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Author Guidelines

Clinical & Experimental Immunology journal articles cover clinical studies in patients receiving immune-based therapies in relation to autoimmunity, primary and secondary immunodeficiencies, complement disorders and allergies. The Journal also reports investigations on the pathogenesis of rheumatic, renal and endocrine disorders, as well as infectious diseases, malignancy and transplantation.  Basic immunology studies that inform clinical practice or understanding of disease mechanisms are also welcomed, as are studies in non-human model systems and reports on the physiological mechanisms of immunity.

In addition to research reports, the Journal publishes highly cited review, perspective and hypothesis articles. These are usually commissioned and published as Translational Mini-Review series, but suggestions to the Editor-in-Chief of topics for such series or titles for one-off review articles are welcome. The Journal encourages submission of articles that represent position papers on the classification, diagnosis or treatment of immunological disease.

PRE-SUBMISSION ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDITING. Authors for whom English is a second language may choose to have their manuscript professionally edited before submis­sion to improve the English. English language editing will a) improve grammar, spelling, and punctuation; b) improve clarity and resolve any ambiguity caused by poor phrasing; and c) improve word choice and ensure that the tone of the language is appropriate for an academic journal. A list of independent suppliers of editing services can be found at: www.blackwellpublishing.com/
bauthor/english_language.asp. All services are paid for and arranged by the author, and use of one of these services does not guarantee acceptance or preference for publication.

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IMPORTANT NOTE BEFORE YOU SUBMIT. Clinical and Experimental Immunology aims to publish scientific research of the highest standard, and clarity of language is of vital importance in conveying scientific meaning. Once accepted for publication, your article will be checked by a copy editor, and may be returned to you for further editing if it is felt that the text needs further clarification prior to proofing – with resultant delays to the schedule. We therefore recommend that before submission, please ensure that your article is given a final read-through for clarity and syntax, by a colleague, or native English speaker (if possible).

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DISCLOSURES. For each author, disclose potential conflicts of interest, including all relevant financial interests (e.g. employment, significant share ownership, patent rights, consultancy, research funding) in any company or institution that might benefit from the publication (or state 'none'). Authors do not need to report the sums concerned.

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PUBLICATION ETHICSClinical and Experimental Immunology is a member of the UK Committee on Publication Ethics and subscribes to its recommendations (Committee on Publication Ethics [COPE]: guidelines on good publication practice, www.publicationethics.org.uk). Best Practice Guidelines on Publication Ethics are also available from http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/publicationethics/ (Graf C, Wager E, Bowman A, et al., Int J Clin Pract 2007; 61 [suppl 152]: 126). The Editors reserve the right to reject a paper on ethical grounds.

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FORMATTING YOUR  MANUSCRIPT. Manuscripts for online submission should be prepared as a SINGLE file containing the text, tables and figures. Long articles which would exceed six printed pages (i.e. approximately 3000 words, with three tables and three figures or the equivalent thereof), are not encouraged. Please note that Word 2007 is not yet compatible with journal production systems. Unfortunately, the journal cannot accept Microsoft Word 2007 document until such time as a stable production version is released. Please use Word’s ‘Save As’ option to save your document as an older (.doc) file type. Manuscripts should be formatted with double spacing using a general font such as Times Roman/New Roman, Arial or Helvetica throughout; preferably with a 3-cm margin (Far Eastern/Asian fonts may create problems during PDF conversion). When adding symbols, e.g. Greek characters, the degree symbol etc. you should use the Symbol font. Alternatively, you may wish to write out any unusual characters/symbols in full.
The manuscript should contain a covering (title) page bearing the title of the paper; a short title; the name and postal address of the corresponding author, together with the name of the institution where the work was done; and the email address of the senior author. For indexing purposes, up to 5 keywords should be supplied. Generally, papers should be divided into the following parts and in the order indicated: (1) Summary/abstract: about 3% of the length of the paper but not exceeding 250 words (for tips on how to optimize your abstract for search engines go to: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/bauthor/seo.asp); (2) Intro­duction: containing the reasons for doing the work; (3) Materials and Methods: sufficient information must be included to permit repetition of experimental work; (4) Results: these should be given concisely; the use of tables and figures to illustrate the same results will only rarely be allowed; (5) Discussion: the presentation of results should be separated from a dis­cussion of their significant; this section should not repeat results; (6) Acknowledgements (which must include details of financial support); (7) References (see below). It is essential that contributors retain a copy of their original manuscript as the Editor cannot accept responsibility for corruption/loss of files submitted.
Papers involving human subjects should receive local Ethical Committee approval and the informed consent of all subjects. Experiments involving animals should be conducted in accordance with the relevant local legislation.
Author material archive policy. Please note that unless specifically requested, Blackwell Publishing will dispose of all hardcopy or electronic material submitted, two months after publication. If you require the return of any material submitted, please inform the Editorial Office or Production Editor as soon as possible if you have not yet done so.
Appeals: Appeals regarding decisions made by the Editors regarding the suitability of manuscripts for publication should be directed to the Editors.

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REFERENCES. We recommend the use of a tool such as EndNote or Reference Manager for reference management and formatting. EndNote reference styles can be searched for here: http://www.endnote.com/support/enstyles.asp. Reference Manager reference styles can be searched for here: http://www.refman.com/support/rmstyles.asp. References in the manuscript text should appear as numbers in square brackets, following the authors’ names in the text if necessary. The reference list should show the references in numerical and not in alphabetical order. The full title of the paper should be given with the first and last page numbers. The journal name should be abbreviated according to the system adopted by Index Medicus. For example:
1 Shingu M, Hurd ER. Sera from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus reactive with human endothelial cells. J Rheumatol 1981;8:581–6.
2 Zavazava M, Halene M, Westphal E et al. Expression of MHC class I and II molecules by cadaver retinal; pigment cells: optimization of postmortem HLA typing. Clin Exp Immunol 1991;84:163–6.
When the quotation is from a book, the following format should be used:
3 Kearse KP, Kaplan AM, Cohen DA. Role of cell surface glycoproteins in the formation of T-Cell: APC conjugates. In: Schook LB, Tew JG, eds. Antigen presenting cells: diversity, differentiation, and regulation. New York: Alan R. Liss, 1988:221–34.
4 Virella G, Goust JM, Fudenberg HH. Introduction to medical immunology, 2nd Edn. New York: Marcel Dekker, 1990.
Work which has not been accepted for publication and personal communications should not appear in the reference list, but should be cited as such in the text only. Work which has been accepted for publication should be included in the reference list stating the journal in which it is to appear.

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ILLUSTRATIONS. Figure legends should be included in the main text of the manuscript and not form part of the figures. For production purposes, you should ideally supply figures in TIFF format. As a guide, the ideal figure resolution/specification for various types of original figures, at their final size, is as follows:
Line art – minimum 600 dpi
Halftone (i.e. both B/W and colour photographs) – minimum 300 dpi
Line and tone (line art and halftone combined) – minimum 600 dpi
It is possible to use Illustrator or Photoshop files saved in the format ‘.eps’ or ‘.tif’. If you are unable to provide these formats, please provide the figures in as many different file formats as possible. Detailed information on our digital illustration standards is available at: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/
bauthor/illustration.asp.
As a guide, if the electronic files are viewed at 400% on the computer screen and they look pixellated in any way then they will probably NOT be of sufficient quality for printing. If a figure is an actual photograph then it should be provided as a sharp image on photographic paper, suitable for reproduction. For line figures, paper printouts are acceptable provided that the quality is good: the lines should be solid, the text in a standard font and not blurred, and the overall image should be sharp and clear. Avoid using tints if possible; if they are essential to the understanding of the figure, try to make them coarse. Hardcopy figures should be labelled with the figure number, manuscript ID and author's name in soft pencil on the back and the top edge identified. Masking instructions or lettering, arrows, etc., can, if necessary, be indicated on an overlay. Figures should be numbered (Arabic numerals) seriatim. Legends should be separate from the figures and included in the main text of the manuscript, after the references.
Ideally, if authors have doubts about the quality of electronic figures, they should also send high-quality printed versions of the figures to the editorial office once their manuscript has been found to be acceptable for publication.

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Colour artwork. Reproducing artwork in colour in the print journal incurs a cost. Authors will be expected to pay for all aspects of the colour reproduction and should complete a colour-work agreement form after acceptance (www.blackwellpublishing.com/
pdf/SN_Sub2000_F_CoW.pdf). However, Clinical & Experimental Immunology offers free colour reproduction for all figures within a given manuscript, if a figure from that manuscript is chosen for the front cover image. Alternatively, in the event that an author is unable to cover the costs of reproducing colour figures in colour in the print version of the journal, Clinical & Experimental Immunology also offers authors the opportunity to reproduce colour figures in colour for free in the online version of the article (they will still appear in black & white in the print version). For those authors whose papers were submitted with colour figures; once your manuscript has been accepted for publication, we strongly encourage you to complete and return the colour work agreement form - even if you have decided to present your figures in black & white in the published version. The form allows you to specify black & white reproduction for all of your figures, and thus streamlines the administration associated with article processing, and reduces the possibility of error. The form, of course, also allows you to specify 'colour in print' for all, or selected, images (and indicates the associated costs); as well as free 'online only' colour reproduction for all images. If an author wishes to take advantage of the free colour-on-the-web service, or has any other questions relating to colour artwork, they should liaise with the Editorial Office (s.tobin@immunology.org) to ensure that any necessary documentation is completed satisfactorily for the Publisher.

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TABLES. Tables should be provided in the format of one table per page and should be numbered (Arabic numerals) seriatim. Units should appear in parentheses in the column headings but not in the body of the table. Words or numerals should be repeated on successive lines: ‘ditto’ should not be used. Tables should be supplied as Word or ‘.rtf’ files, and should not be supplied as PowerPoint or embedded files.

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UNITS AND ABBREVIATIONS. The Journal recognizes the adoption of the Système International d’Unitès (SI Units) proposed in Units, Symbols and Abbreviations (1972) pub­lished by the Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole Street, London W1M 8AE. Other abbre­viations should be used only for unwieldy names, and only when they occur frequently. Where such non-standard abbreviations are used, a glossary should be provided.

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DISPLAY OF SEQUENCES. Prepare sequences as figures, not tables. This will ensure that proper alignment is preserved.Submission of sequences to GenBank. Original DNA sequences reported in Clinical and Experimental Immunology must also be submitted to GenBank. Instructions for submission can be found at the following address: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Genbank/. An accession number should be supplied parenthetically at a relevant location in the text.

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HUMAN AND MURINE GENES. For human genes, use genetic notation and symbols approved by the HUGO Nomenclature Committee. Approved gene symbols should be obtained prior to submission from the HUGO Nomenclature Committee, nome@galton.ucl.ac.uk. For nomenclature guidelines, see White et al., 'Guidelines for Human Gene Nomenclature' [Genomics, 45, 468-471 (1997)]. The Gene Name Proposal form may be completed on the Nomenclature Web page: http://www.genenames.org. Use ISCN nomenclature for cytogenetics notation [Mitelman, F. (ed.) ISCN 1995: An International System for Human Cytogenetic Nomenclature, S. Karger, Basel]. Human gene names and loci should be written in uppercase italics and Arabic numerals. Protein products are not italicized. CD nomenclature is to be used for all cell differentiation antigens, with or without alternative names which give information about the molecule’s function. Complement receptors should be named CR1 etc., followed by the correct CD terminology in parentheses: CR1 (CD35); CR2 (CD21); CR3 (CD11b, CD18); CR4 (CD11c, CD18).
For mouse strain and genetic nomenclature, refer to the International Committee on Standardized Genetic Nomenclature for Mice: http://www.informatics.jax.org/nomen/. New symbols and names for genes should be obtained prior to submission through the online symbol registry form at: http://www.informatics.jax.org/
nomen/nomen_submit_form.shtml.

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CLINICAL TRIALS REGISTRY. In accordance with the guidelines published by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), Clinical and Experimental Immunology will require, as a condition of consideration for publication, that all clinical trials be registered in a public trials registry (for example, at www.clinicaltrials.gov ). Trials must register at or before the onset of patient enrollment. For more information, see www.icmje.org and go to Section III.J.

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MICROARRAY DATABASES. Clinical and Experimental Immunology supports the efforts of the Microarray Gene Expression Data Society to standardize the presentation of microarray data, and we recommend that authors follow their guidelines and checklist (http://www.mged.org/
Workgroups/MIAME/miame_checklist.html). In addition, the journal strongly recommends the supplemental microarray data be deposited in a public database such as Gene Expression Omnibus (or GEO, at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/) or Array Express (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/arrayexpress/) or submitted for peer-review with the initial submission of the manuscript.

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DATA SHARING. Clinical and Experimental Immunology supports the efforts to encourage open sharing of publication-related data. Clinical and Experimental Immunology adheres to the beliefs that authors should include in their publications the data, algorithms, or other information that is central or integral to the publication or make it freely and readily accessible; use public repositories for data whenever possible; and make patented material available under a license for research use. For more information, see the NAS website: http://books.nap.edu/books/0309088593/html/1.html

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DISTRIBUTION OF REAGENTS. The Editors of Clinical and Experimental Immunology have adopted the policy that any readily renewable resources mentioned in a journal article not already obtainable from commercial sources shall be made available to all qualified investigators in the field. The policy stems from the long-standing scientific principle that authenticity requires reproducibility. Publication in Clinical and Experimental Immunology constitutes a de facto acceptance of this policy. Included are reagents that can be easily provided; specifically, nucleic acid sequences, cDNA and genomic clones, cell lines, and monoclonal antibody clones. Small amounts (sufficient for the replication of any in vitro work reported) of novel protein reagents are also considered easily transferable.

Although the Editors appreciate that many of the reagents mentioned in Clinical and Experimental Immunology are proprietary or unique, neither condition is considered adequate grounds for deviation from this policy. Suitable material transfer agreements can be drawn up between the provider and requester, but if a reasonable request is turned down and submitted to the Editor-in-Chief, the corresponding author will be held accountable. The consequence for noncompliance is simple: the corresponding author will not publish in Clinical and Experimental Immunology for the following three years.

NOMENCLATURE. CD nomenclature is to be used for all cell differentiation antigens, with or without alternative names which give information about the molecule’s function. Complement receptors should be named CR1 etc., followed by the correct CD terminology in parentheses: CR1 (CD35); CR2 (CD21); CR3 (CD11b, CD18); CR4 (CD11c, CD18).

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PUBLICATION CHARGE. A publication charge of £95 or $162 will be levied on the corre­sponding author of each paper accepted for publication irrespective of its length. In return, the author will receive a year’s personal subscription to the Journal. The charge will be waived if the corresponding author already takes a personal subscription to the Journal, or resides in a country with exchange control problems, or in cases of personal hardship. Authors should return a completed publication charge notice to the editorial office upon manuscript submission. This notice can be downloaded at http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/
static/clini_exp_imm_pub_charge.asp.

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OTHER REQUIRED FORMS. Upon submission, every author is required to complete the author’s declaration form (http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pdf/CEI_Au.pdf). In addition, once accepted, papers become copyright of Blackwell Publishers and authors are then required to complete an exclusive licence form (http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pdf/cei_elf.pdf). Copyright licensing is a condition of publication and papers will not be passed to the publisher for production unless copyright has been licensed (papers subject to government or Crown copyright are exempt from this requirement. Note that a completed colour-work agreement form, as referred to in the relevant section above, will also be required after acceptance.

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ONLINE SUBMISSION. All manuscripts should be submitted electronically as this enables the Editorial Office to process manuscripts in the most efficient way. New manuscripts should be submitted as a single Word/PDF file containing the complete manuscript i.e. text, tables and figures. New manuscripts should be submitted as a single Word/RTF/PDF file containing the complete manuscript i.e. text, tables and figures. If your manuscript is subsequently found to be acceptable for publication, separate figure files of appropriate quality will be required for production purposes, as detailed in the section related to illustrations above. Papers are accepted on the understanding that all of the material submitted is the property of the authors (except where due acknowledgement is given), and that no substantial part has been, or will be, published elsewhere. Papers involving human subjects should receive local ethical approval and the informed consent of all subjects should be obtained. Experiments involving animals should be conducted in accordance with the relevant local legislation. Once papers have been accepted for publication they become the copyright of the Journal. Once your manuscript has been prepared and you are ready to submit it online, go to http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cei and follow the step-by-step instructions provided. Please note that it is the corresponding author's Manuscript Central Account that should be used for submission. If you require any help during the submission process you can use the online help facility, contact the support team (support@ScholarOne.com) or contact the Editorial Office (cei@immunology.org). Please ensure that the figures inserted into the Word/RTF file or included in the PDF are of suitable quality for review and that each figure is labelled with a figure number (Figure 1, Figure 2 etc). Users of Macintosh computers should ensure that the file extension name (e.g. DOC or RTF) is present to ensure conversion to PDF files. During submission, you can suggest potential reviewers for your manuscript. You should not propose people that are working in your institution or close collaborators elsewhere. If you refer to unpublished papers, you should upload these as additional files that are available for review.

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REVISED MANUSCRIPTS. Revised manuscripts should be submitted online at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cei in two formats:
(i) A file for re-review - This should be a single file containing the text, all figures and all tables even if these were not altered during revision. All alterations made to the manuscript should be UNDERLINED/HIGHLIGHTED as this makes it easier for the referees and editors to assess the changes made. Single Word or RTF files with the figures and tables inserted can be uploaded during re-submission, as can single PDF files containing the complete manuscript as for submission of the original manuscript.
(ii) Files for production - In order to speed publication, you should also upload separate text and figure files for production. The text file should be a single file that contains: the text of the manuscript with all the highlighting/underlining removed; the references; tables; and figure legends. It should be in a word-processed, not PDF, format because PDF files cannot be used for production. The figures should NOT be included in this file as this can lead to errors during production. For instructions regarding the figure formats/file quality that should be uploaded please see the section entitled ILLUSTRATIONS. Appeals regarding decisions made by the Editors regarding the suitability of manuscripts for publication should be directed to the Editors.

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ONLINE OPEN. OnlineOpen is a pay-to-publish service that offers authors whose papers are accepted for publication the opportunity to pay up-front for their manuscript to become open access (i.e. free for all to view and download) via the Online Journal website. Each OnlineOpen article will be subject to a one-off fee of £1300 (equivalent to $2600) to be met by or on behalf of the Author in advance of publication. Upon online publication, the article (both full-text and PDF versions) will be available to all for viewing and download free of charge. The print version of the article will also be branded as OnlineOpen and will draw attention to the fact that the paper can be downloaded for free via the Online Journal service. Any authors wishing to send their paper OnlineOpen will be required to complete the com­bined payment and copyright licence form available from our website at:
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pdf/cei_oof.pdf (Please note this form is for use with OnlineOpen material ONLY.)
Once complete this form should be sent to the Editorial Office along with the rest of the manuscript materials at the time of acceptance or as soon as possible after that (preferably within 24 hours to avoid any delays in processing). Prior to acceptance there is no requirement to inform an Editorial Office that you intend to publish your paper OnlineOpen if you do not wish to.
The copyright statement for OnlineOpen authors will read:
© [date] The Author(s)
Journal compilation © [date] [British Society for Immunology]

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REVIEWS. The journal will consider proposals for reviews covering basic or clinical immunology that are likely to be of interest to the broad readership of the Journal. Reviews should be between 2500 and 3500 words long and include up to 100 referees. The inclusion of figures and tables is encouraged, with an upper limit of four of each. Free colour reproduction is offered for review articles. Brief outlines of the scope of any proposed review should be emailed to cei@immunology.org  for consideration.

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FAST TRACK / RAPID COMMUNICATIONS. Brief papers covering topics of immediate interest can be submitted as Rapid Communications. A letter to the Editors should accompany the manuscript stating why rapid publication is requested. Such papers have a maximum 2000 word limit, should contain no more than three figures and tables in total, and no more than 30 references should be cited. A decision on rapid communications will usually be given within two weeks of submission and accepted manuscripts will be fast-tracked during production.

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PROOFS. The corresponding author will receive an email alert containing a link to a web site. A working e-mail address must therefore be provided for the corresponding author. The proof can be downloaded as a PDF (portable document format) file from this site. Acrobat Reader will be required in order to read this file. This software can be downloaded (free of charge) from the following web site: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. This will enable the file to be opened, read on screen and printed out in order for any cor­rections to be added. Further instructions will be sent with the proof. Hard copy proofs will be posted if no email address is available. Excessive changes made by the author in the proofs, excluding typesetting errors, will be charged separately.

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AUTHOR SERVICES. Online production tracking is now available for your article through Blackwell’s Author Services.
Author Services enables authors to track their article – once it has been accepted – through the production process to publication online and in print. Authors can check the status of their articles online and choose to receive automated e-mails at key stages of production. The author will receive an e-mail with a unique link that enables them to register and have their article automatically added to the system. Please ensure that a complete email address is provided when submitting the manuscript. Visit www.blackwellpublishing.com/bauthor  for more details on online production tracking and for a wealth of resources including FAQs and tips on article preparation, submission and more.

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ONLINE EARLY. Clinical and Experimental Immunology is covered by Blackwell Publish­ing’s OnlineEarly service. OnlineEarly articles are complete full-text articles published online in advance of their publication in a printed issue. Articles are therefore available as soon as they are ready, rather than having to wait for the next scheduled print issue. OnlineEarly articles are complete and final. They have been fully reviewed, revised and edited for publica­tion, and the authors’ final corrections have been incorporated. Because they are in final form, no changes can be made after online publication. The nature of OnlineEarly articles means that they do not yet have volume, issue or page numbers, so OnlineEarly articles cannot be cited in the traditional way. They are therefore given a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), which allows the article to be cited and tracked before it is allocated to an issue. After print publica­tion, the DOI remains valid and can continue to be used to cite and access the article. More information about DOIs can be found online at http://www.doi.org/faq.html.

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OFFPRINTS. Authors will be provided with electronic offprints of their paper. Paper off­prints may be ordered at prices quoted on the order form, which accompanies proofs, pro­vided that the form is returned with the proofs. The cost is greater if the order form arrives too late for the main print run. Offprints are normally dispatched within three weeks of publica­tion of the issue in which the paper appears. Please contact the following if offprints do not arrive: C.O.S. Printers Pte Ltd., 9 Kian Teck Crescent, Singapore 628875; Fax: +65 6265 9074; Email: offprints@cosprinters.com. However, please note that offprints are sent by surface mail, so overseas orders may take up to six weeks to arrive. Electronic offprints are sent to the first author at his or her first email address on the title page of the paper, unless advised otherwise; therefore please ensure that the name, address and email of the receiving author are clearly indicated on the manuscript title page if he or she is not the first author of the paper.

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