■ Cellular and Molecular Immunology

General

Cellular & Molecular Immunology (CMI) is the official publication of the Chinese Society of Immunology. The Journal is published bimonthly in English and edited at the University of Science & Technology of China (USTC). Papers in all areas of cellular and molecular immunology are welcome including immunobiology, comparative immu- nology, immunogenetics, neuroimmunology, immunopatho- logy, immunopharmacology, tumor immunology, infection immunology, clinical immunology, transplantation immu- nology, veterinary immunology and immunological techniques. All international immunologists and immunologyrelated investigators will find CMI suitable for their publications.
CMI publishes articles and brief reports for original investigations. Reviews and minireviews are also accepted from authors on request by the editorial board of the journal. A paper is submitted to CMI with the understanding that it has not been and will not be published elsewhere. The submission must have the approval of all of the authors. The preferred medium of final submission to the accepting editor is on computer disk with the accompanying reviewed and revised manuscript (see 'electronic manuscripts' below). Publication in CMI is taken to imply the authors' willingness to comply with reasonable requests to supply reagents such as recombinant clones and monoclonal antibodies, and sequence data in electronic form to persons lacking access to computer databases.

Submission

1. Submission with cover letter
There is no submission fee. Manuscripts should be in English on numbered pages with double-spaced typing throughout using 12pt Times New Roman (including tables, legends and reference lists) on one side of the paper only with margins of at least 3cm all round. The manuscript must be accompanied by a cover letter including statements that: 1) all authors agree with the submission, 2) the work has not been published elsewhere, either completely, in part, or in another form, 3) the manuscript has not been submitted to another journal and will not be published elsewhere within one year after its publication in this journal, and 4) experiments using animal or human materials (including clinical trials) must be permitted by national or local authorities. Manuscripts in triplicate including three collated sets of figures (one original set plus duplicate sets of the same quality) ready for the printer should be submitted to the Editorial Office in Hefei, China or regional editors near your location.

China:
Dr. Zhigang Tian, Editorial Office of Cellular & Molecular Immunology (CMI), Institute of Immunology, School of Life Sciences, University of Science & Technology of China, 443 Huangshan Road, Hefei 230027, China. Tel: +86-551-360-7379; Fax: +86-551-360-6783; E-mail: cmi@ustc.edu.cn;
USA:
Dr. Yongguang Yang, Bone Marrow Trans- plantation Section, Transplantation Biology Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, MGH East, Bldg. 149-5102, 13th Street, Boston, MA 02129. Tel: +01-617- 724-9892; E-mail: yongguang.yang@tbrc.mgh.harvard.edu;
UK:
Dr. Bin Gao, Infection and Immunity, CW Level 6, Institute of Child Health, University College London, 30 Guildford Street, London WC1N 1EH. Tel: +44-207-905- 2370; Fax: +44-207-813-8494; E-mail: bgao@ich.ucl.ac.uk;
Spain:
Dr. Cheng Qian, Division of Hepatology and Gene Therapy, Department of Medicine, Medical School, University of Navarra, 31080, Pamplona, Spain. Tel: +34- 948-425600; Fax: +34-948-425700; E-mail: cqian@unav.es

2. Reviewing process
Two reviewing procedures are employed. In the first procedure, the manuscript is reviewed by at least two experts in order to reach a rapid decision based on priority. If the manuscript is not given a high enough priority, it is returned to the author without the experts' comments since these are not always helpful. In the second procedure, if a decision on the paper is not quickly made, the manuscript will be forwarded to additional referees. The paper is then accepted, returned to authors for minor/major revision, or rejected.

3. Revised manuscript
Manuscripts returned for revision should be returned to the editor within 3 months. Papers accepted for publication should be as concise as possible. Please send two copies of the revised manuscript and a letter summarizing the changes that have been made in response to the comments provided. The preferred medium of final submission to the accepting editor is on computer disk with the accompanying reviewed and revised manuscript (see Electronic manuscripts below).

Types of manuscripts and their preparation

1. Original articles
Original articles are seven to ten journal pages in length (as a guide, this is equivalent to about 20-28 pages of double-spaced A4 typescript with 6-10 displayed figures/tables). They should be divided into: (1) title page with (a) a succinct title (which should normally not exceed 100 characters and should not contain any subtitles or abbreviations), (b) the names of the authors including their given names, (c) the institutions with city, state and country where the work was performed, (d) the name and complete address (including telephone, fax and e-mail) of the corresponding author, (e) a list of abbreviations and (f) a list of addresses of authors who have moved from the institution where the work was performed, (2) abstract (maximum 250 words), (3) keywords (3-6 indexing terms), (4) introduction, (5) materials and methods, (6) results, (7) discussion, (8) acknowledgements (grant support and technical support to be listed here), (9) references, (10) tables, (11) figure legends and (12) footnotes. A recent issue of the journal should be consulted for details. In the interests of clarity and brevity, it may be sometimes advantageous to combine the results and discussion into a single section. Everyone makes minor modifications to standard methods. Do not describe standard materials and methods or modifications unless they have significant and demonstrable utility. Do not duplicate descriptions of methodology in the figure legends. Generic and species names should be typed out in full the first time mentioned (in the title, the summary and the text) and thereafter the names should be abbreviated. Words or letters to be printed in italics should be either in italics or underlined. The metric system should be used throughout.

2. Brief reports
A short paper definitively documenting either experimental results or informative patient presentations will be considered for inclusion in this category. Please document experimental results with a clear question in the introduction and then present definitive data for proof in the text. Please keep Materials and Methods succinct, using primary cited work. Combine the Results and Discussion and do not repeat the introductory comments. A brief report should not exceed 1000 words of text, 150 words in the abstract, 2 figures/tables, and 20 references.

3. Reviews and Minireviews
CMI publishes a small number of invited Reviews and Minireviews on a regular basis. Reviews are eight to twelve journal pages in length and Minireviews are four to seven journal pages, 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 publishing a Review or Minireview may submit a proposal, including an outline of the proposed review, by letter or e-mail to the Editorial Office in Hefei, China. Reviews will be subject to the established review process, and published on an accelerated schedule if accepted.

References

Place the references as a separate section at the end of the article. Number citations in the text in the order of appearance in the text with Arabic numerals in parentheses, e.g., "according to Jones & Brown (1, 2) and Smith et al. (3), "; "following earlier work (4-7), we…"
Abbreviate the titles of journals according to the List of Journals index printed annually in the January issue of Index Medicus/MEDLINE. In each reference, list all authors except when there are seven or more, in which case list the first 3 and add “et al”. Examples of these styles are:

Articles in journals:
1. Parham P, Adams EJ, Amett KL. The origins of HLA-A, B, C polymorphism. Immunol Rev. 1995;143:141-180.
2. Sun Y, Chen HM, Subudhi SK, et al. Costimulatory molecule-targeted antibody therapy of a spontaneous autoimmune disease. Nat Med. 2002;8:1405-1413.
3. Foroni L, Laffan M, Boehm T, Rabbitts TH, Catovsky D, Luzzato L. Rearrangement of the T-cell receptor delta genes in human T cell leukemias. Blood. 1989;73: 559-565.

Chapter in a book:
4. Murphy PM. The N-formyl peptide chemotactic receptors. In: Horuk R, eds. Chemoattractant ligands and their receptors. New York: CRC Publishing; 1996: 269-299.
5. Sallan SE, Weinstein HJ. Childhood acute leukemia. In: Nathan DG, Oski FA, eds. Hematology of Infancy and Childhood. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders Publishing; 1987: 1028-1039.

Books and other monographs:
6. Adams JQ, Lincoln A, van Buren M, Truman HS. An imaginary conversation. Philadelphia, PA: Historical Fantasy Publishing; 1976.
7. Adams DO, Edelson PJ, Koren HS. Methods for Studying Mononuclear Phagocytes. San Diego, CA: Academic Publishing; 1981.

Conference proceedings:
8. Baron MH, Maniatis T. Stage-specific reprogramming of globin gene expression. In: Stamatoyannopoulos G, Nienhuis AW, eds. Developmental Control of Globin Gene Expression: Proceedings of the Fifth Conference on Hemoglobin Switching. New York, NY: Liss Publishing; 1987:27-42.

Tables and figures

Tables should be compiled on separate sheets and numbered in Roman numerals. Three sets of figures are to be submitted. At least one set must be of publication quality and the other two sets must be clear enough to be useful to the referees. Figures should be completely lettered; the size of the lettering must be appropriate, taking into account the necessary size reduction (preferably not more than one third). The page format should be considered in designing the figures. The figures should be numbered in Arabic numerals. Photographs must be of good quality, printed on glossy paper. Photocopies of photomicrographs are not acceptable. Colorful photographs are accepted on the recommendation of the Editor at no charge to the author. Tables, figures and photographs should be clearly marked on the reverse side with the number, author's name and orientation (top); use a soft pencil or preferably a felt-tipped pen for marking photographs. Legends should be supplied on separate sheets.

Detailed instructions

Abbreviations, symbols, chemical and biochemical nomenclature, etc, should follow the recommendations given in the Journal of Immunology (http://www.jimmunol. org/misc/ ifora.shtml).
Avoid abbreviations, which are not in common use across the field of immunology. Those used should be defined in the text on first usage and listed as a footnote on the title page. Do not introduce abbreviations unless they are used at least 4 times.

Electronic manuscripts

Electronic manuscripts have several advantages: there is no need for the re-keying of text, thereby avoiding the possibility of introducing errors and resulting in reliable and fast delivery of proofs. The preferred storage medium is a 3.5-inch disk in MS-DOS format, although other systems are also supported, e.g. NEC and Macintosh (in the latter case, save your file in the usual manner, do not use the option "save in MS-DOS format"). After final acceptance, your disk plus one final, printed and exactly matching version (as a printout) should be submitted together to the Editor. It is important that the file on disk and the printout are identical. Please specify the type of computer and word processing package used (do not convert your text file to plain ASCII). Ensure that the letter "I" and the digit "1" (also letter "O" and digit "0") have been used properly, and format your article (tabs, indents, etc.) consistently. Characters not available on your word processor (Greek letters, mathematical symbols, etc.) should not be left open, but indicated by a unique code (e.g. gralpha, @, #, etc. for the Greek letter a). Such codes should be used consistently throughout the entire text. Please make a list of such codes and provide a key. Do not allow your word processor to introduce word splits and do not use a "justified" layout. Please adhere strictly to the general instructions on style /arrangement and, in particular, the reference style of the journal. Tables and illustrations will be handled conventionally; the latter should be submitted as original drawings or glossy prints. Further information may be obtained from the publisher.

Proofs

Authors should keep a copy of their manuscripts, as proofs will be sent to them without the manuscript. Proofs will usually be drawn on lower quality paper. Only printer's errors may be corrected. No change in, or additions to, the edited manuscript will be allowed at this stage. The author proofs must be returned within 48 hours after receipt, preferably by Fax or electronic mail to facilitate speedy publication. If the Publisher receives no reply after approximately 15 days, the assumption will be made that there are no errors to correct and the article will be published.

Offprints

A total of 25 offprints of each paper and two copies containing this paper will be provided free of charge to the author(s). Additional copies can be ordered at prices shown on the offprint order form, which is sent to the author by the editors.

Page charge

There will be no page charge for CMI.