Dear authors – BMC Medicine responds to authors ’ wish list

In January 2019, to mark the new year, Dr. Madhu Pai conducted an informal survey on Twitter to ask researchers to put together an author wish list, addressed to medical journal editors. Being the flagship medical journal of the BMC Series, and having worked with Madhu previously, BMC Medicine felt that a thoughtful response was warranted. His author wish list had many salient points, for which we felt our responses could help to de-mystify the peer review process. Below the wishes (in bold) are the responses from the editorial team at BMC Medicine. Flickr/AJ Cann, CC BY-SA 1) Please don’t make the online submission process so complicated that we give up on your journal; instead allow submissions across multiple journals using a single ID or login; allow initial submission in any widely accepted format as a single PDF; accept one referencing style across multiple journals, at least during initial review; be thoughtful of authors in low-resource settings with limited internet connectivity; defer asking for signed forms until closer to acceptance; accept digital signatures and not insist on wet signatures; reduce the number of forms to complete) We completely agree that a more streamlined submission process would be ideal. Regarding formatting, we agree that many things (reference styles etc.) should be dealt with on the back end of the review process to avoid unnecessary delays and work for the authors if a paper isn’t likely to move forward. On rare occasions, if a manus...
Source: BioMed Central Blog - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Open Access Publishing BMC Medicine Source Type: blogs