The Process of Manuscript Submission and Review

Especially for novice writers, the process of composing a manuscript can be quite exhausting. When we have fi nally completed our paper, it is, in our minds, as good as we can make it and we are justifi ably proud and relieved. However, we must also realize that what we have in our hands is an unpublished manuscript. All of our work is wasted unless we can convince a journal to publish our paper. Therefore it is important to maintain our focus and give full attention to the processes involved in shepherding our paper through submission and review to successful publication.

Fortunately, there are no mysteries to the process of paper submission. The Uniform Requirements contain detailed instructions on the preparation of manuscripts, and these guidelines, with perhaps some minor amendments, have been adopted by the overwhelming majority of biomedical journals. In fact, the Uniform Requirements may actually contain more detail that we need; for example instructions on the order in which to layout text, references, tables and fi gures. This excess of detail arises because the Uniform Requirements were developed for an age when manuscripts were still submitted in paper form. These days, almost all journals accept electronic submissions and many make electronic submission mandatory. Not only does this speed up the review process, but it means that much of the detail of submission can be left up to the computer. For these reasons, it is a good idea early in the process of writing to check with the journal web site and see how they can assist with submission.