November 25, 2002, North Andover, MA, USA – Aries Systems Corporation today announced the launch of an initiative to formulate a publishing industry standard that would allow the exchange of scientific manuscripts between differing online manuscript tracking systems.

In the past two years, Scientific, Technical and Medical (STM) journals have identified that the Internet provides an excellent medium for the submission and tracking of scientific manuscripts. While some large societies have developed in-house systems, many journals have also adopted solutions sold by commercial vendors.

Aries’ proposed XML-based “Submission and Manuscript eXchange Format” (SMXF) would provide a system-neutral standard for the exchange of manuscript metadata and content. The broad adoption of such a standard would provide key benefits to STM publishers. For example, a journal would be able to download SMXF data from one conforming system, and upload it into another Ð thereby ensuring continuity of service and data security. The SMXF standard could also be used to build functionality, enabling cooperating journals to “share” in-process manuscripts even if they use systems from different vendors.

Richard Wynne, the VP of Sales and Marketing at Aries Systems Corporation commented: “This marketplace will undergo numerous technical and business changes during the next few years. Journals are justifiably concerned about locking their data into incompatible proprietary systems. An open standard like SMXF is the only real way to address fundamental concerns about continuity of service, as well as providing an exciting platform for cooperation between journals. We are committed to making our Editorial Manager system SMXF compatible.”

It is anticipated that the SMXF standard would build on top of existing XML initiatives such as PRISM and the Dublin Core, by making additional provisions for in-process manuscript data such as reviewer commentary, status terms and editor decision letters.

Aries Systems Corporation seeks industry feedback and participation from publishers, system vendors and journal staff so that an open standard can be developed. Aries is sponsoring an initial meeting for interested parties at the London Online Meeting in Room 305 (Conference Level 3) at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, December 4th. Interested parties should send an e-mail to:marketing@ariessys.com.

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.