Picking a Journal Club Paper
Overview: Participating in a regular Journal club provides a way to keep abreast of new
developments in Immunology and to learn how to read scientific papers and evaluate them.
Learning how to present a journal club paper is an important skill for now and in the future.
Tips on choosing a paper: The foundation of an outstanding journal club presentation rests on
the choice of an interesting and well-written paper for discussion. Pick a paper that you are
interested in, that has been published in the past year, and it should usually be in one of the top
journals for Immunology (see list below). While there are no guarantee that the papers in these
journals are great, because of the review process that they go through to get accepted in these
journals the odds are better that they are solid papers.
Top Immunology Research Journals
Nature
Science
Cell
Nature Immunology
Immunity
Cell Host and Microbe
PNAS
PLOS Pathogens
Journal of Immunology
Review Journals - included as a reference, we will be presenting articles from research journals.
Annual Reviews of Immunology
Nature Reviews Immunology
Keeping up on reading papers: I would recommend that you sign up to be emailed the
electronic table of contents (eTOCs) for Science and Nature (register on their websites) and any
other journals relevant to your work. This will help you keep up with the best new science.
Journal Impact Factors: While journal impact factors are never an indicator of how good a
paper in that journal will be, if you want to get a feel for how a journal of interest is ranked here
is the online link. You can search by scientific categories or search by the specific journal name.