To the Readers and Authors of “Experimental and Clinical Endocrinology and Diabetes”

The attractiveness of a scientific journal depends to a high degree on the services provided by the publisher for readers and authors. A state-of-the-art data base, for instance, is indispensable for every journal. Our journal's website at
http://www.thieme-connect.de/ejournals/toc/eced
provides a full text data base of the articles published since February 2000, with additional features like quick search, advanced search for items or names, cross-reference linkings, email alerts, etc.

Since September 2005, “Experimental and Clinical Endocrinology and Diabetes” provides an additional important service for authors and reviewers: an online manuscript submission system that will support the complete process of submitting and reviewing manuscripts in a most comfortable way. Thieme publishers decided to implement ManuscriptCentral by ScholarOne, the system which is most commonly used in this area.

In the following, we will give you an overview of the main functions relevant for submitting manuscripts to the journal.

Please note: From now on manuscripts to “Experimental and Clinical Endocrinology and Diabetes” have to be submitted exclusively via (Fig. [1])

Fig. 1 Login page of the online manuscript submission system.

http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/eced

or

http://www.thieme.de/fz/eced

In order to submit a manuscript, the following steps are required: After choosing the submission website, click on “Create Account” (link at the very top of the page), if you do not have a user account. In three steps, you will be guided through the registration process. Boxes marked with “req” must be filled obligatory. In the first step, please enter your name and email address. In the second step, your address information is required. In the third step, you are asked to define your password and user ID. You will receive a confirmation email at the mail address indicated by you (Fig. [2]).

Fig. 2 Creating a user account.

In case that you already have an account, please enter your user ID and your password at the access page and click the “Login” button. (Note: The password can be changed in the “Edit Account” area.)

After this, you will be led to the “Welcome” page. In order to submit a manuscript, please click the “Corresponding Author Center” link (Fig. [3]).

Fig. 3 Welcome page and access to “Corresponding Author Center”.

Now you will arrive at the “Corresponding Author Center Dashboard”, which gives you an overview of all manuscripts submitted by you, and of their status in detail. For submitting a new manuscript, please use the “Click here to submit a manuscript” link or click the button with the asterisk (Fig. [4]).

Fig. 4 “Corresponding Author Dashboard”: Overview of all manuscripts in process and link to submission page.

At the manuscript submission, please follow steps 1 to 7 until the submission is completed. As soon as you successfully completed one of the steps, a check mark will appear on the process chart on the left. The submission can be suspended at any time, and continued later on (Fig. [5]).

Fig. 5 Submission of manuscripts: 7 steps are required.

These are the steps required for a successful submission:

1 “Type, Title, & Abstract”

Please choose the manuscript type (“Article”, “Mini-Review”, “Review”, “Case Report”, “Short Communication”, “Letter to the Editor”). After this, please enter the title and the abstract. Important: The abstract must be submitted later a second time together with the complete manuscript. Please specify area of research (“Endocrinology”, “Diabetes”).

2 “Attributes”

Please enter at least 3 key words.

3 “Authors & Institutions”

Please enter names and affiliations of all authors. The order of the appearance of authors can be changed later (see “My Authors”, “Order”).

4 “Details & Comments”

Here you can enter a cover letter (via file attachment). Please enter the number of figures, tables and words and answer the questions regarding previous submission etc.

5 “File Upload”

You are asked now to submit the abstract, the main document, figures and tables as well as supplementary files. Please be sure to choose the correct file designation (abstract, main document, etc.). The submission of files (Word files, *.tif, *gif, etc.) is done by file upload. After that, you can change the order of the uploaded files.

6 “Review & Submit”

In the last step, an overview of all submitted elements is given. Missing elements are marked with a red cross. In order to complete the submission successfully, you are asked to check both the PDF and HTML version of your article as provided by the system. After that, please complete the submission of your manuscript by clicking the “Submit” button.

Your submission will be confirmed by an email containing the “Manuscript ID number”. In any correspondence with the editorial office, please refer to this number. You will find information about the actual status of the review process in the “Corresponding Author Center” (see above). If you have any problems in submitting your manuscript, please use the “Online User Guide” that will answer every possible question. You will reach it by clicking the “Get help now” button that is placed in the top of every single page. Further information is available under “Instructions and Forms”.

Thieme publishers will give any help needed during the transfer to the online submission. We ask the authors of “Experimental and Clinical Endocrinology and Diabetes” to support the work of the editorial office by using the submission system, and we are confident that all participants will very soon benefit from it.

Hartmut Kuhlmann Publishing Editor