Congratulations! If you’re reading this, you’ve probably successfully made it through 2020. I do say probably because with the way 2020 went, I don’t want to exclude the possibility that we might by now all be zombies wandering through a postapocalyptic hellscape. But even if that were true (and certainly some days I feel as if it might be), and you are a zombie reading the latest issue of ImmunoHorizons, welcome!
It’s been a year since I became Editor-in-Chief at ImmunoHorizons, and it has been satisfying to see many of the successes. The overall goal of ImmunoHorizons (IH), as an online American Association of Immunologists (AAI) journal, is to capture the incremental, descriptive, or limited-scope reports that might not be appropriate for The Journal of Immunology (The JI) in a society forum. Toward that goal, in the past year, we have streamlined the editorial process of transferring referred articles from The JI to IH and hopefully made this process more transparent for the authors. IH of course accepts submissions both as transfers and as original submissions. In the past year we have seen growth in both routes of submission. Importantly, IH is publishing an increasing proportion of articles that might have otherwise gone to other journals or not been published at all. This is important because it not only provides an AAI-sponsored forum for the work of our immunology community but also helps to support AAI and its members. In 2021, IH will receive its first impact factor.
Of course, none of the successes would be possible without the amazing editorial efforts of the boards at both The JI and IH. A big thank you to all The JI Section and Deputy Editors who have referred papers to IH. I also want to extend my gratitude to the IH Senior Editors. Luc van Kaer and Robert Modlin ended their terms in 2020 and had been with the IH Editorial Board since its inception in 2017. Their seasoned judgements were incredible assets during this year of growth and transition. Three new editors joined in 2020, Katherine Gallagher, Henrique Serezani, and Jie Sun. This expanded our board and the scope of expertise. In 2021 the board is joined by Bonnie Dittel and Booki Min. I look forward to working with all in the coming year and I hope that we will live up to our goal of being “the most reasonable Editorial Board in the business.”
In 2021, we will also be reinvigorating our On The Horizon (OTH) commentary features. These short reviews and commentaries are written predominantly by junior investigators (at an Assistant faculty level) and are focused on unanswered questions and future directions for a field. This feature was started by the previous Editors-in-Chief, Leslie Berg and Michael Krangel, and is being expanded for 2021, with several excellent OTH features in the pipeline.
As we look toward the next ImmunoHorizon, or at least the next issue of ImmunoHorizons, I hope that we can keep expanding our submissions, our readership (even from the zombie population), and our service as a forum for the immunology community. All the best for 2021.
