Against the backdrop of the global coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) pandemic in the past year we have seen huge changes to the way we communicate and share research, not just between researchers, but also with industry and the general public. Immunology as a discipline has been evidently thrust into the limelight of public attention.

Given the increasing importance of the speed of research dissemination during the pandemic, Clinical and Experimental Immunology is pleased to share that its average time to first decision dropped to just 16.6 days, despite the increase in submissions over the summer. For this we would like to thank our many reviewers, as well as our Section Editors: Sandra Amor, Tanja de Gruijl, Daniel Douek, Angelo Manfredi and Xiao‐Ning Xu, and their dedicated editorial boards for their support and commitment to the journal, especially in this challenging year. We continue to meet our goal of publishing content, which is timely and relevant to our research community. A clear illustration of this is that this year we experienced the highest ever number of article downloads, peaking at 99 700 full text downloads in the month of October alone, and attracting more than 1700 citations to articles from the past 4 years. The journal impact factor has remained stable at an impressive 3·532 and our international audience has grown, with 129 publications from authors based in 43 different countries across the world.

We have seen success in the publication of our four Review Series, including our COVID‐19 Special Issue, highlighting some of the key research in this fast‐moving subject area. The significance of these articles is best summed up in the brilliant editorial from Dr Ryan Thwaites [1], a member of the British Society for Immunology (BSI) Immunology and COVID‐19 Taskforce. We also reported early research from Hou et al., focusing on identifying key biomarkers for the clinical progression of disease in a cohort of patients with confirmed COVID‐19 from Wuhan, China [2]. The importance of this research has not gone unnoticed, with a number of citations and significant social media attention. To support the dissemination of key research into SARS‐CoV‐2 and COVID‐19, Clinical and Experimental Immunology and our sibling journal, Immunology, have been supporting the principles set out in the Wellcome Trust statement on data‐sharing in public health emergencies [3], where we commit to making COVID‐related research publications free to access, encourage deposition of articles in pre‐print servers and share these articles with the World Health Organization. As the official journals of the British Society for Immunology, we are committed to supporting the sharing of research with the wider non‐academic community, by providing general audience summaries for all our COVID‐19‐related research.

Through our association with the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS), we launched a cutting‐edge review series on ‘Immune Checkpoint Inhibition: from molecules to clinical application’, focusing on the beneficial role of immune checkpoint inhibition in cancer immunotherapy [4, 5], but also on the adverse events that can occur when these critical immune checkpoint molecules are targeted, including immune‐related toxicity [6] and autoimmunity such as diabetes mellitus [7].

Some of our favourite articles of the past year have been highlighted as our Editors’ Choice. Luo et al. [8], our Editors’ Choice for the month of October, showed that excessive double‐stranded DNA fragments could promote keratinocyte activation in psoriasis and that the active form of vitamin D could prevent genomic DNA‐mediated skin inflammation. Another Editors’ Choice from the August 2020 issue that attracted significant attention in the media and online was a study from Yacov et al. [9], identifying motile sperm domain‐containing protein 2 (MOSPD2) as a therapeutic target for the treatment of inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system (CNS), such as multiple sclerosis and experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.

Within the field of autoimmune diseases, we welcomed a specialist series on innate immunity in systemic sclerosis (SSc), expertly led by Dr Steven O’Reilly. Within this series, we published three reviews focusing on specific aspects of this autoimmune idiopathic connective tissue disease, including an examination of the role of Toll‐like receptors in SSc [10], an in‐depth look at dendritic cells in the pathogenesis of the disease [10], and how stem cell transplantation has emerged as a valuable treatment option for SSc patients [11]. Our Editors’ Choice from September 2020, authored by Higashioka et al. [12], further demonstrated how granulocyte–macrophage colony‐stimulating factor (GM‐CSF)‐producing effector B cells are enriched in a CD30⁺ B cell subset and may play a role in the pathogenesis of SSc.

This year we have also expanded our editorial team with the introduction of our Immunodeficiency section, led by Dr Cindy Ma. Dr Ma is based at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Australia, where she co‐heads the Immunology and Immunodeficiency Laboratory. The Immunodeficiency section will focus on research papers and reviews that provide insight into the mechanisms and causes of primary (and secondary) immunodeficiencies. Clinical and Experimental Immunology already has a strong track record in this area of research, with several recent articles on this topic, including an article from Barkai et al. [13], which described how delays in diagnosis of chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) – a rare group of primary immunodeficiency disorders characterized by susceptibility to typical pathogens, recurrent pyogenic infections, inflammatory and autoimmune complications – can lead to poor quality of life. This work emphasizes the need for timely diagnosis, optimal management and early referral for curative therapy. Another study from Shamriz et al., Editors’ Choice in the June issue [14], showed that interleukin‐2 can rescue T cell activation and proliferation in patients with capping protein regulator and myosin 1 linker 2 (CARMIL2) deficiency, which can manifest with immune dysregulation and increased rates of infection. The authors suggest that interleukin‐2 should be studied further as a potential therapeutic model for these patients. Through our collaboration with the UK Primary Immunodeficiency Network (UKPIN), last year the BSI published one of our first sets of clinical guidelines, which was on the topic of managing non‐infectious complications of common variable immunodeficiency disorders [15].

As an official journal of the British Society for Immunology, the Chief Executive of the Society, Dr Doug Brown, would like to add: ‘Over the past year we have seen Clinical and Experimental Immunology grow and develop, strengthening its position as a powerful voice in the field of immunology, particularly during these unprecedented times. On behalf of the BSI, we would like to thank Editor‐in‐Chief Professor Leonie Taams, who, with the support of the wonderful section editors, has led the journal over the past 4 years, taking it from strength to strength. The journal has published a number of reviews from key members within the BSI family, as well as experts from the wider immunology community. Despite ongoing change and new challenges within the field and in academic publishing, Clinical and Experimental Immunology continues to thrive, and we have no doubt it will continue on this path of success and scientific impact’.