期刊名称：NATURE REVIEWS IMMUNOLOGY
 期刊简介(About the journal)
投稿须知(Instructions to Authors)
编辑部信息(Editorial Board)
About the journal
Nature Reviews Immunology
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Aims and Scope: Nature Reviews Immunology guarantees that all reviews are carefully commissioned, written by leaders in the field and subject to rigorous peer review - so that readers receive independent, high-quality and authoritative articles in each issue.
The journal's scope covers all areas within the broad field of immunology - from fundamental mechanisms to applied aspects - reviewing the field's most important developments in and out of the laboratory. |
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Information is presented at several levels that can be tailored to your users' individual needs. Non-specialists will benefit from the glossary and highlighted references, and experts will appreciate the insight provided by top names in their field. A major teaching and reference resource from NPG.
Instructions to Authors
A guide to Nature Reviews journals
INTRODUCTION ONLINE FEATURES
Nature Reviews mission statement Navigation
How to view an article
ORGANIZATION OF CONTENT Links
Highlights Animation and videos
Reviews Author biographies
Perspectives
IN-HOUSE EDITORIAL PROCEDURES REPRINTS AND PERMISSIONS
Commissioning articles COMPETING FINANCIAL INTERESTS
Graphics POLICY ON BIOSECURITY ISSUES
Peer review INDEXING INFORMATION
Correspondence
INTRODUCTION
After initially launching titles in Genetics, Neuroscience and Molecular Cell Biology, the series has been extended to cover Cancer and Immunology, both introduced in October 2001, and Drug Discovery, which was launched in January 2002. Whatever your discipline, Nature Reviews provides access to the highest quality overview of your field.
Nature Reviews mission statement
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ORGANIZATION OF CONTENT
Highlights
Reviews
Perspectives
IN-HOUSE EDITORIAL PROCEDURES
Commissioning articles
Graphics
Peer review
Reviews and Perspectives are subject to rigorous peer review. The purpose of peer review is to ensure that our articles are balanced and accurate. Authors are encouraged to express their opinions, but a clear distinction is made between generally accepted views and more personal perspectives.
Correspondence
Items of correspondence will be considered for publication online at the editors' discretion. These should be no more than 500 words long, and contain up to 15 references and no more than 2 display items. Editors reserve the right to edit items of correspondence.
Correspondence should be submitted by e-mail to: naturereviews@nature.com
ONLINE FEATURES
Navigation
How to view an article
Links
Most of our articles feature linking from the text. Proteins, protein domains, genes and diseases are linked to specific pages in relevant and high-quality public databases. Links are also provided to related sources of information and relevant web sites. The links are listed in the 'Links box' at the end of Reviews and Perspectives articles. We do not provide a full listing of all the URLs of the linked resources in print ¡ª the most efficient way to take advantage of these links is go to the relevant article in our online journals, and explore the online resources from there. Links are provided to articles by the in-house editorial teams under the guidance of authors.
Animation and videos
Improvements in microscopy, labelling methods and image analysis have allowed many living systems to be studied with video-based techniques. We provide links to relevant video material wherever possible. We also animate some of our graphics, to make clearer the process that is being illustrated.
Author biographies
A link at the end of the author list in the 'enhanced text' versions of articles takes you to a short biography about the author.
The genetic basis of mammalian neurulation
REPRINTS AND PERMISSIONS
Reprints
If you are interested in obtaining reprints of a Nature Reviews article, please contact Trace Wildash for further details and a quotation of costs:
t.wildash@nature.com
Tel: +44 (0) 1256 302887
FAX: +44 (0) 1256 810526
Permissions
All material published in Nature Reviews titles is protected by copyright law. For permission to use figures or images from any Nature Reviews title, please contact the Nature Reviews office for further details:
naturereviews@nature.com
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7843 3601
FAX: +44 (0) 20 7843 3629
COMPETING FINANCIAL INTERESTS
In the interests of transparency and to help readers to form their own judgements of possible bias, the Nature journals now require authors of primary and secondary research articles to declare any competing financial interests relating to papers accepted for publication. A detailed explanation of why this policy has been adopted can be found at the end of the statement.
The policy applies to all articles published in the Review and Perspective sections of the Nature Reviews journals.
Authors are required, before final acceptance of their contribution, to return a declaration of competing financial interests. A shortened version of this declaration is published as part of the paper, with a more detailed version, if appropriate, published online accompanying the paper. Authors may use the form to decline to disclose their financial interests, but we will publish the fact that they have declined to provide information.
The declaration form will be sent to the corresponding author only at the time of acceptance and the corresponding author is asked to reply on behalf of all the authors. The form can also be downloaded via http://www.nature.com/reviews/guide/Competingform.pdf
Definition
For the purposes of this statement, competing interests are defined as those of a financial nature that, through their potential influence on behaviour or content or from perception of such potential influences, could undermine the objectivity, integrity or perceived value of a publication.
They may include any of the following:
Funding: research support (including salaries, equipment, supplies, reimbursement for attending symposia, and other expenses) by organizations that may gain or lose financially through publication of the paper.
Employment: recent (while engaged in the research project), present or anticipated employment by any organization that may gain or lose financially through publication of the paper.
Personal financial interests: stocks or shares in companies that may gain or lose financially through publication; consultation fees or other forms of remuneration from organizations that may gain or lose financially; patents or patent applications whose value may be affected by publication.
It is difficult to specify a threshold at which a financial interest becomes significant, but note that many US universities require faculty members to disclose interests exceeding $10,000 or 5% equity in a company (see, for example, B. Lo et al. New Engl. J. Med. 343, 1616-1620; 2000). Any such figure is necessarily arbitrary, so we offer as one possible practical alternative guideline: "Any undeclared competing financial interests that could embarrass you were they to become publicly known after your work was published."
We do not consider diversified mutual funds or investment trusts to constitute a competing financial interest.
Application to authors
Unless/until the paper is published, authors' declarations will be considered confidential, and will not be disclosed to referees.
The published paper indicates the authors' response using one of the following standard wordings:
The authors declare competing financial interests: see Web version for details.
The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests.
The authors decline to provide information about competing financial interests.
For papers with more than one author, the corresponding author (the person responsible for communication with the journal) should provide a declaration on behalf of all authors.
We recognize that a comprehensive declaration could become unwieldy if a paper has too many authors or an author has numerous financial interests. If this is the case and itemized disclosure is unfeasible, editors may invite authors to use the following standard wording as an alternative: "The authors declare that their competing financial interests in this work are too numerous to itemize."
We also recognise that some authors may be bound by confidentiality agreements. In such cases the authors may be invited to use the following standard wording as an alternative to itemized disclosure: " The authors declare that they are bound by confidentiality agreements that prevent them from disclosing their financial interests in this work".
We do not require authors to state the monetary value of their financial interests.
Application to referees
The Nature Reviews journals invite referees to exclude themselves in cases where there is a significant conflict of interest, financial or otherwise. However, just as financial interests need not invalidate the conclusions of a paper, nor do they automatically disqualify a referee from evaluating it. Referees are asked to inform the editors of any related interests, including financial interests as defined above, that might be perceived as relevant. Editors will consider these statements when weighing referees' recommendations.
Application to editors
All editorial staff are required to declare to their employer any interests - financial or otherwise - that might influence, or be perceived to influence, their editorial practices. Failure to do so is a disciplinary offence.
Application to publishing policy
All of the Nature Publishing Group (NPG) journals thrive on their independence. Their strict policy is that editorial independence, decisions and content should not be compromised by commercial or financial interests, or by any specific arrangements with advertising clients or sponsors. Our policy is to disclose such arrangements where there is any risk of a perception of compromise on this issue. A list of all sponsors associated with Nature Publishing Group can be seen at http://npg.nature.com/npg/servlet/Content?data=xml/10_clients.xml&style=xml/10_clients.xsl
Reasons for policy
The introduction of this policy is based on a recognition of potential problems for three principal reasons.
First, there is suggestive evidence in the literature that publication practices in biomedical research have been influenced by the commercial interests of authors. Several related discussions that contain the relevant references can be found in the Journal of the American Medical Association, 1 November 2000 (for example, A D DeAngelis Conflict of interest and the public trust. J. Am. Med. Assoc. 284, 2237-2238; 2000; see also Nature Neuroscience 3, 299; 2000). This evidence is consistent with the truism that, although, in principle, science may be objective and its findings independent of other interests, scientists can be imperfect and subjective. There are circumstances where selection of evidence, interpretation of results or emphasis of presentation might be inadvertently or even deliberately biased by a researcher's other interests.
Second, there is a more general concern among researchers and others about the possible undermining of the integrity of scientific research by increasing commercial links and consequent influences. We believe that the best way to maintain readers' trust in the integrity of the research we publish is through a policy of transparency. If financial interests are disclosed, readers will be able to make an informed judgment about their significance or lack of significance. We believe this will be to the benefit of readers and authors alike.
Third, many institutions have introduced policies on competing interests that require authors to include descriptions of financial and other interests in publications. We are happy to support them.
We do not expect to police this policy ourselves: we believe that primary responsibility for ensuring that researchers' conduct is appropriate lies with their employers, rather than with journal editors. However, where we believe trust has been significantly compromised by an author's actions, we will seek to redress the matter by an appropriate combination of sanctions and communications to readers and employers.
We welcome comments and suggestions about this policy, which should be sent to nature@nature.com, marked "Competing interests policy".
Dr Philip Campbell
Editor, Nature
Editor-in-Chief, Nature publications
Editorial Board
Editor
Elaine Bell, PhD
Elaine Bell obtained her PhD on the molecular characterisation of sheep CD1 from the University of Edinburgh. During this time, she had the opportunity to spend some time in Basel at the Institute for Immunology. After completing her PhD, she spent two and a half years in Oxford, working on human cell-adhesion interactions with David Simmons. Following a year in Vancouver in Fumio Takei's lab, Elaine returned to the UK and a brief postdoc in Nottingham. Elaine moved into scientific publishing in August 1999, joining the Trends team at Elsevier Science London as Editor of Immunology Today. As Editor of Nature Reviews Immunology, Elaine retains a broad interest in all aspects of immunology, with particular interests in the regulation of immune responses and the immunology of infectious disease.
Associate Editor
Kirsty Minton
Kirsty Minton studied at Cambridge University, gaining a triple first in Natural Sciences. She specialized in cellular immunology and pathology in her final year and carried out a research project with Nick Holmes, looking at the activity of the intracellular domains of CD45. After leaving Cambridge, Kirsty spent 18 months as a research assistant at the Royal Free Hospital in London, during which time she realised that she was better suited to communicating than doing. She joined Trends in Immunology as Assistant Editor in February 2001, and after a year spent learning the ropes of science publishing, moved to Nature Reviews Immunology as copyeditor. She soon proved her interest and ability, and progressed to Assistant Editor. Having recently been promoted to Associate Editor, Kirsty is now looking forward to meeting the readers and authors of NRI in the near future.
Associate Editor
Karen Honey
Karen Honey obtained her D. Phil from Oxford University where she worked in Herman Waldmann's laboratory studying the mechanisms underlying tolerance induced in the presence of monoclonal antibodies. She moved to Seattle in 1999 to continue her research as a postdoctoral fellow with Alexander Rudensky. In Seattle her research focused on understanding the role of lysosomal proteases in the antigen-presentation pathways that induce the development of CD4+ T cells and natural killer T cells. As Associate Editor at Nature Reviews Immunology, Karen brings to the team experience in many aspects of cellular immunology and she is looking forward to further developing this interest and to extending her knowledge of the interaction between the innate and adaptive immune systems.
Associate Editor
Lucy Bird, D.Phil
Lucy Bird's interest in immunology arose from her undergraduate degree in Cellular and Molecular Pathology at the University of Bristol. Following this, she obtained a D. Phil from Oxford University where she worked with Andrew McMichael and Paul Bowness. Her research focused on understanding the role of HLA-B27 in autoimmune disease, in particular exploring novel hypotheses of disease pathogenesis and the unique features of HLA-B27 that underlie its disease association. She joined Nature Reviews Immunology as copyeditor in February 2003 and has enjoyed gaining a broad knowledge of all aspects of immunology. Having recently been promoted to Associate Editor, Lucy is looking forward to further developing her skills as an editor and building on her interests in autoimmune disease and HIV research.
Contact information
Email: NatureReviews@nature.com
Address: Nature Reviews Journals, Porters South, 4 Crinan Street, London N1 9XW, UK
Fax: 44 (0)20 7843 3629
Tel: 44 (0)20 7843 3620
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