Full-Length Articles: The JI publishes novel peer-reviewed results in all areas of experimental immunology. Descriptions of new reagents, research techniques, or clinical case reports usually are appropriate only to the extent that they provide innovative insights into unresolved problems or represent major breakthroughs. Major criteria for acceptance are quality, originality, clarity, and conciseness. Submission of a manuscript implies that the data have not been published previously and will not be submitted for publication elsewhere while the manuscript is under review.
"Cutting Edge" Articles: "Cutting Edge" is the rapid publication section of The JI, presenting short reports describing significant advances in an area of immunology. Manuscripts submitted for consideration in this section should present scientifically sound and novel research in a clear and concise fashion and contain conclusions of unusual interest to immunologists that are justified from the data presented. Chief criteria for acceptance are scientific novelty and quality, originality, clarity, and conciseness. In addition to research articles, the "Cutting Edge" publishes invited brief commentaries on controversial subjects of broad interest to immunologists.
"In This Issue": A small number of papers regarded by reviewers and editors as among the top 10% reviewed in their field are highlighted in this two-page section written by staff writers.
"Letters to the Editor": The Editor-in-Chief invites brief letters (250 words or less) of general interest, commenting on work published in The JI within the previous three months. A limited number of letters will be selected for publication. The authors of the original work will be invited to respond to any letters commenting on their manuscript, and both the original letter and the author?s response will be published together.
"Brief Reviews": The JI publishes a small number of invited brief reviews on a regular basis. Brief reviews are four to six journal pages in length, including illustrations and references. They cover a focused area on the advancing edge of immunology and provide a balanced view of current research that can be understood by researchers outside of that specialty. Authors interested in publication of a brief review may submit a proposal, including an outline of the proposed review, by letter or e-mail to the Editor-in-Chief.
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EDITORIAL POLICIES FOR MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION
Prior publication: Submission of a manuscript to The JI implies that the content has not been published previously and will not be submitted for publication elsewhere while the manuscript is under review. The JI considers research results (excluding abstracts and student dissertations) to have already been published if they are publicly available with a fixed content, i.e. content is in an unalterable form, and are citable in any language. Submissions for which these criteria are true must contain a statement of disclosure to the Editor. It is at the Editor?s discretion whether or not to allow peer review of the work in these instances. Previous publication of a particular figure may not prevent subsequent publication in The JI if that figure is shown to be essential to the submitted paper and does not constitute the major contribution. Previously published portions of a paper must be accompanied by a permission release from the copyright holder and must be cited. Preprints, whether paper copies or non-citable postings on a publicly accessible web site, are not considered to be publications, nor are poster presentations of work at a conference. An invited paper published in a non-peer-reviewed journal, however, would be considered a prior publication.
Distribution and depositing of materials:
Unique materials: It is required that unique materials described in manuscripts published in The JI will be made available, within reason, to qualified investigators. An agreement to this effect is included in the manuscript submission form.
High-Resolution Structural Data: Any paper submitted to The JI which contains new high-resolution structural data requires an accession number from the Brookhaven Protein Data Bank and assurance that unrestricted release will occur at or before the time of publication.
Nucleotide sequences: Original nucleotide sequences and determined nucleotide sequences encoding reported amino acid sequences described in the manuscript must be submitted to GenBank or EMBL Data Library at the time of manuscript submission; an accession number and sequence availability are required at the time of publication. Sequences of nucleotides or amino acids longer than 50 bases/ residues should not be presented in the text or in table form, but rather should be submitted as a publication-quality figure. Instructions on submission of data may be obtained directly from GenBank (Mail Stop K710, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545) or from the European Molecular Biology Library, Nucleotide Sequence Library (Postfach 10.2209, Meyerhofstrasse 1, 6900 Heidelberg, Germany) or see NCBI's GenBank site.
DNA Microarray Data: Manuscripts describing genome- or proteome-scale analyses should provide novel insight into immune system process and/or function. Like other scientific approaches current experimental, quantitation, verification, and statistical analyses are expected. Microarray experiments should be Minimum Information About a Microarray Experiment (MIAME) compliant (for guidelines see www.mged.org/miame). Whereas limited on-line space may be available for supplemental tables associated with the manuscript, complete microarray data must be deposited in the appropriate public database (e.g. GEO or Array Express and must be accessible without restriction from the date of publication. An entry name or accession number must be included in the paper before publication.
Copyright: All manuscripts are considered to be the property of the submitting author(s) until such time as a decision is made and the copyright is officially assigned by the authors to the AAI. However, by submitting the manuscripts to The JI, the authors agree to subject it to the confidential peer review process outlined in the following pages; editors and reviewers are informed that the manuscript must be considered confidential.
Manuscripts published in The JI become the sole property of, with all rights in copyright reserved to, the AAI. A copyright assignment form is signed by the corresponding author on behalf of all authors. Authors of articles written as part of their official duties as employees of the U.S. Government are exempt from this requirement for assignment transfer of copyright.
Request permission to use material from The JI.
Duplicate Publication and Scientific Fraud: In the case of possible scientific misconduct, i.e. suspected fabrication or falsification of data, double publication, or plagiarism, the Editor-in-Chief will attempt to clarify the matter with each of the authors. Should that fail to resolve the situation satisfactorily, the Editor-in-Chief will contact the institution of the corresponding author. The institution should then make an inquiry and report back to the Editor-in-Chief. Until the matter is clarified, no papers by any authors on the disputed manuscript will be considered for publication. If scientific misconduct is confirmed by institutional review, the Editor-in-Chief will report this to the Publications Committee. Appropriate action will be decided by the Publications Committee in consultation with the Council of the AAI.
Embargo policy: For manuscripts considered to be "in press" or approved for publication, the public release of information should not precede the actual publication of the work. The publication date is defined as the date the first copy is mailed from our printer (or the first day the issue is posted full-text online) for manuscripts approved for publication and considered to be "in press." Please note that the issue date and mail date do not necessarily coincide. This embargo policy protects the peer review process and the newsworthiness of the scientific content of published articles, and minimizes the chance for the appearance in the lay press of misinformation relating to those articles. This policy also ensures that scientists have access to all relevant information at the same time the general public is made aware of it. Obviously, these restrictions cannot apply to the presentation of the work at scientific conferences or symposia that precede the actual publication date. Although news reporters may be present at such meetings or symposia, information, tables, or illustrations that in any way duplicate the content of a manuscript submitted for publication or "in press" should not be provided to reporters by the authors. In particular, press conferences should not be held prior to the embargo date. The official release of videotape presentations and electronic prepublication of articles on the Internet should also adhere to the embargo policy. Violation of these policies are legitimate grounds for withdrawal of the manuscript from publication and/or other measures that The JI may choose to take.
Financial disclosure: Authors of submitted papers that contain information affecting actual or potential products must declare any financial interests in the product or potentially competing products held by them, their spouses and/or their minor children. Financial interests include employment, consultancies, honoraria in excess of $5,000 per year for the preceding five years. It also includes expert testimony, royalties, grants or patents received or pending, stock and equity interests (diversified mutual funds or investment trusts do not constitute competing financial interests). It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to review this policy with all authors and to list collectively the appropriate commercial relationships. All disclosure will remain confidential during the review process but papers accepted for publication will acknowledge financial interests in a published footnote describing the nature of the interests. If authors declare no financial interests or if authors decline to provide information, this also will be noted in a published footnote.
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All publication fees are to be paid in U.S. dollars. Accepted manuscripts are published only upon commitment by the author(s) or institutional financial officer to pay these charges.
Submission Fee: Non-AAI members are required to pay $50 for processing each submitted manuscript. Click here for a printable form to pay by check or credit card.
Page Charges: Authors are charged $60 for each printed page for the first 8 pages, $150 for 9-12 pages, and $210 for 13 pages or more. There is also a $150 online posting fee per manuscript.
Color reproduction charges: The author must request in the cover letter color reproduction with the submitted manuscript. The cost for publishing the first figure on each page is $900, and $300 is charged for the second and subsequent figures on the same page. (i.e., 1st figure on 1st page: $900; 2nd figure on 1st page: $300; 1st figure on 2nd page: $900). Color figures may include multiple color panels. Authors will be notified of the additional cost of color reproduction and must confirm acceptance of the charges in writing.
Reprints: Reprints must be ordered in advance of publication. A form showing the cost of reprints, together with an order slip, is sent with the page proofs. The invoice for reprints will include page charges. Reprint orders from non-contributors must be directed to the Editorial Office.
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Manuscripts should be submitted to:
Dr. Robert R. Rich, Editor-in-Chief
The Journal of Immunology
9650 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, Maryland 20814¨C3998, USA
Technical Requirements: Authors can find the submission forms on The JI?s Web site at www.jimmunol.org. Authors must print the submission form, complete the information on the form, sign it, and include the signed copy with the submission package mailed to The JI. Authors may also use the Full-Length form or the "Cutting Edge" form appearing in the first issue of each volume. In addition to the signed copy of the submission form, five copies of the manuscript, one set of publication-quality figures, and four copies of the figures are required; if figures are photographs, all copies should be publication quality. The entire manuscript must be typed double spaced on one side of good quality paper. A 12-point serif font, preferably Times New Roman, is required. Compressed type format should not be used. Manuscript and figures are not returned to authors. The average length of full-length articles is eight printed pages. Instructions for estimating the printed length of a manuscript are included below. Each of the following components should begin on a separate page:
- The Title Page must include the full title; a running title (not to exceed 60 characters); the author's full name (first name, middle initial, surname); the affiliations of all authors and their institutions, departments or organizations (use the following symbols in this order: *, ?, ?, ?, ?, ||, #, **, ??, ??, ??, ??, ##); and three to five keywords, selected from the Keyword List that describe the topic of the manuscript. (Keywords are used in editor and reviewer assignment and are not published with the manuscript. Please note that the list of keywords does not represent an exhaustive view of what The JI considers to be important topics, but it has been found to be useful for assignment purposes.)
- The Abstract must be 250 words or less. Reference citations should not be included in the abstract. The species of animals or species of origin of cells used in the manuscript must be clearly stated in the abstract.
- The introduction, "Materials and Methods", "Results", and "Discussion" sections should be appear on separate pages. Do not combine the "Results" and "Discussion" sections for Full-Length papers.
- Acknowledgments appear immediately after the text and before references. Grant support must not be included in the acknowledgments but should be cited as a footnote to the title.
- References must be numbered as they appear in the text. All authors must be listed for each reference. If citations are included in tables or in figure legends, they must be numbered according to the position of citation of the table or figure in the text. Only published papers and papers "in press" may be included in the references. Five copies of all "in press" manuscripts cited must accompany the submission. Citations of "manuscripts in preparation," "unpublished observations," and "personal communications" must appear parenthetically in the text. Manuscripts "submitted for publication" are cited as footnotes to the text. Written approval by the person(s) cited in personal communications must accompany the manuscript unless they are also an author of the manuscript submitted to The JI.
Format for references:
Periodicals: 1. Wells, A. D., M. C. Walsh, D. Sankaran, L. A. Turka. 2000. T cell effector function and anergy avoidance are quantitatively linked to cell division. J. Immunol. 165:2432.
Books: 2. McIntyre, T. M., and W. Strober. 1999. Regulation of IgA B-cell development. In Mucosal Immunology 2nd Ed. P. L. Ogra, J. Mestecky, M. E. Lamm, W. Strober, J. Bienenstock, and J. R. McGee, eds. Academic Press, San Diego, p. 319.
- Footnotes should be used to designate the source of support, new or special abbreviations used, correspondence address, current address, manuscripts submitted for publication, etc. Footnotes are numbered consecutively in order of appearance in the text, but are grouped together and placed on a separate page between the References and the Figure Legends.
- Abbreviations that may be used without definition are provided below all other abbreviations must be defined in a footnote. Abbreviations and their definitions must be consistent throughout the text.
- Figure legends must be numbered with Arabic numerals in order of appearance in the text and should include a short title after the figure number. Where possible, symbols and patterns used to distinguish data should be defined in a key placed within the graphic rather than in the figure legend.
- Tables must be numbered with Roman numerals in order of appearance in the text. Table legends are prepared as footnotes to the table and are included with the table.
- Figures should be submitted in final size (printed 1:1). Figures may be printed in one of two formats: single column (width from 3.37 to 8.23 cm or 20 picas) and double column (width from 12.65 to 17.1 cm or 42 picas). The single column format is preferred. If it is necessary to submit figures that require reduction or enlargement, the above indicated sizes must be achievable after resizing. Patterns consisting of black and white hatched or crosshatched designs should be used instead of shading or screening. Text in figures should be 6-8 points in size, except for single letter markers which may be 12 points. A sans serif font such as Helvetica should be used for all figure text (except for the use of symbols). Line widths must be greater than 1 point thick or they will not appear on the PDF version of the article. Figures must be numbered as they appear in the text and marked carefully on the reverse side with figure number, first author?s name, and orientation (top). Authors should follow the guidelines at the Cadmus Digital Art Web site when submitting figures. A different figure appears on the cover of each issue of The JI. Authors are encouraged to submit color figures in their manuscripts for possible use as cover illustrations.
- Estimation for printed pages One printed page in The JI contains approximately 8,000 characters, including spaces. Thus, an eight page full-length article would contain approximately 64,000 characters. Each line in a table occupies about 60 characters for a single-column table (120 characters for a double-column table). Figures occupy about 180 characters per centimeter height for single-column figures (360 characters for double-column figures). Determine the total character count for the text of your manuscript and add the character-equivalents for the tables and figures. This will provide a reasonable estimate for the printed length of a manuscript.
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Manuscripts submitted to The JI?s rapid publication "Cutting Edge" section should conform to the Information for Authors for full-length manuscripts presented above as well as the additional guidelines listed below:
- Each manuscript must be accompanied by the current "Cutting Edge" Submission Form (which is distinct from the Full-Length Submission Form). The "Cutting Edge" Submission Form is located online and appears in the first volume.
- List the phone number, fax number, and e-mail address of the corresponding author on the title page.
- The Abstract is limited to 150 words. The species of animals or species of origin of cells used in the manuscript must be clearly stated in the abstract.
- The "Materials and Methods" section may be sharply limited but should be sufficient to allow the evaluation of results and conclusions.
- Authors may combine the "Results" and "Discussion" sections.
- "Cutting Edge" articles, including figures and references, must fit within four journal pages. Authors should estimate the size of figures and tables and limit the text accordingly. One printed page in The JI contains approximately 8,000 characters, including spaces. Thus, a four-page "Cutting Edge" article would contain approximately 32,000 characters. The formula for calculating the number of pages is provided in "Manuscript Preparation".
- "Cutting Edge" submissions require five copies of the manuscript; all gray-scale images should be submitted as publication quality prints. In addition to hard copies of the manuscript, "Cutting Edge" authors are required to submit a CD or a 3.5-inch computer disk containing an electronic version of the text and figures. The word processing program used should be identified on the disk and on the submission form. The figures must be provided in one of the following formats: GIF, TIFF, or PCX.
- Add "Attention: Cutting Edge" to the mailing label, and mail manuscripts to the same address listed for full-length submissions.
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Follow carefully and thoroughly the instructions provided in the "Checklist for Revision" provided by The JI editorial office. The submission must be accompanied by a revised manuscript submission form and a point-by-point reply to all referee comments. A revised manuscript not returned within nine months will be considered a new manuscript and subject to a new, complete review. One unmarked copy of the revised manuscript is submitted with the requested number of copies of the revised manuscript, which are marked to indicate revisions. Each manuscript copy should include legible copies of the figures. In addition, authors should identify any figures that have been revised and include one set of publication-quality prints for any revised figure. Authors should submit all figures as digital art, which should be provided on a separate CD or disk. Instructions can be found at the Cadmus Digital Art Web site. Digital art will result in better resolution in print and online. The Digital Art Submission Checklist (downloaded from the Digital Art Web site) must also be provided with the CD or disk.
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All supplemental material accompanying an article should be submitted with the original paper for peer review and must be submitted on a separate disk or CD and clearly labeled. Supplemental material should be limited to large tables (two or more pages), large data sets such as those obtained with microarray hybridization experiments, sequence alignments, and short videos (no longer than 30 seconds and must be under 10 MB, with no sound, or voice over). Videos must be 320 x 480 pixels in size for best viewing within a browser. Videos should be submitted in QuickTime 3.0 or higher format. This will require that the video files contain the ".mov" extension that qualifies a QuickTime file in a PC. All supplemental material must be accompanied by legends or short explanations of the material. Links to the material will appear in two places in the on-line journal: in the Table of Contents and in the information box associated with the first page of the full-text article. There will not be any links in the body of the article. In the printed paper supplemental material should be footnoted the first time mentioned: "The on-line version of this article contains supplemental material." Authors will be notified if problems exist with videos as submitted and will be asked to take responsibility for modifications. No editing will be done to the videos at the editorial office.
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Process: After a manuscript is received, it is assigned by the Scientific Review Coordinator to a specific Deputy Editor and a Section Editor, whose expertise is considered to be appropriate. The Section Editor prepares a list of expert reviewers, which may include some suggested by the Scientific Review Coordinator. Authors can indicate specific individuals whom they would like to have excluded as reviewers as well as individuals thought to be particularly appropriate, although these suggestions may not always be accepted. Generally, requests to exclude certain potential reviewers will be honored except in fields with a limited number of experts.
All potential reviewers are contacted individually to determine availability. Copies of the manuscript are sent to at least two expert reviewers. Reviewers are asked to complete the review of the manuscript within two weeks and to return a short review form. Based on the reviewers comments, the Section Editor recommends a course of action and communicates the reviews and recommendations to the Deputy Editor for a final decision.
The Deputy Editor considers the comments made by the reviewers and the recommendation of the Section Editor, selects those comments to be shared with the authors, makes a final decision concerning the manuscript, and prepares the decision letter for signature by the Editor-in-Chief. If revisions of the manuscript are suggested, the Deputy Editor also recommends who should review the revised paper when resubmitted. Authors are informed of the decision by fax; appropriate comments from reviewers and editors are appended.
Decisions Types: There are four decision categories for initial decisions: accept, accept with minor revision, resubmit with revision, and reject. Some manuscripts are accepted provisionally, pending relatively minor revisions. In this case, the Deputy Editor may conduct the re-review. For many manuscripts, authors are invited to resubmit if major criticisms can be addressed by revision and/or additional experimentation. Typically one or more reviewers will then be asked to consider the adequacy of the revisions. "Cutting Edge" papers are allowed only minor revisions because of time constraints. All revised manuscripts are carefully reexamined, and ultimate acceptability is not guaranteed. The JI does not provide for an advance determination of the acceptability of a particular manuscript for publication, nor does it promise expedited review of selected manuscripts.
Communication with Authors: To minimize the possibility of misinterpretation and/or errors in verbal communication, the editorial office will provide information only to the corresponding author and will not provide extensive details (e.g. exact status of a review or a predicted time to final decision). Deputy Editors do not take calls from authors concerning decisions or other related matters. All such inquiries should be addressed in writing to the Editor-in-Chief, who will discuss concerns with the Deputy Editor. This policy has been established to provide for uniformity and fairness in addressing concerns about the review process.
Rebuttals: If the authors believe that a serious scientific error occurred during the review, a letter of rebuttal may be sent to the Editor-in-Chief, explaining the reasons why the decision should be reconsidered. When appropriate, the matter will be taken up with the initial Deputy Editor, Section Editor, and/or additional reviewers. Rebuttals that challenge rejections that were based upon priority alone are rarely successful, since the assignment of priority is necessarily a matter of opinion. If the authors of a rejected manuscript are able to make new advances that go far beyond the original submission, they will often expedite consideration of their paper through the submission of a completely new manuscript.
The JI Reviewers
Selection: Selection of reviewers is the responsibility of the Section Editor, although the Scientific Review Coordinator makes recommendations to the Section Editor from the list of individuals who have reviewed manuscripts previously. This database includes the self-identified areas of expertise as well as information about the perceived usefulness and timeliness of past reviews. Individuals who consistently have provided tardy reviews or unhelpful reviews are removed from the database. Every effort is made to avoid both real and apparent conflicts of interest with respect to research activities or collaborative or personal interactions, and reviewers are asked to withdraw from considering any manuscript in which they identify a conflict that has escaped the attention of the Section Editor.
Scientific Integrity: Information contained in manuscripts is considered confidential and should not be shared or distributed. If necessary, a reviewer can consult with others for an adequate evaluation of the research findings provided that all individuals involved maintain confidentiality, objectivity, and avoid conflict of interest. The AAI is not responsible for acts and conduct by reviewers that are not in accordance with accepted professional standards. Reviewers are asked to be objective in their evaluations and to judge primarily the novelty and soundness of the information presented.
Anonymity: Although reviews are anonymous, all comments should be capable of withstanding public scrutiny. Except in very unusual circumstances, the identity of the reviewers and Section and Deputy Editors involved in the review of any given manuscript is kept confidential.
The JI Editorial Board: The Editor-in-Chief is appointed by the AAI Council upon recommendation of the Publications Committee for a term of five years. Deputy Editors, Section Editors, and Associate Editors are nominated by the Editor-in-Chief and appointed by the Publications Committee. Deputy Editors are appointed for variable terms. Section Editors and Associate Editors are appointed for one renewable term of two years in most circumstances. The Editor-in-Chief, the Deputy Editors, and the Section Editors constitute the Editorial Board and as such are required to be members of the AAI. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the specific editorial conduct of The JI. The AAI Publications Committee is responsible for the management and evaluation of The JI and any other official publications of the AAI, subject to the general supervision of the AAI Council.
Manuscripts Submitted from the Institution of an Editor: Manuscripts submitted from the institution of any Section or Deputy Editor or the Editor-in-Chief are handled by other editors from outside that institution. The Editorial Office ensures confidentiality and equity in handling all manuscripts.
