Benjamin Marsland, PhD, Named Editor-in-Chief of Mucosal Immunology

The Society for Mucosal Immunology (SMI) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Benjamin Marsland as the new Editor-in-Chief of Mucosal Immunology, succeeding Dr. Brian Kelsall who has stepped down after a successful 15 years leading the Mucosal Immunology editorial team. SMI would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank Dr. Kelsall for his commitment and dedication to both the Society and the Mucosal Immunology journal since 2007.

A Message from Dr. Brian Kelsall

The long-standing vision of establishing an official publication for the SMI was realized in 2007 with the publication of the first issue of Mucosal Immunology. Since launching the journal with Jo Viney and Paul Garside over 15 years ago, it has been my privilege to work with such a committed and talented group of editors, publishers, reviewers and authors to help establish the journal in our field.  In addition to Jo and Paul, efforts by Bill Agace, Marsha Wills-Karp, and the exceptional current senior editors, Nadine Cerf-Bensussan, Ben Marsland, Kathy McCoy, Clare Lloyd, and Gerard Eberl have been instrumental in developing the journal over the years. Also essential have been our Associate Editors, some of whom have been with the journal since the initial launch, who have provided not only their expertise and judgment, but also their time to provide feedback at editors' meetings and poster judging at the ICMI and MICs meetings; and of course all those who have submitted their work, as well as those who have graciously given their time and careful thought to reviewing manuscripts and giving constructive feedback along the way.  Certainly, our partnership with Nature Publishing Group, now Springer Nature, has been instrumental and special thanks are warranted for Publishing Mangers, Joy Moore, Anna Saar, and Elizabeth Yepez for their help and guidance over the years.

While I have enjoyed immensely interacting with all of you, it is with great enthusiasm (and comfort) that I pass on my reins to Benjamin Marsland.  Working with Ben for the last year and a half, I have witnessed his keen insight and dedication.  With all of your help, I have great confidence that he will guide the journal to new heights, with new energy, enthusiasm, and focus while maintaining the sense of fairness and rigor that we all have strived so hard to achieve.

A Message from Dr. Benjamin Marsland

Over more than a decade and a half under Brian’s leadership, Mucosal Immunology has become firmly positioned as a leading journal known for its publication of robust and cutting-edge science. It is with great excitement, and some trepidation, that I take over the role as Editor-in-Chief. Mucosal Immunology is in fantastic shape and led by an editorial team of leading mucosal immunologists (Clare Lloyd, Kathy McCoy, Nadine Cerf-Bensussan and Gérard Eberl). Together, it is our goal to continue to grow the journal and ensure its contribution to the research community is current and impactful. We’ll be rolling out new initiatives including offering a new article format for brief communications of the latest discoveries, graphical abstracts and more commentaries both in print and through our social media channels (led by Kathryn Knoop). As always, our authors and readership are central to everything we strive for; engagement with the Mucosal Immunology research community, a focus upon rapid review, transparent decisions and dissemination of the most exciting science underlies our goals and strategic decisions. This next chapter for Mucosal Immunology is full of opportunities and I look forward to building upon Brian’s and the teams’ earlier successes.

Learn more about the Society for Mucosal Immunology at socmucimm.org and our journal, Mucosal Immunology, at nature.com/mi.