Technology Is Great … Except When It Doesn't Work

When Dr Joseph Alpert and I first took over The American Journal of Medicine in the fall of 2004, many of our processes were Internet-based, and many weren't. The Journal still accepted snail-mail manuscripts on paper (in triplicate) with glossy photographs and a CD or diskette back-up copy; uploading video to our website was unheard of; and the review process—a hybrid paper/e-mail system—was cumbersome at best.

In the summer of 2005, our Internet-based manuscript submission system (http://ees.elsevier.com/ajm) launched, and the Journal tossed out its paper processes.

Obviously, online journal publishing has continued to evolve since 2005. The American Journal of Medicine—like most other academic journals—now requires far more background information (ie, conflict of interest statements, funding sources, and statements about data access and authorship) in addition to the manuscript and supporting tables and figures.

This additional documentation and the level of complexity built into the submission process can cause consternation on the part of authors.

As the title of this article states … Technology Is Great … Except When It Doesn't Work. To help potential authors navigate the Journal's online submission system more smoothly, we offer these 10 tips.

To read this article in its entirety, please visit our website.

-- -- Pamela J. Powers, MPH, AJM managing Editor

This article originally appeared in November 2011 issue of The American Journal of Medicine.