Format
The editors provide detailed advice about format before contributions are formally accepted for publication. A high priority of Nature Immunology is that all papers be accessible to nonspecialists. Manuscripts are subject to substantial editing to achieve this goal. After acceptance, a copy editor may make further changes so that the text and figures are readable and clear to those outside the field and so that papers conform to our style (including American English spelling).
Contributors are sent proofs and are welcome to discuss proposed changes with the editors, but Nature Immunology reserves the right to make the final decision about matters of style and the size of figures.
References
The reference format for Nature Immunology is identical to that of Nature. References are numbered sequentially as they appear in the text, tables and figure legends. The maximum number of references is 50 for Articles. Only one publication is given for each number, and footnotes are not used. Only papers that have been published or accepted by a named publication should be in the numbered list; papers in preparation should be mentioned in the text with a list of authors (or initials if any of the authors are coauthors of the present contribution). Published conference abstracts and URLs for web sites should be cited parenthetically in the text, not in the reference list. Grant details and acknowledgments are not permitted as numbered references. All authors should be included in reference lists unless there are more than five, in which case only the first author should be given, followed by 'et al.'. Authors should be listed surname first, followed by a comma and initials of given names. Titles of all cited articles are required for all contributions. Titles should be reproduced exactly as they appear in the work cited, ending with a period. Journal names are italicized and abbreviated according to common usage; refer to Index Medicus for details. Volume numbers appear in bold. For book citations, the publisher and city of publication are required.
Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments follow the reference list. They should be brief, and should not include thanks to anonymous referees and editors, or effusive comments. Grant or contribution numbers may be acknowledged.
Figures
Figure legends for Articles begin with a brief title for the whole figure and continue with a short description of each panel and the symbols used. In general, visual cues are preferred to verbal explanations in the legend (e.g. "broken line", "open red triangles" etc.). Ideally legends consist of only one paragraph; move excess detail to the Methods. A statement should be included as to the reproducibility of the data shown. P-values should be stated for all data reported to be significant.
Figures should be presented on separate sheets of paper attached to each copy of the manuscript. Please include one original figure (preferably glossies) and three copies of sufficient quality for review. The figures should be attached to the review copies of the manuscript (rather than enclosed in a separate envelope). In general, multi-part figures should be arranged as they would appear in the final version. Please avoid sending oversized figures (larger than 8.5 x 11" or A4) wherever possible. Each copy should be marked with the figure number and the corresponding author's name. Reduction to the scale that will be used on the page is not necessary, but any special requirements (such as the separation distance of stereo pairs) should be clearly specified. Unnecessary figures and parts (panels) of figures should be avoided: data presented in small tables or histograms, for instance, can generally be stated briefly in the text instead. Figures should not contain more than one panel unless the parts are logically connected; each panel of a multipart figure should be sized so that the whole figure can be reduced by the same amount and reproduced on the printed page at the smallest size at which essential details are visible.
Electronic versions of figures will be requested when a manuscript is accepted for publication and details of acceptable electronic formats will be provided at that time (see below). Please do not send disk copies with the initial manuscript submission, as this merely creates confusion in the event that figures are subsequently modified.
Lettering on figures should be in a clear, sans-serif typeface (Helvetica or equivalent); if possible, the same typeface should be used for all figures in a paper. Figures should be on a white background, and should avoid excessive boxing, unnecessary color, spurious decorative effects (such as three-dimensional 'skyscraper' histograms) and highly pixilated computer drawings. The vertical axis of histograms should not be truncated to exaggerate small differences. The line spacing should be wide enough to remain clear on reduction to the minimum acceptable printed size.
Authors will see a proof of figures. Reasonable requests to enlarge figures will be considered, but editors will make the final decision on figure size. For files supplied so large that they will need to be substantially reduced, labels must be of a sufficient size and contrast to withstand appropriate reduction. In micrographs, scale bars should be used rather than magnification factors, with the length of the bar defined in the legend rather than on the bar itself. If the magnification is given in the legend instead, and we have to reduce your figure, a note will be added in proof for you to check the recalculation of scale is correct. Please ensure you do this.
Cover Art
Authors are encouraged to submit possible cover art for consideration. Cover images are normally linked to specific papers in that issue, but we may also be able to use other images elsewhere in the journal. Illustrations are selected for their scientific interest and esthetic appeal. Please send prints (rather than slides or electronic files) in the first instance. Please also include a clear and concise explanation.
Checklist for Original Artwork
- For line artwork, high quality black and white printouts should be sent- do not send photocopies.
- Hard copies of grayscale figures must be first generation glossy prints. Please do not send printouts of grayscales figures, as the dot pattern on a laser print often creates a moirîaattern when scanned.
- Note: we cannot be held responsible for assuming the cost of corrected reprints should poor quality images need to be used.
Style Points to Bear in Mind when Creating Figures
- Ideally do not place figure numbers (1a,b etc.) on digital files ? leave them clean. Instead, the file names should identify the figure and panel; hard copies should be labeled on the reverse side.
- When adding labels within a figure, use an initial capital letter then lower case letters, units should follow, in parentheses, e.g. "Total protein (mg)". Please use a sans-serif font such as Helvetica, and use the Symbol font for Greek characters.
- Units should have a single space between the number and the unit, and follow SI nomenclature or the nomenclature common to a particular field.
- Unusual units or abbreviations should be spelled out in full or defined in the legend.
- Italicize any genes, use a regular type for proteins.
- Thousands should be separated by commas (1,000) and rarely used (instead, include "103" in front of the units in the axis label).
Avoid
- Boxing around graphs and figures.
- Highly pixilated computer drawing.
- Unnecessary use of italics and bold on the figure.
- Using massively oversized lettering or adding headings to actual graphs - include them in the figure legend instead.
- Overly demarcated axes that cannot be reduced legibly.
Multipart Figures
- If you have already labeled the figure and it is divided into several parts, the parts should be labeled a, b, c and so on.
- If a part is further subdivided, the subparts should be labeled A, B, C.
- On grayscales avoid unnecessary use of a, b and so on where it is simple to refer to left or right, upper or lower parts.
- Lanes on gels, spectral traces, and so on, should be numbered rather than labeled with letters.
Symbols in Figures
- A figure should convey information 'at a glance' without the reader having to pick through a convoluted legend. So we prefer, for example, "(
)" to "filled circle" in legends.
- It is acceptable to provide labels for the curves on a graph or a key to define symbols but two factors should be taken into consideration: if the curves merit lengthy explanation or the symbols denote complex experimental groupings, this will be best written out in the legend to avoid clutter; if figures need to be substantially reduced, keys or labels within the graph that are in small type will become illegible and will therefore be removed.
- Common symbols that are used include filled (not 'closed') and open circles, triangles, squares and diamonds
- Crosses should be avoided because they do not reproduce well.
Credits
- Figures that have been reproduced from elsewhere must be acknowledged: "(from ref. 6)" for example. We require a letter of permission from the copyright holder (usually the publisher, not the author) of the original graph.
Tables
Please avoid submitting tables in digital format as our tables follow a specific style guideline for consistency. Typeset your tables in a word processing document and amend the file to your text document.
Supplementary Web Information
In some cases we reserve the right to move additional details describing experimental methods or providing supplementary data that is relevant to the conclusions of a paper to the Nature Immunology Web site. Such supplementary information often cannot be included in the print version due to space constraints. However, this material is peer-reviewed when the manuscript is under consideration and is posted on the Web site at the time of publication. Supplementary information cannot be altered by the author after the paper has been accepted for publication.
Authors should note that Supplementary Information is not copy edited by Nature Immunology, so they should ensure that it is clearly and succinctly presented, and that the style of terms conforms with the rest of the paper. The following guidelines (also available as a separate printable PDF) detail the creation, citation and submission of supplementary information.
Where there is supplementary information to be included exclusively in the online version of a paper published in Nature Immunology, please follow these guidelines. Publication will be delayed if these guidelines are not followed.
