1 Editor-in-Chief, University Department of Anaesthesia, University Clinical Departments, Duncan Building, Daulby Street, Liverpool L69 3GA, UK E-mail: bja@liv.ac.uk
Whatever there be of progress in life comes not through adaptation, but through daring...
Henry Miller, Reflections on Writing, 1941
In the 5 yr and more since I became Editor-in-Chief, an ever-increasing number of authors have requested to submit their work electronically to the British Journal of Anaesthesia (BJA). This approach has not been discouraged by this journal, but in addition, we have always requested that authors provide a hard copy of their manuscript, and one on disk, with a submission letter signed by all the authors. There have been many reasons for this approach: the hard copy and submission letter have been considered proof of the authenticity of the manuscript and its authors; hard copy is often better presented; and it has not always been easy to access files submitted electronically. Indeed, the quality of electronic files of figures and tables has often proved inadequate for publication purposes.
However, electronic communication is now commonplace. All journals must confront it, and adapt it to their needs. Indeed, the vagaries and increasing costs of our postal services have encouraged the use of electronic communication. Many scientific journals have already elected to provide electronic facilities for manuscript submission through the world wide web.1 The majority of peer-review American journals have been doing so for some time.
The BJA has now, in line with other scientific journals published by Oxford University Press, arranged for an American company, ScholarOne based in Charlottesville, North Carolina, USA, to host this facility for us. It is known as Manuscript Central. This tracking system is already being used by such journals as Brain and the International Journal of Epidemiology. From January 2003, authors should submit their manuscripts only via the web to the BJA. They should search on the world wide web for http://bja.manuscriptcentral.com
When submitting a manuscript electronically to the BJA, authors should first check to see if they are already registered on the website. Many of you will be, as you have previously submitted a manuscript to the BJA. To do this, you should click on the check for existing account button, and follow the on-screen instructions. If you are not registered, you should click on the create a new account button on the login screen and, again, follow the on-screen instructions. If you know your login details, use your User ID and Password to log in. The BJA instructions to authors on Manuscript Central have been prepared by the editorial team. They are straightforward, but detailed, and must be followed carefully. Failure to do so will prevent successful submission of your manuscript. Particular attention is required when submitting figures. It is preferable that these are originated in high-resolution format for publication purposes. A second version should be prepared for peer review in a low-resolution format, which will help keep the files small when they are sent out for assessment.
On receiving a manuscript onto the website, the Editor-in-Chiefs office will communicate with the author by e-mail, providing a reference number for their paper. The Editor-in-Chief will also invite assessors, by e-mail, to review the manuscript on the website. The system will be protected by passwords and will therefore be secure. Only the authors, editors and assessors dealing with your manuscript, will be able to read it on the website. An author will be able to watch the progress of their manuscript, and will receive communications at regular intervals by e-mail from the editor responsible for it. This therefore requires the author to have an e-mail address, otherwise submission of a manuscript will not be possible.
It is hoped that, by the end of 2003, the majority of authors will be submitting manuscripts in this manner. Letters to the Editor and Book Reviews cannot be submitted as yet using Manuscript Central, but it is hoped to provide this as a separate facility in the future. Meanwhile, Letters to the Editor and Book Reviews can be submitted by e-mail to the Editor-in-Chiefs office, using the instructions provided in the Guidelines to Authors. Any manuscript submitted in hard copy will, of course, still be dealt with by the Editorial Office, but it is likely that, by the end of 2003, this option will no longer be available.
One of the frustrations of electronic submission of manuscripts to the BJA to date, has been the problem of sloppy presentation. Little thought seems to be given to the layout of electronic text, to good use of English, correct spelling, and the use of paragraphs in this format. It is hoped that authors will try to maintain the same standards of presentation when submitting electronically, as they have used with hard copy (if not better them).
The BJA is determined to continue to develop alongside other scientific journals to provide as rapid a service as possible when handling authors manuscripts. The peer-review process for the main anaesthetic journals has long been an international affair, only hindered by the great distances manuscripts have travelled, until now, for appraisal. Electronic manuscript tracking should improve the efficiency of this process. It is a significant challenge for the BJA editorial team, but one which we are now ready to undertake.
We look forward to hearing from youelectronically.
References
1 Smith J. Submitting articles to the BMJ via the web. Br Med J 2002; 325: 352