fortieth birthday with some concern and apprehension. We tend to treat the feeling of getting old by listing improbable resolutions and dream of mending our ways. Our own plan for the future of Cortex is to preserve the journal as a main outlet for work from several integrated fields, including experimental and cognitive neuropsychology, human neuroscience, neuroimaging, rehabilitation and experimental psychology when relevant to the broad community to which Cortex is directed. We will also strive to keep improving the quality of Cortex as we realize that the biggest room in the world is the room for improvement (our current acceptance rate for standard submissions is less than one out of three). No doubt “If one wants things to stay as they are, things will have to change” (G. Tomasi di Lampedusa, The Leopard) so we changed the cover and the format of the journal. Cortex will still be jacketed with the characteristic yellow cover, but each issue will be characterised by a different diagrammatic representation of brain function from the 19th/early 20th century, provided and introduced by Stephen Jacyna. So, please go to the library, skim through the recent issues and let us know what you think. Sergio Della Sala and Jordan Grafman Editors REFERENCES BEATON AA. Dyslexia and the cerebellar deficit hypothesis. Cortex, 38: 479-490, 2002. BISHOP DVM. Cerebellar abnormalities in developmental Dyslexia: Cause, correlate or consequence? Cortex, 38: 491498, 2002. BUCHTEL HA. Introduction to forum on impact factors. Cortex, 37: 455-456, 2001.
CACCIARI C and CUBELLI R. The neuropsychology of grammatical gender: An introduction. Cortex, 39: 377-382, 2003. CAREY D. Preface to the New Cortex Book and Media Review section. Cortex, 37: 9-10, 2001. CHOKRON S. On the origin of free-viewing perceptual asymmetries Cortex, 38: 109-112, 2002. DELLA SALA S and GRAFMAN J. Editorial. Cortex, 37: 1-3, 2001a. DELLA SALA S and GRAFMAN J. A few words from the editors. Cortex, 37: 155-157, 2001b. DELLA SALA S and GRAFMAN J. Refereeing mortus est, vivat refereeing. Cortex, 39: 269-271, 2002. DELLA SALA S and YOUNG AW. Quaglino’s 1867 case of prosopagnosia. Cortex, 39: 533-540, 2003. DE RENZI E. A farewell. Cortex, 37: 5-8, 2001. DUNN JC and KIRSNER K. What can we infer from double dissociations? Cortex, 39: 1-7, 2003. ESLINGER P. The anatomic basis of utilisation behaviour: A shift from frontal-parietal to intra-frontal mechanisms Cortex, 38: 273-276, 2002. FOSTER JK. Special issue on memory: Anatomical regions, physiological networks and cognitive interactions. Cortex, 39: 555-565, 2003. GOLDENBERG G. Why should we read the classics? Cortex, 37: 293-294, 2001. GOLDENBERG G. Apraxia and beyond: Life and work of Hugo Liepmann. Cortex, 39: 509-524, 2003. GRAFMAN J and DELLA SALA S. Cortex-on-line. Cortex, 39: 1, 2002a. GRAFMAN J and DELLA SALA S. PDF submissions. Cortex, 39: 107, 2002b. GRAFMAN J and DELLA SALA S. Reviewing for rewards. Cortex, 39: 463, 2002c. HUMPHREYS GW and RIDDOCH J. Do pixel-level analyses describe psychological perceptual similarity? Cortex, 38: 3-5, 2002. HARNAD S. Six proposals for freeing online access to the refereed literature and how the Cortex initiative can help Cortex, 38: 93-99, 2002. MARSHALL JC and VALLAR G. Spatial neglect: A representational disorder? A Festschrift for Edoardo Bisiach. Cortex, 40: in press, 2004. MATTINGLEY JB. Visuomotor adaptation to optical prisms: A new cure for spatial neglect? Cortex, 38: 277-283, 2002. MCCARTHY M. Fractionating the neglected space: The relevance of reference frames for defining left and right in spatial neglect. Cortex, 38: 465-477, 2002. PICKERING S. Cognitive approaches to the fractionation of visuospatial working memory Cortex, 37: 457-473, 2001. ROSSETTI Y. Reports on negative findings. Cortex, 39: 211-214, 2003. SEMENZA C. Conceptual knowledge in arithmetic: The core of calculation skills. Cortex, 38: 285-288, 2002. SCHWEINBERGER SR and BURTON AM. Covert recognition and the neural system for face processing. Cortex, 39: 9-30, 2003. SPATT J. Arnold Pick’s concept of dementia Cortex, 39: 525-531, 2003. STONE A and VALENTINE T. Perspectives on prosopagnosia and models of face recognition. Cortex, 39: 31-41. 2003. SUBER P. Where does the free online scholarship movement stand today? Cortex, 38: 261-264, 2002.
The first BASIC programme was running on a computer, Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment, Martin Luther King was the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, the United States of America commenced saturation bombing in Vietnam, Mary Poppins won eight Oscars, Bob Dylan wrote the epic song “The Times They Are A-Changin”, BBC2 started broadcasting, and the Addams Family TV series became a hit. The year was 1964 and amidst the cardinal events of that year, Ennio De Renzi launched the first issue of Cortex (De Renzi, 2001; Della Sala and Grafman, 2001a). De Renzi remained at the helm as editor-in-chief of Cortex for 36 years; we took over in 2001 teaming up with Roberto Cubelli as managing editor. In these last three years, thanks to the invaluable contribution of the associate and consulting editors, and with the permission of the publisher, we tried to keep up with the changing times by establishing Cortex-on-line (Grafman and Della Sala, 2002a), a free-access web site (www.cortex-online.org) making available recently published articles (Harnad, 2002; Suber, 2002), and an archive of previous issues. The web page also contains CortExtra, which is designed to make available additional material (like statistical programmes, long appendices, tests or questionnaires) that cannot find space in the journal proper, as well as a section geared at e-publishing peer-reviewed negative findings and replication failures (Rossetti, 2003). We are also encouraging (Goldenberg, 2001) proposals from our vast readership to translate (and comment on) classic papers (eg, Goldenberg, 2003; Spatt, 2003; Della Sala and Young, 2003) and have planned a series of Guest Edited issues (eg on Memory, edited by J. Foster, and on neglect, honouring the work of Edoardo Bisiach, edited by J. Marshall and G. Vallar, which will be published as issue 2, 2004) as well as Guest Edited sections (e.g. Grammatical Gender, edited by Cacciari and Cubelli, issue 3, 2003). We have, in addition, introduced a new Book and Media Review section (Carey, 2001), a Forum section (Della Sala and Grafman, 2001b) devoted to discussion topics (eg. Buchtel, 2001; Della Sala and Grafman, 2002; Dunn and Kirsner, 2003), viewpoints and comments on target articles (e.g. Pickering, 2001; Humphreys and Riddoch, 2002; Chockron, 2002; Eslinger, 2002; Mattingley, 2002; Semenza, 2002; McCarthy, 2002; Bishop, 2002; Beaton, 2002; Schweinberger and Burton, 2003; Stone and Valentine, 2003), and will soon introduce a section on neuropsychological methodology, edited by J. Crawford and R. Morris. Cortex, (2004) 40, 1-2
Being responsive to author concerns, we try to process the manuscripts submitted to Cortex as fast as possible. Our policy is to ask reviewers to respond within three weeks (our current average time from submission to first decision is 63 days). We have added other services for our authors. For instance we sought to offer free editorial advice to non-English speaking authors. Karalyn Patterson kindly volunteered for this chore and has done an admirable job. Work submitted to Cortex comes from labs located in different geographical regions: 52% of submitted manuscripts come from Europe, 23% from North America, 15% from Asia, 7% from Australia, 3% from Africa or South America and we intend to support better science in, and more submissions from, developing countries. As noted above, we are aware that the quality of a journal depends upon the thoroughness and swiftness of the peer-reviewing process. Since it would be financially impossible for us to compensate reviewers for their time and competence, we decided to take literally the assumption that the reviewing process can be a bit of a lottery and entered all referees for Cortex who return their reviews within three weeks into a real lottery, initiating a practice of reviewing for reward (Grafman and Della Sala, 2002b). Finally, the publisher (Masson) agreed to increase the annual number of pages to 1000 (5 issues), to print colour figures free of charge when they are central to the theme of the paper, and, at the same time, decrease the cost of the individual annual subscription rate to 110 Euros. In addition, PDF or WORD attachments are now the standard format for submission (Grafman and Della Sala, 2002c). We will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Cortex organising a series of events throughout the year. A “Cortex” seminar will be held at the 22nd European Workshop on Cognitive Neuropsychology in Bressanone, Italy, in January 2005 (the first volume of Cortex was published as 1964/65). Moreover, Cortex will be supporting the First Congress of the European Neuropsychological Societies, to be held in Modena in April, 2004. As another way of honouring the 40th Anniversary of Cortex, we have asked contemporary authors to comment on key papers published in Cortex Volume 1. These papers will be published later in the year. “Forty” has always been a magic, mysterious number. Whether one fasts in the desert, survives a massive flood, or meditates on a mountain, 40 days seems to be the limit. Indeed, we keep dogs quarantined in a kennel for forty days after
2
Editorial
crossing the ocean, our grandparents were held for forty days on Ellis Island if they had the flu, and we are advised to restrain from sex forty days after our baby is born. Furthermore, people commemorate “ruby” anniversaries and celebrate their fortieth birthday with some concern and apprehension. We tend to treat the feeling of getting old by listing improbable resolutions and dream of mending our ways. Our own plan for the future of Cortex is to preserve the journal as a main outlet for work from several integrated fields, including experimental and cognitive neuropsychology, human neuroscience, neuroimaging, rehabilitation and experimental psychology when relevant to the broad community to which Cortex is directed. We will also strive to keep improving the quality of Cortex as we realize that the biggest room in the world is the room for improvement (our current acceptance rate for standard submissions is less than one out of three). No doubt “If one wants things to stay as they are, things will have to change” (G. Tomasi di Lampedusa, The Leopard) so we changed the cover and the format of the journal. Cortex will still be jacketed with the characteristic yellow cover, but each issue will be characterised by a different diagrammatic representation of brain function from the 19th/early 20th century, provided and introduced by Stephen Jacyna. So, please go to the library, skim through the recent issues and let us know what you think. Sergio Della Sala and Jordan Grafman Editors REFERENCES BEATON AA. Dyslexia and the cerebellar deficit hypothesis. Cortex, 38: 479-490, 2002. BISHOP DVM. Cerebellar abnormalities in developmental Dyslexia: Cause, correlate or consequence? Cortex, 38: 491498, 2002. BUCHTEL HA. Introduction to forum on impact factors. Cortex, 37: 455-456, 2001.
CACCIARI C and CUBELLI R. The neuropsychology of grammatical gender: An introduction. Cortex, 39: 377-382, 2003. CAREY D. Preface to the New Cortex Book and Media Review section. Cortex, 37: 9-10, 2001. CHOKRON S. On the origin of free-viewing perceptual asymmetries Cortex, 38: 109-112, 2002. DELLA SALA S and GRAFMAN J. Editorial. Cortex, 37: 1-3, 2001a. DELLA SALA S and GRAFMAN J. A few words from the editors. Cortex, 37: 155-157, 2001b. DELLA SALA S and GRAFMAN J. Refereeing mortus est, vivat refereeing. Cortex, 39: 269-271, 2002. DELLA SALA S and YOUNG AW. Quaglino’s 1867 case of prosopagnosia. Cortex, 39: 533-540, 2003. DE RENZI E. A farewell. Cortex, 37: 5-8, 2001. DUNN JC and KIRSNER K. What can we infer from double dissociations? Cortex, 39: 1-7, 2003. ESLINGER P. The anatomic basis of utilisation behaviour: A shift from frontal-parietal to intra-frontal mechanisms Cortex, 38: 273-276, 2002. FOSTER JK. Special issue on memory: Anatomical regions, physiological networks and cognitive interactions. Cortex, 39: 555-565, 2003. GOLDENBERG G. Why should we read the classics? Cortex, 37: 293-294, 2001. GOLDENBERG G. Apraxia and beyond: Life and work of Hugo Liepmann. Cortex, 39: 509-524, 2003. GRAFMAN J and DELLA SALA S. Cortex-on-line. Cortex, 39: 1, 2002a. GRAFMAN J and DELLA SALA S. PDF submissions. Cortex, 39: 107, 2002b. GRAFMAN J and DELLA SALA S. Reviewing for rewards. Cortex, 39: 463, 2002c. HUMPHREYS GW and RIDDOCH J. Do pixel-level analyses describe psychological perceptual similarity? Cortex, 38: 3-5, 2002. HARNAD S. Six proposals for freeing online access to the refereed literature and how the Cortex initiative can help Cortex, 38: 93-99, 2002. MARSHALL JC and VALLAR G. Spatial neglect: A representational disorder? A Festschrift for Edoardo Bisiach. Cortex, 40: in press, 2004. MATTINGLEY JB. Visuomotor adaptation to optical prisms: A new cure for spatial neglect? Cortex, 38: 277-283, 2002. MCCARTHY M. Fractionating the neglected space: The relevance of reference frames for defining left and right in spatial neglect. Cortex, 38: 465-477, 2002. PICKERING S. Cognitive approaches to the fractionation of visuospatial working memory Cortex, 37: 457-473, 2001. ROSSETTI Y. Reports on negative findings. Cortex, 39: 211-214, 2003. SEMENZA C. Conceptual knowledge in arithmetic: The core of calculation skills. Cortex, 38: 285-288, 2002. SCHWEINBERGER SR and BURTON AM. Covert recognition and the neural system for face processing. Cortex, 39: 9-30, 2003. SPATT J. Arnold Pick’s concept of dementia Cortex, 39: 525-531, 2003. STONE A and VALENTINE T. Perspectives on prosopagnosia and models of face recognition. Cortex, 39: 31-41. 2003. SUBER P. Where does the free online scholarship movement stand today? Cortex, 38: 261-264, 2002.