IMMUNOLOGY POWERHOUSEThe 47.1 Impact Factor Explained

Since its founding in 2001, Nature Reviews Immunology has occupied a singular position in immunological publishing. While primary research journals like Immunity and the Journal of Experimental Medicine publish the latest experimental findings, Nature Reviews Immunology provides the intellectual architecture that helps researchers understand what those findings mean. Its impact factor of 47.1 reflects the journal’s unmatched ability to publish reviews that reframe how the immunology community thinks about fundamental questions.

Published by Springer Nature with ISSN 1474-1733, Nature Reviews Immunology covers every major domain of immunological inquiry: innate immunity, adaptive immunity, autoimmunity, tumor immunology, infectious disease immunology, mucosal immunity, neuroimmunology, immunometabolism, systems immunology, and immune engineering. The journal’s editorial team has been particularly adept at identifying paradigm shifts — such as the renaissance of innate immunity, the discovery of tissue-resident immune cells, and the therapeutic revolution in cancer immunotherapy — and commissioning the definitive reviews that crystallize these advances for the broader community.

BIBLIOMETRIC OVERVIEWComplete Metrics for Nature Reviews Immunology

The impact factor of 47.1 places Nature Reviews Immunology in the top echelon of all immunology journals, competing directly with primary research titles that naturally accumulate more citations. That a review journal can achieve such parity speaks to the extraordinary influence of its published articles. Each review in Nature Reviews Immunology is read not just by immunologists but by researchers across cancer biology, infectious disease, transplantation, rheumatology, and allergy — a breadth of readership that few specialty journals can match.

SCOPUS & SJR ANALYSISBeyond the Impact Factor

The CiteScore of 52.8 from Scopus, which tracks citations over a four-year window, confirms that Nature Reviews Immunology articles maintain their relevance well beyond the initial two-year impact factor period. This is especially important in immunology, where the rapid pace of discovery means that reviews must be continuously updated — yet the foundational reviews published in Nature Reviews Immunology continue to attract citations because they provide the conceptual frameworks within which new findings are interpreted.

The SJR of 15.2 is particularly noteworthy. By weighting citations according to the prestige of the citing journal, SJR reveals that Nature Reviews Immunology is cited extensively by the most selective and influential publications in biomedicine. When Nature, Cell, Science, and the New England Journal of Medicine regularly cite reviews from Nature Reviews Immunology, it is clear that the journal has earned the trust of the scientific community’s most discerning members.

EDITORIAL SCOPEWhat Nature Reviews Immunology Covers

The journal’s editorial scope is as broad as immunology itself. Core coverage areas include innate immunity and inflammation, adaptive immunity (T cells, B cells, antibodies), antigen presentation, immunological memory, autoimmunity and tolerance, tumor immunology and cancer immunotherapy, infectious disease immunity, mucosal and microbiome immunology, neuroimmunology, immunometabolism, complement and effector systems, transplantation immunology, allergy and asthma, vaccine biology, and immune engineering (CAR-T, gene therapy, etc.).

In recent years, Nature Reviews Immunology has been at the forefront of covering emerging subfields such as trained immunity, tissue-resident lymphocytes, the immunology of obesity, and the immune system’s role in tissue repair and regeneration. The journal’s ability to rapidly commission authoritative reviews on these cutting-edge topics has been a key driver of its sustained citation success.

PUBLISHING IN NATURE REVIEWS IMMUNOLOGYAuthor Guidance

Nature Reviews Immunology publishes commissioned review articles. The editorial team identifies timely topics and invites recognized experts to contribute. Authors who wish to propose a review topic should contact the editorial office with a detailed outline that explains the significance of the topic, its relevance to current immunological research, and its potential to shape future directions in the field.

The most successful reviews in Nature Reviews Immunology offer more than literature summaries — they provide new conceptual frameworks, challenge existing paradigms, and identify critical unanswered questions. Visual materials that clarify complex immunological mechanisms — signaling pathways, cellular differentiation trees, immune network diagrams — are strongly encouraged.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONSFAQ About Nature Reviews Immunology