INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

The Iranian Journal of Immunology (IJI) is an internationally-disseminated peer-reviewed quaternary publication that publishes a broad range of experimental and theoretical studies concerned with all aspects of immunology.

Types of Papers Accepted:
The main part of each issue will be devoted to original research papers which should present new results of interest to a broad spectrum of immunologists. Such papers must describe significant and original observations to be critically evaluated and, if necessary, repeated. The journal will include review articles dealing with particular subject areas in a thoughtful and personal manner. Subjects that are undergoing rapid change or that merit a new conceptual approach will have priority. The Journal will welcome review articles on basic and clinical immunology, immunogenetics, transplantation immunology, immunohematology, cancer immunology and allergy. The Journal will also consider short communications, case reports and letters to the Editor.

Submission:
Submit a copy of your manuscript typed in Microsoft Word for PC (PDF is not an acceptable format). Graphs should be submitted as separate files prepared by Microsoft Excel program. Figures should also be submitted as separate files in TIFF or PCX format and should have a resolution of at least 300 dpi. Manuscripts that do not conform to these specifications may not be accepted. All the aforementioned files should be submitted as attachments to iji@sums.ac.ir, accompanied by a covering letter to the Editor-in-Chief, containing the title and the authors' names and indicating that the manuscript has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. In the cover letter, clearly indicate the exact contribution of everyone who is listed as an author. The right to authorship is determined based on the direct contribution of an individual to the conception, design, data (or sample) collection, performing experiments, analysis or interpretation of data and writing the article. The files could also be electronically sent to the Editor-in-Chief:

Dr. Abbas Ghaderi, PhD
Professor of Immunology,
Shiraz Institute for Cancer Research,
Medical School,
Shiraz University of Medical Sciences,
Shiraz, Iran.
P.O. Box: 71345-3119,
Phone: (+98711) 2303687,
Fax: (+98711) 2304952,
E-mail: ghaderia@sums.ac.ir

- Title of the article (should be as short as possible, containing adequate information
regarding the contents, without any abbreviation).

- Running title (not in excess of 50 characters).

- The authors' full first names and surnames.

- Affiliation(s)/Address(es) should be followed by the name, the full postal address,
the e-mail address and the fax/telephone numbers of the corresponding author.

- Keywords: Three to six words in alphabetic order selected according to the terms recommended in the last version of the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH).

Authorship criteria:(NEW)
Iran J Immunol follows the Uniform Guidelines for Biomedical Journals Requirements of the ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) for determining authorship (http://www.icmje.org). The right to authorship is determined based on the direct contribution of an individual to the conception, design, data (or sample) collection, performing experiments, analysis or interpretation of data and writing the article. It is a requirement that all authors have appropriate approval upon submission of the manuscript. Contributors who do not qualify as authors should be mentioned under acknowledgements section.

Abstract:
A Research article should have a structured abstract with the following organization: Background, describing the motivations of the study; Objective(s), explaining the aim of the current work; Method(s), clarifying how the work was carried out; Results, revealing the main findings and their significance; and Conclusion(s), disclosing the main message of the article. The abstract should not exceed 250 words in length. Do not use reference citations in the Abstract). Short papers and Short communications should have the same structure of the abstract as a research article but with no more than 150 words. Case reports and Letters to the editor do not require abstracts. A review article may have an unstructured abstract (one paragraph not more than 300 words). It is preferable not to use any abbreviations in the abstract section.

Structure of articles:
IJI requires that depending on the type of articles, the submitted manuscripts should be divided into the following sections:

- Review Articles: Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Primary and secondary topic headings (as many as required), Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgements, References, Tables, Legends.
- Research Articles: Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, References, Tables, Legends. The length of these articles should not exceed 4500 words.
- Short Papers and Short Communications: Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion (combined), Acknowledgements, References, Tables, Legends. The length of these articles should not exceed 2500 words.
- Case Reports: Title page, Introduction, The case, Discussion, Acknowledgements, References, Tables, Legends. The length of such articles should not exceed 2000 words.
- Letters to the eEditor: Title page, Letter, Acknowledgements, References. The length of such letters should not exceed 1500 words.

Should be numbered with Arabic numerals and appear after References. They should be self-explanatory, clearly designed, and not duplicating the text.

Figures:
Graphs should be submitted as separate files prepared by Microsoft Excel program. Figures should be submitted as separate files in TIFF or PCX format and should have a resolution of at least 300 dpi. Manuscripts that do not conform to these specifications may not be accepted at the editor's discretion.

References:
Should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals in parentheses as they appear in the text. A number must be used if the authors are named in the sentence/text. Bibliographies cited in tables and figures should be numbered according to the site where the corresponding table or figure is first referenced. When multiple references are cited at a given place in the text, use a hyphen to join the first and last numbers that are inclusive. Use commas (without spaces) to separate non-inclusive numbers in a multiple citation eg. 2,3,4,5,7,10 is abbreviated to (2-5,7,10). Do not use a hyphen if there are no numbers cited between the numbers used (eg. 1-2). Periodicals should be abbreviated according to the Index Medicus (Vancouver Style). Include the name of all authors, if there are six or less authors. Print names of the first six authors followed by "et al." when there are more than six authors. References to books should include Author(s), Title, Edition, Place of publication, Publisher and Year of publication. Chapters in a book should appear as Author(s), Title of chapter, Editor(s), Name of the book, Place of publication, Publisher, Year of publication and Pages. References to electronic journals should include Author(s), Title of article, Abbreviated title of electronic journal, [serial online], Publication year, month(s), [cited year month (abbreviated) day], Volume number, Issue number, Page numbers or number of screens, available from, URL address underlined:

1. Doroudchi M, Dehaghani AS, Ghaderi A. Preferential placental transfer of Helicobacter pylori specific IgG. J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med. 2004;16:297-301.
   
   
2. Lodish H, Baltimore D, Berk A, Zipursky SL, Matsudaira P, Darnell J. Molecular cell biology. 3rd ed. New York: Scientific American; 1995.
   
   
3. Porter RJ, Meldrum BS. Antiepileptic drugs. In: Katzung BG, (Editor). Basic and clinical pharmacology. 6th ed. Norwalk (CN): Appleton and Lange; 1995. p. 361-80.
    
4. Morse SS. Factors in the emergence of infectious disease. Emerg Infect Dis [serial online] 1995 Jan-Mar [cited 1999 Dec 25]; 1(1):[24 screens]. Available from:URL: http://www/cdc/gov/ncidoc/EID/eid.htm

Inclusive page numbers should be given for all references. Articles in press might appear in the reference list, however unpublished material and personal communications should not be cited in the reference list, though they could be mentioned in parenthesis in the text.

Plagiarism:(NEW)
All submitted manuscript will be checked for possible similarity in any part of the work by at least two softwares. Those with more than 25% similarity to published papers or online materials will, at the editor's discretion, be rejected or returned to authors for rewriting followed by re-review before a final decision is made. To avoid the consequences of the plagiarism in the submitted work, please consult with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) website (www.publicationethics.org).

Conflicts of Interest:
Authors must acknowledge and declare all sources of funding and potential conflicting interest, such as receiving funds or fees by, or holding stocks and shares in an organization that may profit or lose through publication of the paper. Declaring a competing interest will not lead to automatic rejection of the paper, but we would like to be made aware of it.

Page charges:
Manuscripts (national submissions only) that are accepted for publication in the Iranian Journal of Immunology are subjected to a page charge of 200,000 Rials per page. This charge covers some of the costs of publication of the journal. Support from page charges allows the journal to provide a free fulltext access for our readers and a greater visibility of the papers. Page charge form will be sent to the corresponding author on acceptance of an article for publication in the journal. Please be advised that we cannot publish papers until we have received the page charges. All accepted manuscripts will undergo a process of English editing by copy Editor. Those accepted papers which require an extra work by copy Editor will be subjected to a fee by corresponding author.

Copyright:
At the time of sending the manuscript, the authors are requested to download the Copyright Agreement Form available at www.iji.ir (IJI website) and send its signed proof by ALL authors, along with a covering letter from the corresponding author indicating their agreements upon submission to and the right to reproduce and distribute the article for IJI.
Upon receiving the signed proof of the copyright agreement, the editorial board of IJI, reserves the right to accept or reject the article in any stage and any time or delete a part of the text, tables or figures, if necessary.

Reviewing Process:
The submitted manuscripts will firstly be assessed from the editorial points of view. Should the manuscript meet the basic editorial requirements, it will enter the peer-review process. The manuscript will then be sent to one in-office and two out of office referees for review. The corresponding author will then be informed of the referees’ remarks. It is highly recommended that the authors provide the names and the complete addresses (Postal address, Fax number and E-mail) of at least three qualified reviewers capable of reviewing their manuscripts. All accepted manuscripts will undergo a process of English editing by copy Editor. Those accepted papers which require an extra work by copy Editor will be subjected to a fee by corresponding author.