The Editorial Process

Publishing a manuscript, whether intended for a journal or a book, is a process. It has four stages the draft manuscript, manuscript review, the final manuscript, and processing of accepted manuscripts. Along the way, responsibility for the different stages passes from the author, to the journal or book editor, back to the author, and finally to the technical editor. This chapter provides an overview of each of these stages as they evolve in scientific, technical, and medical (STM) publishing. 

Although there is no fixed set of writing rules to be followed like a cookbook recipe or an experimental procedure, some guidelines can be helpful. Start by considering the questions in Box 3-1 answering these questions will clarify your goals and make it easier to write the manuscript with the proper amount of detail. It will also make it easier for the book or journal editor to determine the 

What is the function or purpose of this manuscript Are you describing original and significant research results Are you reviewing the literature Are you providing an overview of the topic Something else  

Who is the audience Why would they want to read your manuscript What will you need to tell them to help them understand your work  

How is your work different from that described in other reports on the same su bject (Unless you are writing a review, be sure that your manuscript will make an original contribution. Most STM publishers, including ACS, do not publish previously published material.) 

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The meticulous care that goes into the selection, preparation, and checking of these procedures entails a very substantial effort on the part of the Editorial Board members and their coworkers and first (by a long shot) among equals in this group is Professor Jeremiah Freeman. Jerry s enormous contributions to Organic Syntheses ensure continued fruition of all our endeavors. Special appreciation must also be extended to Assistant Editor Theodora Greene tor her invaluable participation in the editorial process. 

We are grateful for the financial support given to us in the production of this book by Environment Canada (Centre Saint-Laurent, Quebec region, Environmental Conservation), the University of Metz (Metz, France) and IDRC (International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada). For their assistance in many dedicated ways which facilitated our tasks and ensured the timely completion of our book, we extend our thanks to the following persons Mr. Andres Sanchez and Dr. Jean Lebel (IDRC) Ms. Jacinthe Leclerc, Dr. Alex Vincent and Dr. Andre Talbot (Centre Saint-Laurent) Ms. Sylvie Bibeau and Dr. Laura Pirastru (University of Quebec in Montreal). We are also very appreciative of the dedicated professional help provided us by Anna Besse and Judith Terpos of Springer Publishers in guiding us through the editorial process. 

We also wish to express our appreciation to Ms Erica Dery and Ms Helena Redshaw at CRC Press for accelerating the editorial process. 

The editorial process was unfortunately delayed due to illness (an attack of apoplexy but now recovered) in the family of one of the guest editors (JK). The Guest Editors would like to thank Advances in Quantum Chemistry Editor, Professor Erkki Brandas for his patience in connection with the long editorial process. 

This chapter presents guidelines for correct sentence structure and word usage. Other chapters of this book present topics also related to good writing style. Chapter 2 discusses the parts of a scientific paper Chapter 3 presents an overview of the editorial process. Chapters in Part 2 address more specialized rules for usage see, especially, Chapter 9 on grammar, punctuation, and spelling and Chapter 10 on editorial style. 

A small amount of new materials/studies have appeared since the beginning of the editorial process. Only a few examples will be mentioned here as key papers for the next review. Block et al. <2006JACS14949> published the synthesis and characterization of more than 40 new 4- to 12-membered ring heterocycles containing various combinations of Group 14 and 16 elements Si, Sn, S, Se, and Te. 

We thank the authors in this volume for their outstanding contributions. We are fortunate indeed to have leaders in the field join us in this enterprise. Joanne Hequembourg Boyd provided invaluable assistance with the editorial processing of this book. Finally, we thank the readers of this series who have found the books useful and have given us encouragement. 

During the editorial process of this paper several computational studies reporting similar results has been published a) B. Goldfiiss, P. v. R. Schleyer, F. Hampel, Organometallics 1996,15, 1755. 

With all this help, one might think that few errors or infelicities could have survived. Some did, and I am lucky to have benefited from the learning and literary skills of the copy editor, Eleanor Lawrence, who has tightened and clarified the manuscript with many judicious changes. Finally, I thank Abbie Headon, of OUP, who has responded quickly and helpfully to my many queries about the editorial process. Any remaining faults are all my own. 

This journal is committed to maintain the highest editorial standards and continuous improvement. As part of moving to an online submission system, we are implementing an Authors Charter (see www.climatepolicy.com) to make our procedures and policies explicit and to help authors understand the editorial process and what to expect. As part of maintaining the highest standards, Climate Policy asks all authors, editors and reviewers to disclose any relationship (e.g. financial, economic or institutional) that could be perceived as affecting fhe infegrify of fhe scientific process. 

The editors are much indebted to the authors for their contributions and cooperation during the editorial process and to the staff of Academic Press for their efficient preparation of the volume. 

We would like to thank all authors for their contributions, as well as Ruth Kentish and Paula Jacobsen for assistance with the editorial process, and Dr. Chee Hau at JPMorgan Chase for reviewing drafts of Moorad Choudhry s chapters. Special thanks to Professor Steven Mann at the University of South Carolina, for assisting us in several aspects of this project, in addition to his contribution of four chapters to this book. 

During the editorial process, a new study was published highlighting the combination of magnetic-field-modulated photoluminescence and... 

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