Instructions to authors
Open Access Options for Authors
International Immunology is now part of Oxford Open. For more information please see the 'Open Access' section below.
International Immunology processes submitted articles online. Please see the detailed instructions page.
General
International Immunology publishes experimental and theoretical studies from all areas of immunology and includes research conducted in laboratories throughout the world.
Areas that are covered include allergy, antigen processing, autoimmunity, chemical and structural immunology, cytokines and chemokines, development of leukocytes and lymphoid organs, immunogenetics, infection immunity and inflammation, innate immunity, leukocyte effector functions and senescence, leukocyte signalling, mucosal immunity, phylogeny of the immune system, regulation of immune responses, transplantation, tumour immunology, and vaccination. Studies from related biological disciplines that have direct implications for immunology are also considered.
The editorial procedures of International Immunology are designed to involve a large and geographically diverse group of Transmitting Editors and Editorial Board members, who are specialists in their field and help to decide which papers are accepted for publication. Through the most careful selection of papers published, International Immunology provides a concentrated source of leading research.
The journal publishes only new material. Submission of a paper will be taken to imply that it reports unpublished work and that the work is not being considered for publication elsewhere. Submission will, furthermore, be taken to imply that, if the paper is published, hybridomas, cell lines, gene clones, rDNA constructs, etc., used in the studies described therein will be made available to interested investigators for their use only in their own research.
There is no absolute restriction on length of manuscripts. There will be no page charges, although payment for colour illustrations will be required (£350/$600 per colour figure). The URL of each contribution will be provided free of charge.
TYPES OF PAPERS ACCEPTED
The main part of each issue is devoted to original research papers, which should present new results of interest to a broad spectrum of immunologists. These articles must describe significant and original observations, especially those that provide mechanistic biological insights. Papers describing only specialized methods are not acceptable unless they contain meaningful results obtained with the methods. The mere description of, for example, a new monoclonal antibody, a protein or DNA sequence, a structure or an epitope is generally unacceptable unless it provides significant insight about the immune system.
The journal also includes commissioned, topical review articles.
There is a Fast Track section, for which short and definitive papers of outstanding quality and urgency should be sent directly to the Editor-in-Chief for rapid processing. The paper will be reviewed first by the Editor-in-Chief; if it is judged not to be of outstanding quality or does not warrant urgent publication, the paper will be immediately returned, without any referees' comments, to the author(s) as inappropriate for the Fast Track section. If the paper is considered to be a potential Fast Track paper, it will be sent to two external referees, and the Editor-in-Chief will make the final decision and notify the authors about the acceptance or rejection of the paper within one month. A rejected Fast Track paper may be re-submitted as a regular article (see Submission of Manuscripts).
SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS
International Immunology processes submitted articles online. Please see the detailed instructions page.
Manuscripts, which should be written in English, are handled by one of the Transmitting Editors (PDF file).
Contributors are asked to nominate Transmitting Editors outside their own institution whenever possible. Authors should contact the Transmitting Editor by e-mail, fax or telephone before submitting the paper to ascertain whether he/she can transmit the paper. Once a Transmitting Editor was agreed, please submit the article using our online system.
Authors should keep copies of all material submitted.
REVIEWING PROCESS
It is the policy of the journal to represent the whole immunological community. The reviewing system is devised for rapid reaction by means of the large number of Transmitting Editors, whilst preventing the dominance of a few major institutions by ensuring that no paper is accepted unless it has been looked at by at least one referee from another centre. Papers are usually read by two external referees, and the Transmitting Editor will ask authors for revision, if necessary. An Editorial Board Member or the Editor-in-Chief will make the final decision on each paper and will notify the author about its acceptance or rejection after the Transmitting Editor has made a recommendation.
PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPTS
All manuscripts should be double spaced throughout (including figure legends and references) and with 2.5 cm margins. All typed text should be on sequentially numbered pages; numbers should be in the upper right corner. One set of publication quality figures should be sent. Manuscripts that do not conform to these specifications may not be accepted, at the Editor's discretion.
The title page must include the following: title, full first name and surname of each contributor followed by the name, full postal address, e-mail address and fax/telephone numbers of one contributor (the Corresponding Author) who will deal with all correspondence including proofs; and a running title not in excess of 50 characters. The total number of pages and figures being submitted should also be indicated on this page. The name of the Transmitting Editor to whom the manuscript has been sent should be placed at the top right hand corner.
A maximum of five keywords not appearing in the title should be provided for use by indexing services.
Research papers should start with an ABSTRACT which will appear before the main body of the text. It should be written in complete sentences and should summarize the materials, methods, results, and major conclusions in 250 words or less in a form comprehensible to any immunologist and suitable for abstracting services. If references are used in an abstract, they must include the author(s), journal title, volume number, starting page, and year. Avoid abbreviations in abstracts as far as possible.
The main part of a research paper should start with a brief INTRODUCTION, which outlines the historical or logical origins of the study without repeating the abstract or summarizing the results, a section on METHODS, and one on RESULTS in which the observations are presented with minimal reference to earlier literature or to possible interpretations. The final DISCUSSION may usefully start with a brief summary of the major findings, but repetition of parts of the results section should be avoided.
All Supplier locations (city and country) must be given for any reagents/equipment used.
An alphabetized list of Abbreviations used in the text must be provided on a separate page.
Funding. Details of all funding sources for the work in question should be given in a separate section entitled 'Funding'. This should appear before the 'Acknowledgements' section.
The following rules should be followed:
- The sentence should begin: ‘This work was supported by …’
- The full official funding agency name should be given, i.e. ‘The National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health’ or simply 'National Institutes of Health' not ‘NCI' (one of the 27 subinstitutions) or 'NCI at NIH’ (full RIN-approved list of UK funding agencies).
- Grant numbers should be complete and accurate and provided in brackets as follows: ‘[grant number ABX CDXXXXXX]’.
- Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma as follows: ‘[grant numbers ABX CDXXXXXX, EFX GHXXXXXX]’.
- Agencies should be separated by a semi-colon (plus ‘and’ before the last funding agency).
- Where individuals need to be specified for certain sources of funding the following text should be added after the relevant agency or grant number 'to [author initials]'.
An example is given here: ‘This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [P50 CA098252 and CA118790 to R.B.S.R.]
and the Alcohol & Education Research Council [HFY GR667789].
Acknowledgements should follow the main text. Grants or contribution numbers can be acknowledged.
Tables should be numbered with Arabic numberals in the order that they appear in the text. Footnotes to tables should be included with the table. There should be an indication in the main text of the most appropriate placement of each table and illustration.
REFERENCES
References are to be cited in the text by a number in parentheses and should be numbered in order of first appearance. An example is: 'McMichael and Gotch (12) have reported . . .'. Where there are more than two authors, the citation in the text should use the formulation 'et al.'. An example is: 'This observation has been reported by Shackelford et al. (24)'.
In the list of references papers from journals should be listed thus:
24 Shackelford, D. A., Smith, A. V., and Trowbridge, I. S. 1987. Changes in gene expression induced by a phorbol diester: expression of IL2 receptor, T3, and T cell antigen receptor. J. Immunol. 138:613.
Books should be listed in one of the following styles:
12 McMichael, A. J. and Gotch, F. 1987. T-cell antigens: new and previously defined clusters. In McMichael, A. J., ed., Leukocyte Typing III, p. 31. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
28 Bowry, T. R. 1984. Immunology Simplified, 2nd edn. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
The titles of journals should be abbreviated in accordance with the World List of Scientific Periodicals, 4th edn.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Each figure should be relevant to the text and figures should be presented in the order in which they are mentioned in the text. Figures and photographs should be numbered as a single series and should contain the manuscript number and figure number.
Electronic files of figures accepted for publication must be saved at a resolution of at least 300 d.p.i. at the final printed size (86 mm single and 178 mm double column width) for colour and half-tone figures and 1200 d.p.i. for black and white line drawings. Prepare your figures using applications capable of generating high-resolution files. When naming your files, please use simple filenames and avoid special characters and spaces. If you are a Macintosh user, you must also type the three-letter extension at the end of the file name you choose (e.g. .doc, .rtf, .jpg, .gif, .tif, .ppt, .xls, .pdf, .eps, .mov). Colour figures must be supplied in CMYK format rather than RGB. Lettering should be in proportion, ideally providing characters 2 mm high on the printed page. Figure parts should be labelled upper case A, B, etc., in the top left hand corner.
Figure legends should explain each figure as fully as possible, referring the reader to the text only on rare occasions in order to avoid repeating in the legends material that must be included in the text. All abbreviations used in the figures should be explained in each legend where possible. When large numbers of abbreviations are necessary in the figures, the authors should include these in a separate list of abbreviations.
FACS data. Clearly identify the parameter for each axis, e.g. forward scatter, CD4, propidium iodide. Draw appropriate gates on the figures when pertinent.
COPYRIGHT
It is a condition of publication in the Journal that authors assign copyright to Oxford University Press. This ensures that requests from third parties to reproduce articles are handled efficiently and consistently and will also allow the article to be as widely disseminated as possible. In assigning copyright, authors may use their own material in other publications provided that the Journal is acknowledged as the original place of publication.
SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
Supporting material that is not essential for inclusion in the full text of the manuscript, but would nevertheless benefit the reader, can be made available by the publisher as online-only content, linked to the online manuscript. The material should not be essential to understanding the conclusions of the paper, but should contain data that is additional or complementary and directly relevant to the article content. Such information might include more detailed methods, extended data sets/data analysis, or additional figures (including colour). All text and figures must be provided in suitable electronic formats (instructions for the preparation of Supplementary Data can be viewed here). All material to be considered as Supplementary Data must be submitted at the same time as the main manuscript for peer review. It cannot be altered or replaced after the paper has been accepted for publication. Please indicate clearly the material intended as Supplementary
Authorship
All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship. The order of authorship should be a joint decision of the co-authors. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the content. Authorship credit should be based on substantial contribution to conception and design, execution, or analysis and interpretation of data. All authors should be involved in drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, and must have read and approved the final version of the manuscript. Assurance that all authors of the paper have fulfilled these criteria for authorship should be given in the covering letter.
Author Self-Archiving/Public Access policy
For information about this journal's policy, please visit our Author Self-Archiving policy page.
Conflict of Interest Policy
At the point of submission, International Immunology’s policy requires that each author reveal any financial interests or connections, direct or indirect, or other situations that might raise the question of bias in the work reported or the conclusions, implications, or opinions stated - including pertinent commercial or other sources of funding for the individual author(s) or for the associated department(s) or organization(s), personal relationships, or direct academic competition. When considering whether you should declare a conflicting interest or connection please consider the conflict of interest test: Is there any arrangement that would embarrass you or any of your co-authors if it was to emerge after publication and you had not declared it?
As an integral part of the online submission process, Corresponding authors are required to confirm whether they or their co-authors have any conflicts of interest to declare, and to provide details of these. If the Corresponding author is unable to confirm this information on behalf of all co-authors, the authors in question will then be required to submit a completed Conflict of Interest form to the Editorial Office. It is the Corresponding author’s responsibility to ensure that all authors adhere to this policy.
If the manuscript is published, Conflict of Interest information will be communicated in a statement in the published paper.
Colour charges
Payment for the reproduction of colour illustrations is required (£350/$600 per colour figure). Authors should confirm during submission of their paper that they will bear the cost of colour reproduction . It will be assumed that any figures submitted in colour will be reproduced in colour unless otherwise specified by the author, and therefore will be subject to the standard colour charge.
Open Access
International Immunology authors have the option, at an additional charge, to make their paper freely available online immediately upon publication, under the Oxford Open initiative. After your manuscript is accepted, as part of the mandatory licence form required of all corresponding authors, you will be asked to indicate whether or not you wish to pay to have your paper made freely available immediately. If you do not select the Open Access option, your paper will be published with standard subscription-based access and you will not be charged.
For those selecting the Open Access option, the charges for International Immunology vary depending on the institution at which the Corresponding author is based:
Optional Oxford Open charges:
For a Corresponding author based at an institution with an online subscription to International Immunology:
Regular charge - £900 / $1800 / €1350
List B developing country charge** - £450 / $900 / €675
List A developing country charge** - £0 / $0 / €0
For a Corresponding author based at an institution that does not subscribe to the online journal:
Regular charge - £1500 / $3000 / €2250
List B developing country charge** - £750 / $1500 / €1125
List A developing country charge** - £0 /$0 / €0
*Visit http://www.oxfordjournals.org/jnls/devel/ for list of qualifying countries.
Orders from UK will be subject to a 17.5% VAT charge. For orders from the rest of the EU, we will assume that the service is provided for business purposes, please provide a VAT number for yourself or your institution and ensure you account for your own local VAT correctly.
The above Open Access charges are in addition to any page charges and colour charges that might apply.
If you choose the Open Access option you will also be asked to complete an Open Access charge form online. You will be automatically directed to the appropriate version of the form depending on whether you are based at an institution with an online subscription to International Immunology. Therefore please make sure that you are using an institutional computer when accessing the form. To check whether you are based at a subscribing institution please use the Subscriber Test link for International Immunology
REUSE OF OXFORD OPEN CONTENT
Once published under the open access model, this article will be distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
CONTACT
If you experience any problems regarding your submission, you can contact the editorial office:
Email: iieditor@ragtime.biken.osaka-u.ac.jp
Tel: +81 6 6816 3387
Fax: +81 6 6816 3765
