Published by Elsevier as the official journal of the European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS), a member of the International Union of Immunological Societies

1. Submission procedure

Online submission of papers
The sole mechanism of submission of manuscripts is electronic, by using the electronic submission tool at http://www.ees.elsevier.com/imlet. After registration, authors will be asked to upload their article and associated artwork. The submission tool generates an automatic reply which incorporates the manuscript for future correspondence.
Full instructions on how to use the online submission tool are available at the above web address.
Authors must include a cover letter that contains the title, authors, a brief outline of the work's originality, desired section of publication, corresponding author's name, address, telephone and fax numbers (including country and city codes), and e-mail address.


Submission of an article to this journal assumes that the article has not been published elsewhere and is not being considered for publication elsewhere. Submission further assumes that all named authors agree with the submission. Papers should be submitted in good English, accompanied by a full title and the fax and telephone numbers and e-mail address of the corresponding author, a summary and key words, and should meet all of the requirements listed under Preparation of Manuscripts below. Upon request, Elsevier will direct authors to an agent who can check and improve the English of their paper before submission. Please contact autorsupport@elsevier.com for further information.


Manuscripts can be submitted (via EES) to any member of the Executive Board, or the Editor-in-Chief, who will arrange for their evaluation. Authors are advised to ascertain the availability of the editor (via E-mail or fax) before submission. Details on where to send reprints should also be provided with the submission. 25 Reprints will be provided free of charge but more may be ordered (minimum 100), in which case information on where to send an invoice should also be given.


2. Types of Articles

- Research Articles - these are full length manuscripts that describe significant experimental findings. There is no page limit but articles may be returned for shortening at the Editors' discretion.

- Current Views - these are (mini)-reviews which may be submitted to any Executive Editor or the Editor-in-Chief, or which may be invited by them.

- Letters to the Editor - these are notes sent to the Editor-in-Chief, raising a topic for discussion, providing an opinion or an hypothesis, or commentaries on previously published work, etc. Letters to the Editor do not need to follow the general arrangement instructions given below and should normally not exceed 800 words.

3. Preparation of Articles
(i) Manuscripts should be written, double spaced with wide margins.
(ii) The title page should include the title of the article, the full names and professional addresses of all of the authors, as well as the full postal address of the corresponding author, including postal code, country, telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address.
(iii) If the paper is part of a numbered series, this should be indicated in a footnote and not in the title.
(iv) Line-drawn figures (including graphs) must be lettered ready for direct reproduction, OR sharp photoprints of lettered line-drawings may be submitted. It is very important that the drawings themselves AND the lettering are in proportion and large enough to allow for reduction before printing. The amount of reduction that will be made can be judged from the sizes of figures in recent issues of the journal; usually to a single or double column width.
(v) Half-tone figures should be submitted with as much contrast as possible.
(vi) Reproductions in colour will have to be approved by the Editors. The extra costs of colour reproduction will be charged to the author(s).
(vii) Legends for figures should be typed on separate sheets.
(viii) Colour illustrations for Journals with Colourful e-Product
Please make sure the artwork is in an acceptable format (TIFF, EPS, or MS Office files) and is at the correct resolution. If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable colour figures then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in colour on the web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see http://authors.elsevier.com/artwork.
(ix) Nomenclature and abbreviations: Authors should in general follow internationally agreed rules as set out in Information for Contributors to Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, Elsevier B.V., P.O. Box 1345, 1000 BH Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and in Collected Tentative Rules and Recommendations of the Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature, IUPAC-IUB, 1975, American Society of Biological Chemists Inc., 9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20014, USA.
(x) Typescripts should be carefully checked before submission since alterations after acceptance are not possible.


4. General arrangement of papers

Papers should be introduced by a title page, as described in 3.ii above. A list of at least 3 keywords should be provided, followed by numbered sections as follows: 1. Summary; 2. Introduction, which should summarize the research problem and the pertinent findings; 3. Materials and Methods or 3. Experimental; 4. Results, and 5. Discussion. Acknowledgements should precede References - they should not be included as footnotes. Letters to the Editor do not need to follow these arrangement instructions. (Mini)-reviews should be introduced by a list of at least 3 keywords, followed by 1. Summary; 2. Introduction, and then headings of the author's choice. References should be included.

5. References

Please use the Vancouver reference system as shown by the examples below. In the text references should be numbered consecutively within square brackets (e.g.[1]).If you cite a reference more than once in the text, please use the same number each time. References in the reference list should accord with the system in uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals (N Engl J Med 1991;34:424-428). Please ensure that references are complete and that all references that appear in the text also appear in the list, and vice versa.

Examples:

for journals:
[1] Zinkernagel RM, Doherty PC. The discovery of MHC restriction. Immunol Today 1997;18:14-17.
[2] Winau F, Schwierzeck V, Hurwitz R, Remmel N, Sieling PA, Modlin RL, et.al. Saposin C is required for lipid presentation by human CD1b. Nat Immunol 2004;5:169-74.
for books:
[3] Nishioka M, Toda G, Zeniya M, editors. Autoimmune Hepatitis. Amsterdam: Elsevier,1994.
for chapter in a book
[4] Kalden JR. Human Antimouse Antibodies. In: Peter JB, Shoenfeld Y, editors. Autoantibodies. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1996: 403-407.
Please note that all authors should be listed when six or less; when seven or more list the first six and add "et al".


The titles of the cited articles must be exactly as they appear in the original source (e.g. using properly the Greek letters and other symbols, using the "+" in "CD4⁺" in superscript, etc); not in the modified form taken from Pubmed and other secondary sources.


6. Proofs

Proofs will be sent to the author by email to be carefully checked for file conversion errors. Changes or additions to the edited manuscript cannot be allowed at this stage. Corrected proofs should be returned to the publisher within two days of receipt. It is important to ensure that all of your corrections are sent back to us in one communication.

7. Covering Letter Each manuscript should be accompanied by a covering letter explaining briefly the importance of the article, stating that it is not currently under consideration in another journal and that all authors agree with the contents of the manuscript. Furthermore, several suitable reviewers (with e-mail addresses) may be suggested.

8. Reprints

On acceptance of the paper the submitting author will receive an Order Form to be used for ordering reprints of the article, including the 25 free reprints allowed. The Reprints Order Form should be returned as soon as possible to Immunology Letters, Elsevier Ireland Ltd., Elsevier House, Brookvale Plaza, East Park, Shannon, Co. Clare, Ireland.

9. Editorial matters

Address all queries of an editorial nature to Elsevier Ireland Ltd., Elsevier House, Brookvale Plaza, East Park, Shannon, Co. Clare, Ireland. Tel.: + 353 61 709600; Fax + 353 61 709100.

Author Enquiries
Authors can keep track on the progress of their accepted article, and set up e-mail alerts informing them of changes to their manuscript's status, by using the "Track a Paper" feature of Elsevier's www.elsevier.com/trackarticle. For specific enquiries on the preparation of electronic artwork please consult http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions. The executive editors will make every effort to handle the manuscripts rapidly and as a rule the authors should receive a decision on the manuscript (accepted, to be revised, rejected) based on reviewers reports in less than 3-4 weeks, they should ask the relevant Executive Editor or the Editor in Chief.