Journal Policies

Scientific Misconduct

AAI will evaluate the credibility of all allegations of scientific misconduct, e.g., suspected fabrication or falsification of data, double publication, or plagiarism. If the Editor-in-Chief determines that an allegation has merit, s/he will first attempt to address the matter with the Corresponding Author. Should that fail to resolve the situation satisfactorily, the Editor-in-Chief will contact the institution of the Corresponding Author to request an investigation; the Editor-in-Chief may also contact the coauthors and/or the funder(s) of the published research.

Until the matter is clarified, no additional submissions by any author of the disputed manuscript or published article will be considered for publication. If scientific misconduct is confirmed by the institution, and no request for retraction is made either by the institution or by any author, the Editor-in-Chief will report his/her findings to a representative of the AAI Publications Committee, and in consultation with a representative of the AAI Council, will decide appropriate action.

Only the Corresponding Author, coauthors, and appropriate representative(s) of the relevant institution(s) will be apprised of the status of, or any action(s) taken in response to, allegations of scientific misconduct.

Original Data

Authors are expected to retain the original, raw data presented in a published article for the length of time required by the authors’ funding source or institution; if the institution or funding source does not have a data retention policy, then data should be kept for at least 6 years after publication (as per HHS guidelines). Authors must submit original data upon the request of reviewers or editors.

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 the printer or the first day the article is posted online. Please note that the issue date and mail dates 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 of misinformation in the lay press. The policy also ensures that scientists have access to all relevant information at the same time as the public. These restrictions do not 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 before the embargo date. The official release of videotape presentations and electronic prepublication of articles on the Internet should adhere to the embargo policy. Violations of these policies are legitimate grounds for withdrawal of the article from publication or other measures that AAI may choose to take.

Disclosures

All funding sources must be disclosed in a footnote to the title; anonymous or pseudonymous funders are not permitted.

Any potential conflict of interest in a submitted manuscript must be disclosed in the "Conflict of Interest Statement" section of the online submission system.

Authors of submitted papers that contain information affecting actual or potential commercial products must declare any conflict of interest or financial interest in the product or in potentially competing products held by them, their spouses, or their minor children. Financial interests include consultancies, employment, service on Board of Directors, honoraria, royalties, research support, grants, or contracts, if any exceed $5,000 per year in any of the preceding 5 years. They also include expert testimony, or patents received or pending, stock, and equity interests (diversified mutual funds or investment trusts do not constitute competing financial interests). The conflict should be stated briefly on the online manuscript submission screen, e.g., "J. B. Doe has received royalty payments from PQR Incorporated."), It is the responsibility of the Corresponding Author to review this policy with all authors and to list collectively the relevant relationships.

All disclosures will remain confidential during the review process, but papers accepted for publication will acknowledge conflict of interest and financial interests in a published disclaimer describing the nature of the interests. If authors declare no conflict of interest or financial interests, this also will be noted in a published disclaimer.

Image Manipulation

Figures in manuscripts considered for acceptance will be screened for evidence of manipulation. Manuscript acceptance is contingent upon a satisfactory outcome of the screening process. As a result of screening, authors may be asked to supply the original (raw) data upon which the figures were based. Inability to supply the original data may result in rejection of the manuscript. If the editors deem that the manipulation has affected the interpretation of the data, the manuscript will be rejected for publication. Cases of suspected misconduct may be referred to the institution of the Corresponding Author; the Editor-in-Chief may also contact the coauthors and/or the funder(s) of the research. Please see the Digital Images section on the Information for Authors page for more information.

NIH Public Access Policy

As of April 7, 2008, the U. S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) requires that manuscripts accepted for publication and that describe research funded in whole or in part with NIH funds be deposited into the NIH PubMed Central (PMC) repository.

AAI views this policy as a costly, duplicative effort that diverts federal dollars from biomedical research. For more information about how publishing in The Journal of Immunology relates to the policy, please see the Funding Body Public Access Policy FAQ.

Despite AAI's serious concerns about these policies, AAI has undertaken to help authors comply with them. On behalf of authors who are funded by NIH, AAI will deposit all articles that begin submission to The Journal of Immunology after 10 AM (EDT) March 29, 2011, and are ultimately accepted for publication; the author must select this option on the online submission form in order for AAI to do so. AAI will deposit the version of the manuscript that has undergone peer review and has been accepted for publication, before copyediting and formatting.

NIH mandates that articles be made available to the public in PMC at 12 months after publication; manuscripts deposited by AAI will comply with this embargo period. Authors will receive at least two email notifications from PMC about their manuscripts. Authors must respond to both emails in order for the process to be completed.

In addition to NIH, a number of additional funding agencies also mandate submission to PMC/Europe PMC. AAI will also deposit on behalf of authors funded by HHMI, Wellcome Trust, and MRC-UK; for details, see "Archiving in PMC/Europe PMC".

This free service is not applicable to authors who are not funded by NIH, HHMI, Wellcome Trust or MRC-UK.

Authors agree not to deposit the manuscript to any other repository (except a thesis repository if required), agency, or entity.

Other Funding Agencies:
Authors funded by agencies other than NIH, HHMI, Wellcome Trust and MRC-UK that mandate submission to PMC must deposit the accepted version of the manuscript themselves.

Authors funded by agencies that mandate submission to PMC with public access within 6 months after publication must sign the 6 month-PMC Submission Form during the online submission process.

Prior Publication

Submission of a manuscript to The Journal of Immunology (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.

Previous publication of a particular figure may not prevent subsequent publication in The JI if that figure is 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 postings on a publicly accessible Web site, are not considered publications, nor are poster presentations of work at a conference. Authors who post to a preprint site must retain copyright of the work.  Authors who post to a preprint site should identify the preprint server and include the accession number or DOI in their cover letter. Manuscripts posted to the bioRxiv preprint server can be directly transferred to The JI for peer review, without the need to re-upload files or re-enter information at The JI submission site. To transfer a preprint, click the “Submit preprint to a journal” link on your bioRxiv page, and select The Journal of Immunology from the dropdown menu. If The JI publishes the manuscript, authors should request the preprint server to acknowledge publication and cite the journal reference (including the DOI to link to the published article).

An invited paper published in a non-peer-reviewed journal, however, would be considered a prior publication.

Submissions of previously published research, as defined by the criteria, must contain a disclosure statement; it is at the Editor-in-Chief's discretion whether to allow peer review of the work in these instances.

Unique Materials

It is required that unique materials developed for manuscripts published in The JI that are not available from commercial supplier, will be made available, within reason, to qualified investigators for their own noncommercial use. An agreement to this effect is included in the Manuscript Submission Form. A reasonable amount may be charged by authors to cover preparation and shipping of the requested material.

Any restrictions on sharing of materials (for example, Material Transfer Agreements or patents) that apply to unique materials developed for the manuscript must be disclosed in the Materials and Methods section of the paper.