Nature Immunology

About Nature Immunology

Nature Immunology: Journal Overview

Nature Immunology is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Springer Nature as part of Nature Portfolio. It is a multidisciplinary journal devoted entirely to immunology, publishing papers of the highest quality and significance across the full breadth of the field — from the basic molecular workings of the immune system to translational research with clinical implications. Its official journal information page describes it as "a monthly journal publishing the highest quality research in all areas of immunology" and notes that all editorial decisions are made by a team of full-time professional editors (source: nature.com/ni/about, accessed October 2026).

The journal's standing is reflected in its official metrics. On its metrics page, Nature Immunology reports a Journal Impact Factor of 26.5 (2025) and a 5-year Journal Impact Factor of 29.1 (2025) — placing it among the most-cited primary research journals in immunology (source: nature.com/ni/journal-impact, accessed October 2026). On its subscription page, the publisher describes the journal as ranked first out of more than 100 primary immunology research journals (source: nature.com/ni/subscribe).

Like the other Nature research journals, Nature Immunology has no external editorial board. Every editorial decision — from initial assessment to final acceptance — is taken by in-house professional editors with research backgrounds in immunology and related fields (source: nature.com/ni/editors, accessed October 2026).

History of Nature Immunology

July 2020 marked the 20th anniversary of Nature Immunology's launch, meaning the journal published its first issue in July 2000 (source: nature.com/articles/s41590-020-0729-y, the editors' anniversary editorial). It was founded by chief editor Linda J. Miller together with two associate editors, Jamie D. K. Wilson and Melanie Brazil — Wilson joined the staff before the launch and would later become Chief Editor himself.

The journal entered a landscape dominated by two premier immunology titles, the Journal of Experimental Medicine and Immunity, both of which were run by academic editorial boards. Nature Immunology deliberately avoided that model, following the example of the other Nature research journals by putting full-time professional editors in charge (source: anniversary editorial).

The founding mission, in the editors' own retrospective words, was to provide a platform for cutting-edge research yielding fundamental insight into the workings of the immune system, covering all areas of immunology. The timing, as Linda Miller recalled, coincided with immunology being "on the cusp of a rise in popularity" — innate immunity, T cell education, regulatory T cells that suppress other T cells, asthma and inflammation, how cancers evade the immune system, Toll-like receptors (TLRs), and mucosal immunity were all areas where momentum was building (source: anniversary editorial, paraphrased).

The journal's history has been marked by editorial stability. Laurie Dempsey joined in 2001 and became one of the community's best-known editors; Peter Lee, Douglas Braaten and Christine Borowski joined during the first decade; Linda Miller passed the baton to Jamie Wilson in 2005; and Ioana Visan and Zoltan Fehervari joined in 2009 and 2010 respectively. By its 20th anniversary the editors noted their current team carried more than 60 years of combined editorial experience (source: anniversary editorial).

Over two decades the journal has broadened its content to keep pace with the field: it introduced Resource papers (large datasets of broad utility, such as comprehensive single-cell RNA-seq or proteomic analyses), a Letter format for important messages that should not be held up by demands for extensive mechanistic data, and Technical Reports for influential new techniques. It has welcomed more human and translational research and expanded commissioned content with Comments and a new World View article type addressing immunology, health and world issues in the context of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (source: anniversary editorial).

Leadership and Editorial Team

The current Chief Editor of Nature Immunology is Jamie D. K. Wilson, D.Phil, based in the USA. Wilson read Biological Sciences at the University of Warwick, then completed his D.Phil. at the Institute of Molecular Medicine at Oxford University under Andrew McMichael, studying the host's immune response to HIV and Epstein-Barr virus infection. He continued HIV research as a postdoc in Frances Gotch's immunology team at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, Imperial College London, focusing on the immune responses of long-term non-progressors, before joining the staff of Nature Immunology prior to its 2000 launch. He has led the journal since 2005 (sources: nature.com/ni/editors; nature.com/articles/s41590-020-0729-y).

The journal's official editors page (accessed October 2026) lists a wider in-house team around them. The Senior Editors are:

• Nick Bernard, PhD (London) — PhD in Biochemistry and Immunology, Trinity College Dublin (co-supervised by Luke O'Neill and Kingston Mills); six years at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Melbourne. Joined Springer Nature in 2013 (Nature Reviews Rheumatology, then Nature Communications); focuses on autoimmunity and cancer immunology.
• Stephanie Houston, PhD (New York) — BSc in Immunology and Pharmacology, University of Strathclyde; PhD in Immunology, University of Glasgow; postdoctoral work on TGFβ activation, University of Manchester. Editorial career began at the Journal of Experimental Medicine (2018); joined Nature Immunology in 2022.
• Paula Jáuregui, PhD (Madrid) — PhD on lentiviral restriction factors (CSIC, Pamplona); postdoctoral research on HIV accessory proteins (NYU) and innate immunity in HIV pathogenesis (Innsbruck). Previously Nature Microbiology and PLOS Biology; joined Nature Immunology in January 2024.
• Ioana Staicu, PhD (New York) — doctoral work on B-cell transcriptional regulation, University of Würzburg; postdoctoral research on Notch in T-cell development, University of Toronto. On the Nature Immunology staff since 2009.

The page also lists Meriem Attaf, PhD (London) as a Consulting Editor (joined August 2026), with a background in T-cell development and T-cell receptor repertoire sequencing (Imperial College London, Cardiff University, Nature Communications).

Laurie Dempsey's biography on the same page records that she earned a B.S. in microbiology at the University of Michigan, a Ph.D. with David Dubnau at New York University on DNA replication and recombination, and went on to study protein–DNA interactions with Nick Cozzarelli (UC Berkeley) and Saleem Khan (University of Pittsburgh), then immunoglobulin class switching with Nancy Maizels at Yale. After a spell as an assistant professor at the Mayo Clinic studying mechanisms of organ rejection, she left the bench in 2001 to become an editor at Nature Immunology (source: nature.com/ni/editors).

As with all Nature research journals, there is no external editorial board — the dedicated in-house team of professional editors makes every editorial decision, drawing on their own research and editorial backgrounds (source: nature.com/ni/editors).

Aims & Scope

According to the journal's official Aims & Scope page, Nature Immunology is a multidisciplinary journal that publishes papers of the highest quality and significance in all areas of immunology. Priority is given to work that provides translational and/or fundamental insight into how the immune system works. The page lists areas covered including, but not limited to: innate immunity and inflammation; immune development; immune receptors, signaling and apoptosis; antigen presentation; gene regulation and recombination; cellular and systemic immunity; vaccines; immune tolerance; autoimmunity; tumor immunology; and microbial immunopathology (source: nature.com/ni/aims, accessed October 2026 — paraphrased).

Beyond original research, the journal publishes Comments, News and Views, research highlights, Matters Arising from readers, and literature Reviews — positioning itself as a major conduit of high-quality information for the immunology community. The aims page also commits to fair and rapid review and speedy publication: decisions on whether to send a manuscript out for peer review are normally made within two working days of receipt, and decisions about publication are typically made within two days of receiving the referees' reports (source: nature.com/ni/aims, accessed October 2026).

Editorial Process and Peer Review

Nature Immunology's submission hub lays out the editorial journey step by step (source: nature.com/ni/for-authors). How manuscripts are handled:

1. Initial editorial assessment. The in-house professional editors assess every submission against the journal's aims and scope. Only manuscripts judged to be of potential interest to the readership are sent for formal external review; decisions on whether to send a manuscript out are normally made within two working days of receipt (sources: nature.com/ni/for-authors; nature.com/ni/aims).
2. Formal peer review. Manuscripts selected for review are assessed by independent referees. Authors are also offered participation in double-anonymized peer review (source: nature.com/ni/for-authors).
3. Editorial decision. Decisions about publication are typically made within two days of receipt of the referees' reports (source: nature.com/ni/aims). If a decision is appealed, the journal provides an appeals process; authors may also transfer a submission to another journal within the portfolio (source: nature.com/ni/for-authors).
4. Acceptance in principle and production. Before final acceptance, corresponding authors must link their ORCID to the manuscript tracking system; accepted manuscripts then go through formatting and production (source: nature.com/ni/for-authors).

Speed. The journal's official metrics page reports a median time from submission to first editorial decision of 5 days and a median time from submission to acceptance of 180 days (source: nature.com/ni/journal-impact, accessed October 2026).

Transparent peer review. The editors have driven transparency initiatives across the Nature portfolio. At Nature Immunology, authors who submitted after 1 December 2019 could opt in to transparent peer review, publishing anonymous referee reports alongside author responses with the article — and the journal indicated it would consider offering referees the option of being named on manuscripts they had peer reviewed, for better recognition (source: nature.com/articles/s41590-020-0729-y). As part of wider open-science measures, the journal mandates a reporting checklist before a paper can be sent to peer review, requires deposition of large datasets in public repositories with reviewer access, and encourages access to raw data during peer review and at acceptance (source: anniversary editorial).

Acceptance rate: the journal does not publish an acceptance rate on its official pages — no acceptance-rate figure is given on the metrics page or the for-authors hub.

Impact and Metrics

The following figures are taken from Nature Immunology's official metrics page (nature.com/ni/journal-impact, accessed October 2026). The journal labels them as the 2025 values.

Springer Nature is a signatory of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). The metrics page notes that citation measures like the 2-year Journal Impact Factor are not necessarily measures of journal quality, and encourages authors and readers to consider a range of metrics (source: nature.com/ni/journal-impact).

Submission Guidelines

Nature Immunology's "Submission Guidelines" hub (nature.com/ni/for-authors) asks authors to complete several checks before initial submission:

• Fit and content type: confirm Nature Immunology is the most suitable journal for the work and that it accepts the content type being submitted — links point authors to the Aims & Scope and Content Types pages.
• Policies and costs: read the editorial policies and understand the publishing models and costs (subscription vs. gold open access).
• Presubmission enquiries: the hub links authors to information on presubmission enquiries, so authors unsure of fit can check before submitting a full manuscript.
• Preprints: the journal provides a dedicated preprint policy page and an In Review preprint service.
• Formatting: initial submissions follow simplified formatting requirements; material should be complete, accurate and readable, with writing-and-language guidance available.
• Double-anonymized review: authors can opt into double-anonymized peer review.
• Submission system: manuscripts are submitted through the journal's online system at mts-ni.nature.com (registration required for new users), after which authors can track manuscript status.
• ORCID: before final acceptance, corresponding authors must link their ORCID to the manuscript tracking system.

Separate guidance covers editorial process, peer review, appeals and transfers to other journals (source: nature.com/ni/for-authors, accessed October 2026).

Open Access and APC

Nature Immunology is a hybrid journal. Its official publishing-models page states that authors submitting primary research articles can choose to publish either through the traditional subscription route or via gold open access (APC paid on acceptance, article freely available to all). Non-primary articles — Reviews, Comments, News & Views — cannot include original unpublished research findings and are not eligible for gold open access; they are published on the subscription route only (source: nature.com/ni/our-publishing-models, accessed October 2026).

APC figure: the journal's official publishing-models page does not state the exact APC amount. A third-party publication-fee listing (researchhelpdesk.org, accessed 10 October 2026) reports €9,500 as the gold-OA APC for Nature Immunology, but because this figure is not published on the journal's own pages, authors should verify the current charge — and available institutional open access agreements — on the journal's official "Open Access Fees and Funding" pages before relying on any number. Springer Nature also maintains institutional open access agreements that can cover publishing costs, and waiver/discount policies for authors in qualifying circumstances (source: nature.com open access support pages).

Indexing and Abstracting

Nature Immunology is covered by the major biomedical literature databases:

• PubMed/MEDLINE — verified in the U.S. National Library of Medicine catalog (NLM ID 100941354), where the journal carries current indexing status. The NLM record gives the title as "Nature immunology.", imprint "New York, NY: Nature America Inc., c2000–", publication beginning "Vol. 1, no. 1 (July 2000)–", ISSNs 1529-2908 (print) and 1529-2916 (electronic), language English, country United States.
• Scopus and Web of Science (Science Citation Index Expanded) — the journal is covered by the major citation databases, consistent with its Journal Citation Reports listing and SCImago/CiteScore metrics.

Landmark Discoveries Published in Nature Immunology

Across its 25 years, Nature Immunology has published many of the papers that defined modern immunology. Several stand out:

The Foxp3 / regulatory T cell papers (2003). Fontenot, Gavin and Rudensky showed that the forkhead transcription factor Foxp3 is specifically expressed in CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells and is required for their development — demonstrating that the lethal autoimmune syndrome in Foxp3-mutant mice results from a regulatory T cell deficiency (source: nature.com "CD4+ T Cell Diversity" collection listing the article: Nature Immunology 4(4):330–336 (2003), doi:10.1038/ni904). Independent aggregation data places it among the journal's most-cited papers, with over 6,300 citations (source: research.com/journal/nature-immunology, accessed October 2026). A complementary 2003 paper by Khattri and colleagues, "An essential role for Scurfin in CD4+CD25+ T regulatory cells," established the same Foxp3 lineage-specification mechanism (source: nature.com/articles/ni909).

Toll-like receptor biology (2010). Kawai and Akira's landmark review "The role of pattern-recognition receptors in innate immunity: update on Toll-like receptors" (Nature Immunology 11(5):373–384, 2010; doi:10.1038/ni.1863) became one of the most-cited articles in immunology, synthesising how TLRs sense pathogen invasion, trigger innate responses and prime adaptive immunity — and how their dysregulation drives inflammatory and autoimmune disease.

The Th9 lineage (2008). Veldhoen, Uyttenhove, van Snick and colleagues reported that transforming growth factor-β "reprograms" T helper 2 differentiation to produce a distinct interleukin-9-secreting subset — the Th9 cell (Nature Immunology 9(12):1341–1346, 2008; doi:10.1038/ni.1659), adding a new CD4+ helper T cell lineage to the immunology textbooks (source: nature.com collection).

Foxp3 instability and pathogenic T cells (2009). Zhou, Bailey-Bucktrout, Jeker and colleagues showed that instability of Foxp3 can convert regulatory T cells into pathogenic memory T cells in vivo (Nature Immunology 10(9):1000–1007, 2009; doi:10.1038/ni.1774) — a key insight for autoimmunity and cancer immunotherapy (source: nature.com collection).

Th17 cells and the CNS (2009). Reboldi, Coisne, Baumjohann and colleagues demonstrated that CCR6-regulated entry of Th17 cells into the central nervous system through the choroid plexus is required to initiate experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), the model of multiple sclerosis (Nature Immunology 10(5):514–523, 2009; doi:10.1038/ni.1716) — establishing a mechanistic link between Th17 biology and neuroinflammation (source: nature.com collection).

The Th17 lineage (2005). Harrington, Hatton, Mangan and colleagues showed that interleukin-17–producing CD4+ effector T cells develop via a lineage distinct from the T helper type 1 and 2 lineages (Nature Immunology 6(11):1123–1132, 2005; doi:10.1038/ni1254) — the discovery of Th17 cells, one of the most consequential findings in modern immunology; Park and colleagues independently reported the same lineage in the same volume (doi:10.1038/ni1261).

Viral RNA sensing (2004). Yoneyama, Kikuchi, Natsukawa and colleagues demonstrated that the RNA helicase RIG-I has an essential function in double-stranded RNA-induced innate antiviral responses (Nature Immunology 5(7):730–737, 2004; doi:10.1038/ni1087), identifying a cornerstone cytosolic sensor of viral infection.

Cancer immunoediting (2002). Dunn, Bruce, Ikeda, Old and Schreiber proposed the cancer immunoediting framework — elimination, equilibrium, escape — describing how the immune system both protects against and sculpts tumors (Nature Immunology 3(11):991–998, 2002; doi:10.1038/ni1102-991), a concept foundational to modern cancer immunotherapy.

T-cell exhaustion (2011). Wherry's review "T cell exhaustion" (Nature Immunology 12(6):492–499, 2011; doi:10.1038/ni.2035) became a defining synthesis of exhausted T cells in chronic infection and cancer, informing checkpoint-blockade strategies.

Natural killer cells (2008). Vivier, Tomasello, Baratin, Walzer and Ugolini's "Functions of natural killer cells" (Nature Immunology 9(5):503–510, 2008; doi:10.1038/ni1582) remains a landmark synthesis of NK-cell biology.

Tumor microenvironment (2013). Gajewski, Schreiber and Fu's "Innate and adaptive immune cells in the tumor microenvironment" (Nature Immunology 14(10):1014–1022, 2013; doi:10.1038/ni.2703) framed immune contexture as a determinant of cancer outcomes.

Single-cell reference mapping (2019). Aran, Looney, Liu and colleagues' reference-based analysis of lung single-cell sequencing (Nature Immunology 20(2):163–172, 2019; doi:10.1038/s41590-018-0276-y) introduced a widely adopted method for annotating single-cell data against references.

Together these papers illustrate the journal's founding mission in action: fundamental insights — into Treg development, innate sensing, and helper-T-cell diversity — that reshaped how the field understands immunity and disease.

The Nature Portfolio Family

Nature Immunology is part of Nature Portfolio, Springer Nature's family of journals, headed by the flagship multidisciplinary journal Nature. The portfolio includes the open-access multidisciplinary journal Nature Communications, the Nature Reviews series (including Nature Reviews Immunology, the review sister journal covering the same field), and dozens of discipline-specific Nature-branded research journals such as Nature Genetics, Nature Medicine and Nature Cancer.

The portfolio model shapes the editorial workflow: manuscripts declined by one journal can be offered transfer to a sister title — including between Nature Immunology and the flagship Nature — with reviewer reports carried over where appropriate, a route the for-authors hub lists under "Appeals and Transfers" (source: nature.com/ni/for-authors). Because specialist sister journals exist for excellent work of narrower scope, Nature Immunology can reserve its pages for immunology findings with the broadest significance — which is why editors may redirect manuscripts they judge better suited to a more specialist journal. The journal is not part of the Nature Reviews publishing model: unlike Nature Reviews titles, which publish only non-primary content on the subscription route with no gold-OA option, Nature Immunology is a primary-research journal offering gold open access for research articles (sources: nature.com/ni/our-publishing-models; nature.com/nri/publishing-model).

Key Facts

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Nature Immunology?

Nature Immunology is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Springer Nature (Nature Portfolio). It publishes the highest-quality research across all areas of immunology, from basic mechanisms of the immune system to translational and clinical studies (source: nature.com/ni/about).

When was Nature Immunology founded?

The journal was launched in July 2000 — its editors celebrated the 20th anniversary in July 2020 (source: nature.com/articles/s41590-020-0729-y).

Who founded Nature Immunology?

It was founded by chief editor Linda J. Miller with associate editors Jamie D. K. Wilson and Melanie Brazil (source: nature.com/articles/s41590-020-0729-y).

Who is the Editor-in-Chief of Nature Immunology?

Jamie D. K. Wilson, D.Phil, who took over as Chief Editor from Linda Miller in 2005. He joined the journal's staff before its 2000 launch after a research career studying HIV and EBV immunity at Oxford and Imperial College London (sources: nature.com/ni/editors; nature.com/articles/s41590-020-0729-y).

Does Nature Immunology have an editorial board?

No. Like the other Nature research journals, it has no external editorial board — all editorial decisions are made by a dedicated team of full-time professional editors with research and editorial backgrounds (source: nature.com/ni/editors).

What is Nature Immunology's impact factor?

According to the journal's official metrics page, the Journal Impact Factor is 26.5 (2025), with a 5-year Impact Factor of 29.1 (2025). Figures are updated annually — check nature.com/ni/journal-impact for current values (source: nature.com/ni/journal-impact).

What does Nature Immunology publish?

Original research across all areas of immunology — innate immunity and inflammation, immune development, receptors and signaling, antigen presentation, vaccines, tolerance, autoimmunity, tumor immunology, microbial immunopathology and more — plus Comments, News and Views, research highlights, Matters Arising and Reviews. Resource papers, Letters and Technical Reports are also accepted (sources: nature.com/ni/aims; nature.com/articles/s41590-020-0729-y).

How fast is the review process?

Decisions on whether to send a manuscript out for peer review are normally made within two working days of receipt, and publication decisions typically within two days of the referees' reports. The published medians are 5 days from submission to first editorial decision and 180 days from submission to acceptance (sources: nature.com/ni/aims; nature.com/ni/journal-impact).

What is the acceptance rate?

The journal does not publish an acceptance rate on its official pages.

Does Nature Immunology offer open access?

Yes, it is a hybrid journal. Authors of primary research articles can choose gold open access (APC paid on acceptance) or the traditional subscription route. Non-primary articles (Reviews, Comments, News & Views) are subscription-only (source: nature.com/ni/our-publishing-models).

What is the APC for Nature Immunology?

The journal does not state an exact APC figure on its official publishing-models page. A third-party fee listing reports €9,500, but authors should confirm the current charge on the journal's official "Open Access Fees and Funding" pages (see sources note).

Can I post a preprint before submitting?

The journal's for-authors hub links to a dedicated preprint policy and its In Review preprint service — check nature.com/ni/for-authors for the current terms (source: nature.com/ni/for-authors).

Is Nature Immunology indexed in PubMed?

Yes. The journal is indexed in MEDLINE/PubMed — confirmed in the U.S. National Library of Medicine catalog (NLM ID 100941354) — and is covered by Scopus and Web of Science.

How do I submit a manuscript?

Manuscripts are submitted through the journal's online submission system at mts-ni.nature.com, linked from the Submission Guidelines hub at nature.com/ni/for-authors. Authors are advised to read the guidelines, check the aims and scope, and consider a presubmission enquiry before submitting.

Profile compiled October 2026 from official Nature and Springer Nature sources listed below. Metrics and policies change over time — always verify current figures on the journal's official pages before citing or acting on them.