Abstract
The management of a large number of manuscripts is integral to the publishing of a scientific journal. The process of submitting articles should be as simple as possible, both for the sake of the authors and for the reduction of the overhead associated with mailing and handling. For these reasons, the entire pre-press process at Presence is now based on standard Internet protocols. Although a hardcopy document is still required by the publisher, the pre-press process—from original submission through the stages of review—to final acceptance for publication—can now be done electronically. All functions involving electronic manuscript submission and management, as well as correspondence with reviewers, has been bundled in a modular package amenable to modifications. This publishing system was developed in-house at a fraction of the cost of acquiring a commercially available system. It was designed in close cooperation with the editorial staff to ensure optimal functionality.