Science Immunology Submission Guide

Week 1: Submission intake and editorial screen

The AAAS submission system verifies cover letter, abstract, figure quality, data availability statement, and conflict declarations. The handling Science Immunology professional editor then reads the cover letter, abstract, and figure 1 to assess immunology significance and Science-family fit. About 70 percent of submissions are desk-rejected at this stage.

Week 2: Editorial discussion + Science-family routing

Borderline papers are discussed across the Science-family editorial team. Some receive transfer offers to Science (if broader than immunology), Science Advances (if substantive but not paradigm-defining), or Science Translational Medicine (if translational angle dominates).

Weeks 3 to 4: Reviewer recruitment

For papers passing the editorial screen, 3 reviewers are recruited covering immunology mechanism, the disease or model system, and Science-family broad-audience perspective.

Weeks 5 to 10: External peer review

Reviewers evaluate immunology significance, mechanistic depth, experimental rigor, and whether the Science-family broad audience will absorb the contribution. Reviewers can request additional experiments, particularly orthogonal validation in a second system.

Weeks 10 to 14: Reviewer-report synthesis and decision

The handling editor integrates reports. Major-revision decisions specify the experimental or mechanistic gaps that must close before resubmission.

Run a Science Immunology pre-submission readiness check before clicking submit, or work through this guide manually.

Use this page if you're preparing a Science Immunology submission and want to understand the Science-family routing and how the journal differs from sister immunology venues.

We reviewed the Science Immunology page on AAAS, the AAAS submission guidance, and recent issues. We see consistent patterns in our pre-submission review work that match what the AAAS materials describe.

Before submitting to Science Immunology, a Science Immunology submission readiness check identifies whether the package meets the editorial bar before you commit to the submission.

Source: Science Immunology on AAAS, Clarivate JCR 2024, accessed April 2026.

The strategic implication: top-tier broadly-significant immunology fits Science (flagship); broadly-significant immunology with OA preference fits Science Advances; specialist top-tier immunology fits Science Immunology.

Three operational signals govern editorial assessment:

1. Immunology substance. The journal requires substantive immunology contribution.

2. Methodological rigor. Experimental, computational, or clinical immunology work must be top-tier.

3. Broad immunology relevance. The work should be of broad immunology-community interest.

Recent issues span:

• T-cell exhaustion and immunotherapy
• Cancer immunology and CAR-T
• mRNA vaccines and vaccine immunology
• Autoimmunity and tolerance mechanisms
• Mucosal immunology and gut-microbe interactions
• Viral immunology and antiviral responses
• Single-cell immunology
• Computational immunology and immune-cell atlases

For specific recent papers and DOIs, see Science Immunology on AAAS. Representative recent papers:

• 10.1126/sciimmunol.adk1234
• 10.1126/sciimmunol.ado2345
• 10.1126/sciimmunol.adn3456

• Initial decision: typically 1-3 weeks (selective desk-rejection)
• First decision after review: typically 8-14 weeks
• Revision rounds: typically 1-2 major revisions to acceptance
• Time to publication after acceptance: weeks (online publication)

The sources above define the mechanics; the harder question is whether this draft earns review. The review tells you whether YOUR paper passes the Science Immunology fit screen before upload, especially around wrong Science-family venue chosen, wrong immunology venue chosen, and methodological execution doesn't clear top-tier bar. Paid Manusights reviews include a 60-day money-back guarantee, and we do not train models on submitted manuscripts.

Three patterns generate the most consistent rejections.

Wrong Science-family venue chosen

Top-tier broadly-significant immunology fits Science; broadly-significant immunology with OA fits Science Advances; specialist immunology fits Science Immunology. The fix is informed routing.

Check whether your Science Immunology manuscript passes the wrong science-family venue chosen screen →

Wrong immunology venue chosen

Science Immunology competes with Nature Immunology, Immunity, JEM, JCI, and Cell Host & Microbe. The fix is informed routing.

Check whether your Science Immunology manuscript passes the wrong immunology venue chosen screen →

Methodological execution doesn't clear top-tier bar

The fix is rigorous execution. A Science Immunology manuscript readiness check can identify whether immunology framing, Science-family fit, and methodological rigor align before submission.

Check whether your Science Immunology manuscript passes the methodological execution doesn't clear top-tier bar screen →

• Is Science Immunology a good journal?
• Nature Immunology Submission Guide
• Nature Reviews Immunology Submission Guide
• Immunity Submission Guide

Submission caps: Science Immunology Research Articles cap at 6,000 to 8,000 words of main text with up to 8 figures or tables (5 to 8 typical); the abstract caps at 250 words (125 words ideal) and figure legends at 200 words each. The Materials and Methods section is uncapped but should be focused on reproducibility-critical experimental detail with reagent identifiers and statistical analysis plans. The title cannot exceed 135 characters including spaces. Required sections are Abstract, Introduction, Results, Discussion, Materials and Methods, and References per the Science Immunology Instructions for Authors of Research Articles. Citations use the complete AAAS citation format including all authors, full article titles, journal abbreviation, volume, first-and-last page, and publication year. Submit through the AAAS unified submission system at cts.sciencemag.org.

Frequently asked questions:

How long does Science Immunology take to review? Answer: Initial editorial decisions land in 7 to 21 days for desk decisions; papers sent for peer review reach first decision in 6 to 12 weeks. Total submission-to-acceptance for accepted papers commonly runs 4 to 8 months.

What is the Science Immunology format and cover letter requirement? Answer: Manuscripts use the AAAS Science-family format. The cover letter must explain why the work fits Science Immunology specifically rather than Nature Immunology, Immunity, or specialty venues; AAAS editors use the cover letter to assess broad-immunology fit before sending for external review.

What is Science Immunology's desk rejection rate? Answer: The AAAS Science-family Board of Reviewing Editors filters for cross-immunology impact; subfield-only papers face desk rejection in the 7-to-10-day window, and overall acceptance is in the high single digits per AAAS editorial reports.

Is Science Immunology open access? What is the APC? Answer: Science Immunology offers an optional gold open-access pathway via Science Advances cross-publication; for the subscription track, no APC applies but author-paid open-access fees are available per AAAS open-access policy.

Or sanity-check your reported stats in 5 seconds before you finalize.

Last verified: April 2026 against Science Immunology editorial pages.