PRESS RELEASE FROM NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
21 May 2009

Contact: Grace Baynes
Corporate Public Relations, Nature Publishing Group
T:+44 (0)20 7014 4063
g.baynes@nature.com

Nature Publishing Group (NPG) will co-publish Cellular & Molecular Immunology from January 2010. NPG today announces a newly signed publishing agreement with the Chinese Society of Immunology (CSI) and the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). Cellular & Molecular Immunology (CMI) is the flagship international journal of CSI and USTC.

CMI is the first English-language journal in China to focus on immunology. Published bimonthly, CMI covers both basic research and clinical applications in all areas of cellular and molecular immunology and welcomes submissions from across the globe. As one of China's premier research journals, CMI has published many highly cited articles since its inception in January 2004.

David Swinbanks, Publishing Director of NPG, said, "We are delighted that Cellular & Molecular Immunology will join our growing list of high-quality journals based in mainland China. This agreement with the CSI and the USTC is an excellent addition to our program of partnerships with key scientific and clinical organizations across the Asia-Pacific region. We look forward to working closely with the editorial staff of the journal to develop CMI into a leading journal in its field."

"It is a milestone in CMI's short history to join NPG, a renowned scientific and biomedical publishing organization," said Zhigang Tian, the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of CMI and the Vice President of the CSI. "The close cooperation with NPG will greatly accelerate the growth of CMI by allowing the journal to take advantage of NPG's editing and publishing expertise."

Jianguo Hou, President of the USTC, said, "USTC publishes seven scientific journals: two in English and five in Chinese. The cooperation between CMI and NPG will further promote the connection between readers and investigators in the fields of immunology and biomedicine, and could become a positive example for our other publications in the future."

Xutao Cao, the President of the CSI, said, "The CSI is part of a large family of international immunology communities, which tries its best to communicate with academic partners and friends worldwide. The cooperation between CMI and NPG is an important step in our pursuit for international collaboration."

CMI will be able to take advantage of NPG's strengths, including editorial expertise and pioneering web technologies. Papers published in CMI will receive broad exposure through nature.com, one of the most popular scientific websites with over 4 million unique users per month. Researchers can also benefit from the visibility of press coverage for work of significant interest and rapid publication, including publication ahead of print. The CSI and the USTC retain their original editorial rights including copyright and editorial board appointments.

This agreement with the CSI and the USTC is the latest in a series of partnerships that NPG Nature Asia-Pacific is undertaking with scientific and clinical societies in this region (see link below for more information). It also marks the next step in NPG's broader strategy to publish the best of Chinese science.

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About the Chinese Society of Immunology

The Chinese Society of Immunology was founded in 1984, and now has more than 3,200 members. The Society promotes the exchange of knowledge - nationally and internationally - by convening conferences, symposia, training courses and workshops on all aspects of immunology and biomedicine. In addition to Cellular & Molecular Immunology , the Society publishes six Chinese-language journals. Together, these activities play an important role in fostering Chinese immunological research. More information is available at www.csi-cams.org.cn.

About the University of Science and Technology of China

The University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) is a national key university ranked in the top echelon of Chinese universities, and is the only university supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Based in Hefei, the USTC has 10 schools and 26 departments across a broad range of fundamental and applied disciplines in the life, medical and physical sciences. It has a staff of 4,000 and a student population of almost 15,000. USTC is the only Chinese university with two National Laboratories on campus: the National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory and the Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences make USTC an important basic research and innovation center. The university collectively publishes a large number of highly cited articles and has strong international links with universities around the world. More information is available at: www.ustc.edu.cn/en/.

About NPG and NPG Nature Asia-Pacific

Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is a division of Macmillan Publishers Ltd, dedicated to serving the academic, professional scientific and medical communities. NPG's flagship title, Nature, was first published in 1869. Other publications include Nature research journals, Nature Reviews and a range of prestigious academic journals including society-owned publications. NPG also provides news content through Nature News. Scientific career information and free job postings are offered on Naturejobs.

NPG Nature Asia-Pacific is the Asia-Pacific wing of NPG, set up to serve the growing needs of the scientific and medical communities in the region, and has offices in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Delhi and Melbourne. For more information, please visit www.natureasia.com.

NPG is a global company with principal offices in London, New York and Tokyo and offices in Basingstoke, Boston, Buenos Aires, Delhi, Hong Kong, Madrid, Melbourne, Munich, Paris, San Francisco, Seoul and Washington DC. For more information, please go to www.nature.com.