January 31, 2002, North Andover, MA, USA – In early 2001, the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research (JBMR), official publication of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, selected Editorial Manager from Aries Systems Corporation for online manuscript submission and tracking. JBMR is the leading journal in its field and receives approximately 46,000 manuscript pages and 6,000 images per year, so the switch from paper to electronic submissions represented a major undertaking.

Adrienne Lea, Director of Publications for JBMR, has been responsible for deploying the system. She explained that “transition to this new system has occasioned a tremendous adjustment on the part of the editorial office staff, but improvements to editorial office operations are already noticeable.”

Concerning the manuscript submission process, she added that “the Web submission process is so well designed that very few of our authors have voiced questions about how to submit manuscripts even though the method is totally different from what JBMR previously required. Inevitably in such a major project, we have encountered some unanticipated issues during deployment. The vendor has readily incorporated many new requests into software updates that automatically become available to our staff. It has been very reassuring to work with a vendor that is willing and able to respond to such needs.”

She also noted that “later in 2002 we will have more detailed statistics, but we already know that average turnaround time to decisions for manuscripts submitted online is approximately 50% less than for the same period the prior year. Our courier and postal costs are also falling and we anticipate labor savings once all revisions have been processed through our old system. We’re still on the steep part of the learning curve, but it’s already hard to imagine operating the journal without such a system.”

About Aries
Aries Systems transforms the way scholarly publishers bring high-value content to the world. The company’s innovative and forward-looking workflow solutions manage the complexities of modern print and electronic publishing – from submission, to editorial management and peer review, to production tracking and publishing channel distribution. As the publishing environment evolves, Aries Systems is committed to delivering solutions that help publishers and scholars enhance the discovery and dissemination of human knowledge. Publish faster, publish smarter, with Aries Systems.