Aims & Scope

The International Journal of Neonatal Screening (IJNS) owned by the International Society for Neonatal Screening (ISNS). IJNS is also the official journal of the German Society for Neonatal Screening (DGNS), the Japanese Society for Neonatal Screening (JSNS), the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL)–Newborn Screening and Genetics Program and the UK Newborn Screening Laboratory Network (UKNSLN).

The mission of the ISNS is to enhance the quality of neonatal screening and medical services through the dissemination of information, guidelines, and best practices that benefit all family members and their babies by helping to ensure the protection of babies from life-quality threatening conditions, such as phenylketonuria, congenital hypothyroidism, severe combined immunodeficiency, cystic fibrosis, hemoglobinopathies, and many others.

IJNS seeks to improve the communication between academic professionals in newborn screening organizations worldwide by publishing peer-reviewed papers pertaining to the entire neonatal screening cycle, in line with that mission.

IJNS is a peer-reviewed open access online journal, which will serve as the unique and universal platform for all newborn screening relevant topics of interest to the following: pediatricians specialized in inborn errors of metabolism, pediatric endocrinologists, pediatric pneumologists, pediatric immunologists, clinical chemists, biochemists, molecular biologists, geneticists, genetic counselors, neonatologists, public health specialists and authorities, professionals with an interest in ethical, legal and societal impact of neonatal screening, and professionals with an interest in public health policy making and neonatal screening policies.

IJNS will accept scientific contributions pertaining to the entire neonatal screening system, including parent information, (innovation in) screening procedures, blood sampling, laboratory analysis (including innovations in laboratory methods, new methods for new disorders, laboratory ICT workflow, and reporting systems and genomics in neonatal screening), innovation in reporting of laboratory results to parents, diagnostic procedures, therapy in neonatal screening disorders, screening policies, application of medical ethical frameworks (including parent consent), short-term and long-term follow-up, and the biobanking of dried blood spot samples.

Case reports are in principal acceptable if a clear link with neonatal screening and screening disorders is made obvious (e.g., noteworthy cases identified during routine NBS, providing valuable insights for healthcare professionals). IJNS will not accept papers in the field of prenatal screening, unless in rare cases when related to current neonatal screening (e.g., prenatal screening for Medium-chain acyl-coenzyme A dehydrogenase deficiency (MCADD), which is an established neonatal screening disorder). Neonatal screening mostly pertains to screening using blood spots on blood collection cards, but hearing loss screening and screening for critical congenital heart disease are also within the scope. Also, manuscripts on birth defects detected in the neonatal phase of life are within the scope as long as there is a link with screening, i.e., the approach systematically pursues health benefits for the population screened.

IJNS welcomes the following:

• Research articles;
• Reviews;
• Technical notes;
• Case reports focused on cases found in NBS;
• Letters: Comments on previous articles or relevant topics related to NBS.

Full instructions to authors are available online here.