Q&A with Niklaus Grünwald
In this Q&A session, IS-MPMI staff interviewed Niklaus Grünwald, chair of The American Phytopathological Society (APS) Publications Board and research plant pathologist at USDA-ARS, Oregon State University, about the many efforts to further modernize—and bring additional speed and agility— to the publishing process by moving to a new workflow for Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions and the other journals on the APS platform: Plant Disease and Phytopathology. (As noted in Jane Glazebrook’s article published in Issue No. 2, 2014, of the IS-MPMI Reporter, IS-MPMI holds a royalty agreement with APS, who is the publisher and owner of MPMI.)
In this Q&A session, IS-MPMI staff interviewed Niklaus Grünwald, chair of The American Phytopathological Society (APS) Publications Board and research plant pathologist at USDA-ARS, Oregon State University, about the many efforts to further modernize—and bring additional speed and agility— to the publishing process by moving to a new workflow for Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions and the other journals on the APS platform: Plant Disease and Phytopathology. (As noted in Jane Glazebrook’s article published in Issue No. 2, 2014, of the IS-MPMI Reporter, IS-MPMI holds a royalty agreement with APS, who is the publisher and owner of MPMI.)
Q: Can you give a general overview of the changes coming to MPMI?
A: Investments are being made to modernize our production workflow and presentation online. To accomplish this, we’ll be producing the journals using an XML-based workflow that will allow us to produce research papers for web and print delivery simultaneously from the same source. We anticipate these changes will allow for faster publication times from acceptance to finished paper, easier discoverability, and a better viewing experience across all electronic devices.
Q: What is XML?
A: XML stands for “Extensible Markup Language,” a standardized format that should help us publish in new systems going forward, even as delivery channels change. It’s one of the most universally supported text-based formats existing today, and many journals use it as the basis for journal production. XML allows the creation of full-text HTML in the academic publishing world, on almost any platform. The XML is coded and produced first from the text of journal manuscripts and then converted into other formats, such as HTML, PDF, and print. This process will be facilitated through Dartmouth Journal Services, a division of the Sheridan Publishing Group. They handle similar workflows for hundreds of prestigious journals, such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Q: What are the advantages of employing an XML-first workflow in the articles?
A: We can do the article preparation once and present it in multiple formats. For example, we will be able to deliver full-text HTML, which allows for a better, more universal viewing experience across all browsers and platforms, from your desktop computer to your mobile device. It doesn’t matter what the size of your screen is or which operating system you use. It will just work! The HTML article presentation will also allow the reader to jump to any section of the article with just a tap or a click.
Q: What about the PDFs? Will they still be available?
A: Yes, we will be keeping the PDF format. It will look identical to what you’d see in the print edition. This is the most common format people prefer for printing articles from the web. PDFs allow for a more graphically enhanced organized look to printed articles and we will continue to offer them.
Q: Features and functionality aside, what other changes will this new XML format allow?
A: I’m glad you asked, and I’m really excited about this one. Publishing in this new workflow will help us to get our final edited articles published much more quickly. Currently, we publish MPMI manuscripts in First Look upon acceptance in their unpolished form, allowing authors and readers to see their work published online within days of acceptance. But the final edited and formatted versions do not appear until the issue appears in print. With the new workflow, edited and formatted articles will appear online as soon as they are ready, well ahead of print. Most importantly, articles can be fully indexed in search engines such a PubMed and are citable as soon as they appear on First Look.
Q: How will these changes specifically affect authors?
A: These changes will benefit the authors in many ways. First and foremost, this new system allows for faster time to publication. Second, authors of accepted manuscripts will be sent to a new author portal where they can directly pay any publishing fees, or purchase immediate open access for their article, or order reprints. And third, authors will have the ability to see their articles published and cited at three different publication stages, each with a consistent DOI number for citing. I would like to emphasize that there will also be changes to the editorial submission process. Before authors publish their next articles in MPMI, they should make sure to check the author instructions carefully. The author instructions will be updated in November or December of 2014.
Q: Will these changes affect the editors of APS journals and the reviewers?
A: The peer-review process, led by Editor-in-Chief Jane Glazebrook for MPMI is the heart and soul of our journals. Based on a recent MPMI survey, it was clear that the quality of the research papers published in our journals is one of our key strengths. It takes strong participation from APS and IS-MPMI editors, as well as reviewers, to produce quality papers for our authors. The headquarters staff technical editors will also be editing manuscripts in Dartmouth Journals Services’ proprietary Edit Express system. This system allows editing in a word-processing environment that automatically tracks and maintains XML formatting in the background. Edit Express also helps the technical editors by flagging potential errors and items for checking before returning the manuscript to authors. Also, the graphics and the text editing will be happening simultaneously, rather than in a linear manner as is the current practice. And these editors will be further assisted by the new author center, which will contact and remind authors to check their proofs, formerly a manual process. Every change is being made to improve speed without sacrificing quality.
Q. How will these changes affect readers?
A. As I mentioned earlier, readers can expect to have an excellent viewing experience across platforms earlier than ever before. The APS Publications Board, of which Jane Glazebrook is a member as editor-in-chief of MPMI, is looking at other improvements too. We are looking at ways for authors and readers to see the impact their article is having in the scientific community. So, in addition to showing which articles are citing a particular article, we are planning to add article-based metrics that might tell the reader how many times it has been downloaded, tweeted, or shared in other forms of social media. These are also known as Altmetrics in the academic publishing world.
Q. When will full-text HTML and Altmetrics be coming?
A. HTML will appear sometime in the first half of 2015, with Altmetrics to follow.
Q. Anything else on the journals horizon?
A. We are looking at other improvements to the review process and publishing platforms. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions, Plant Disease, and Phytopathology are highly respected journals, thanks to the work by thousands of dedicated IS-MPMI and APS member scientists over the years. We want to make sure our journals remain the number one source for research in our coverage areas.