Editorial Policies

• Duplicate Publication and Scientific Fraud
• Embargo Policy
• Financial Disclosure
• NIH Public Access Policy
• Prior Publication
• Unique Materials

In 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 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 it to the Publications Committee. The Publications Committee, in consultation with the Council of AAI, will decide appropriate action.

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 issue is posted full-text 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 manuscript from publication or other measures that The JI may choose to take.

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 five 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.

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 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 NIH Public Access Policy: Frequently Asked Questions.

Despite AAI's serious concerns about this policy, AAI will grant a limited one-time waiver permitting authors to deposit an accepted manuscript into PubMed Central, provided that the corresponding author:

1. instruct the NIH to release the manuscript to the public no sooner than 12 months after final publication in The JI.
2. agrees that this one-time waiver applies solely to deposition into PubMed Central and does not extend to any other repository, agency, or entity; and
3. agrees to and includes in the text of the abstract of the manuscript submitted to PMC the following disclaimer:
   "This is an author-produced version of a manuscript accepted for publication in The Journal of Immunology (The JI). The American Association of Immunologists, Inc. (AAI), publisher of The JI, holds the copyright to this manuscript. This version of the manuscript has not yet been copyedited or subjected to editorial proofreading by The JI; hence, it may differ from the final version published in The JI (online and in print). AAI (The JI) is not liable for errors or omissions in this author-produced version of the manuscript or in any version derived from it by the U.S. National Institutes of Health or any other third party. The final, citable version of record can be found at www.jimmunol.org."

Other Funding Agencies:
Authors funded by agencies that mandate submission to PubMed Central with public access within 6 months after publication must contact infoji@aai.org for the Submission Form.

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 noncitable postings on a publicly accessible Web site, are not considered 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.

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.

It is required that unique materials developed for manuscripts published in The JI, that are not available from commercial suppliers, 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.