Make the net work for you using a Web-based manuscript submission and review system

The underlying ideas for the World Wide Web (WWW) were conceived by Tim Berners-Lee in 1980, and came to fruition in 1989 when he proposed a more formal version of his original idea. The WWW grew as a combination of four basic ideas including hypertext (or hyperlinks), unique resource identifiers, the client–server model of computing and mark-up language.^1,2 All the necessary tools were built in 1990 for a working Web,¹ which became publicly available on the internet in August 1991.

No one could have envisioned the unprecedented global networking the WWW now allows, instantly connecting people through business, intellectual, political, artistic (in the broadest sense), communications, news and personal content, made available to all. The Web is undoubtedly the most far-reaching and important social change of the last decade and will continue to dominate commercial focus from media and electronics companies to converge and downsize devices, until we are all able to be continuously ‘online’ with portable, hand-held units linked to microhubs in our homes and offices.

This is a far cry from the mention of Luddites in an editorial in this journal’s predecessor Emergency Medicine in 2001!³ Since then our journal has enjoyed a remarkably successful relationship with the publisher Blackwell’s and their online consortium Synergy. We are now pleased to announce another important move forwards for our journal Emergency Medicine Australasia. The journal adopted the Web-based manuscript submission and journal editorial management system that includes peer review in February 2006 called Manuscript Central by ScholarOne. This system was designed specifically to reduce the time to decision making with submitted papers, eliminate the costs of manuscript copying and mailing, reduce overall administrative time, improve the quality and appropriateness of peer review and, of most relevance to us all, to attract more high-quality papers from around the world. Many other journals have gone down the same pathway, and have already found significant benefits.⁴

This means that every paper submitted to Emergency Medicine Australasia must now be submitted online by going to http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ema where you will be invited to log in with a user ID and password. New users will be asked to click on ‘Create Account’. Once online there will be four options to choose from including Author Centre, Reviewer Centre, Section Editor Centre and EIC Centre (Editor in Chief), with access restricted according to the status of the individual user. Authors entering the Author Centre will be led through the process of manuscript submission that initially asks for author and manuscript details, then requests upload of the paper and any tables or figures. Clear help and instructions are provided if needed, and a unique manuscript identifier number of that version of the paper is created. All future correspondence concerning the paper is made by email only, including automatic acknowledgement of successful receipt of your paper and that it has entered the editorial process. When a decision is made by the editors, a revised manuscript may be submitted online, with a full opportunity to view and respond to all comments.

You will be able to check the progress of your paper in the review process at any time by returning to the original Web address http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ema. In fact, for those of you who like to know everything that is happening, you can even continue to track the paper once it has been accepted and left Manuscript Central, by logging into the new, free Author Services section on the Blackwell’s website http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/bauthor/. This allows authors to follow their accepted paper through the production process to publication online on Synergy or in print.

Peer review will also be performed completely online, again with full instructions for reviewers after accessing the Reviewer Centre. Editors and reviewers alike will be kept informed at all stages of any outstanding jobs by email alert, including ‘friendly’ reminders when time gets away and delay creeps in! The review form and comments are all completed online and are then immediately available to Journal Editorial staff. Access to abstracts of papers cited in the references and details of any author’s previous publications are available online to facilitate the Section Editor and Review process. Full support for both authors and reviewers is provided, as each page of the website has a ‘Get Help Now’ icon connecting directly to the online support system at http://mcv3support.custhelp.com. Queries can also be emailed to [email protected] or telephone support is available through the US ScholarOne Support Office between 8.00 and 22.30 hours GMT on: +1 434 817 2040. Alternatively, authors or reviewers may contact the journal Emergency Medicine Australasia at any time via our email on [email protected], if they prefer this local option.

It is still essential that all would-be authors exactly follow the Instructions for Authors printed at the back of each issue of Emergency Medicine Australasia or available online on the Journal homepage http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/ema. The Instructions for Authors can also be accessed directly when in Manuscript Central using the Instructions & Forms function, which appears on the Log In and Main Menu screens of the website. Papers submitted that do not comply with the Instructions for Authors will be returned to authors without progress in Manuscript Central and will not be loaded when mandatory prompts are ignored.

The aim is quite simply to provide authors and reviewers a much more efficient, transparent, convenient and easy paper submission and reviewing process, to ultimately make your and our lives that much easier, and to encourage more and better quality submissions. This will allow us all a little more free time to pursue alternative relaxing options, such as surfing as many eclectic sites as we wish on the Web from the comfort of our own home or office!

Author, editor and reviewer feedback on using Manuscript Central is welcomed by email to our Journal [email protected] as we optimize the system to suit our own journal Emergency Medicine Australasia.

Glossary of Web addresses and uses