Manuscript Central - The Electronic System for Submitting Articles to PLANT BIOLOGY

We would like you to add a new internet link to your favourites list: www.mc.manuscriptcentral.com/plabio. This link will be the access point for the electronic submission of manuscripts for publication in PLANT BIOLOGY. As the editors of PLANT BIOLOGY are committed to shorten the reviewing and processing time of manuscripts that have been submitted to the journal as much as possible, we see the electronic submission system as an essential step. Our publisher, Georg Thieme Verlag, has adopted the Manuscript Central system of ScholarOne, a leader in Web-based peer review systems, which represents a very comprehensive and customizable system. Although an electronic system is not as easy as e-mailing a pdf or mailing a printed version, the benefits for the handling time at the editorial office and thus also for you, the authors, are huge.

Once you have reached the PLANT BIOLOGY Manuscript Central webpage, created an account and selected the “corresponding author” and “submit a manuscript” options, you will be led through a number of webpages where you enter details of the manuscript, like the title and abstract, the names and addresses of the authors and where you can make suggestions for colleagues that are capable of reviewing your manuscript (the system also offers the opportunity to exclude reviewers). There is also a page where you can enter the information you would normally include in a cover letter. The next step is to name the file containing the manuscript for uploading to the editorial office. You will finally be presented with a page where you can review all the information entered and if you have found everything to be in good order you can submit the manuscript.

Although we will accept manuscripts in other forms and formats until June 1st 2005 we encourage people to make use of Manuscript Central already before that date. After June 1st it will no longer be possible to submit articles to PLANT BIOLOGY by other means than through Manuscript Central.

In the last months we have been testing the system that has been set up by ScholarOne for PLANT BIOLOGY and have high expectations for the ease of handling and the processing time it allows for all involved: editors, reviewers and most importantly, the authors. We hope that this change in manuscript submission will encourage you even more to submit your most important papers to PLANT BIOLOGY.

The Editors