NeuroReview is an online journal and resource devised to respond to the above challenges. NeuroReview provides the neuroscience community in Oxford with a central, accessible meeting place where new research can be communicated and where researchers in different fields can get to know each other’s work.

With regard to the particular problems that new students face, NeuroReview’s aim is to increase communication, not only between departments but also between graduate students and undergraduates. One example of this is the undergraduate essay competition that NeuroReview is currently running. Increased interaction between all students, both undergraduate and post-graduate, is particularly useful for students who are starting out in the field of neuroscience and are still trying to choose which area they would like to focus on.

NeuroReview also provides a public forum for article submission and comment where students can post significant recent publications. Students can also post comments on the published articles, which provides valuable experience in critical analysis. The articles published in NeuroReview are also accessible as PDF files. This could be particularly helpful to users with impaired vision and other special needs.

A further educational motivation for the NeuroReview site is that in the field of neuroscience, publishing is critical. Nonetheless, students at graduate level have surprisingly little experience in writing letters or articles to journals, which requires a different style than does the standard undergraduate essay. NeuroReview provides a forum and a semi-safe environment for where young researchers can try out their ideas and receive feedback from their peers.

In addition, NeuroReview offers a highly accessible introduction for prospective Oxford science students. Neuroscience in Oxford is only as good as the candidates the university is able to attract. NeuroReview could provide an efficient way to promote the study of neuroscience in Oxford and strengthen the role that scientific creativity plays in the university.

NeuroReview is registered in England with an ISSN number (ISSN 1478-5587) and the journal is trademarked under the UK Trademark Act. NeuroReview’s ambition is to become a site around which the neuroscience community in Oxford could come together and a resource that could attract new students to join.

NeuroReview, April 2003.