Molecular Plant Pathology On-Line An international, peer-reviewed, internet journal, edited and published by the British Society for Plant Pathology Submissions from all areas of molecular plant pathology are welcome, including papers on diseases caused by fungi, viruses, bacteria, nematodes, parasitic plants and other organisms Choose MPPOL to publish your paper for: SPEED: Our target is seven weeks from submission to publication QUALITY: All papers are subject to rigorous peer review ECONOMY: No subscription charges, No page charges FEATURES: Colour illustrations are encouraged at no cost. Extensive sequence data can be published and extracted for further analysis using sequence analysis plug-ins A selection of comments from MPPOL authors and users: "I am particularly impressed by the speed of the whole process" "I was impressed by the speed of the process . . . and with the quality of the finished product" "…..it is an attractive option for publishing certain kinds of paper" "...the best on-line biological journal around" Molecular Plant Pathology On-Line is one year old on 11th November this year The "twinkle" On 5 October 1995 I wrote to Peter Scott as the then BSPP President-Elect and a professional in the field of information dissemination, suggesting that BSPP should consider publishing scientific papers in an internet journal. There would be no hard-copy and we should exploit the assets of on-line publication, particularly rapid publication in fast moving areas. Peter and I discussed the various options at length and presented the arguments to Council. Conception Council liked the ideas and appointed a small group to come up with some proposals, comprising Peter Scott, Roy Johnson, Debra Whitehead and me. We met at the Presidential meeting that year to debate the idea and canvassed the opinion of delegates on the formation of a peer reviewed, rapid publication journal of molecular plant pathology. We approached those we thought were internet literate and highly competent in their field and might consider helping to such a journal. There was much enthusiasm amongst our admittedly biassed "focus group", sufficient to recommend establishing such a journal to BSPP Council. I drafted a prospectus for a journal called `Molecular Plant Pathology On-Line' which was discussed at Council on 27 Feb 1996 and the plan was approved. Gestation The name and basic prospectus stuck through subsequent deliberations, and we set about establishing an editorial board of leading researchers in molecular plant pathology. To ensure they were at least semi-computer literate, we invited them to become editors by e-mail! All but one accepted, so we were on target. The next phase was publicity. A simple leaflet was devised and mailed to people who had published recently in molecular plant pathology, members of BSPP and APS, and placed as inserts in several journals. In addition we publicised it at the APS meeting in Minneapolis and in newsgroups. Birth The first paper was received, sent to an editor, refereed and rejected - not a great start. However, the next paper was accepted and duly appeared on 11 November, 1996: Gibbs et al., 1996. Carrot mottle mimic virus (CMoMV): A second umbravirus associated with carrot motley dwarf disease recognised by nucleic acid hybridisation. Teething troubles A lot has happened since November 1996, although maybe not as many submissions arrived as we would have liked. No matter what author instructions are specified, some will ignore them whilst others will find the loop-hole. Initially we were a little naive in our wide range of acceptable formats. Even so, even the standard ones proved problematic sometimes with different editors' and referees' e-mail systems. These difficulties caused delays and frustration on several occasions whilst at other times everything went smoothly. Debra Whitehead did an excellent job administering all the submissions and editing process and coping with all these problems. Unfortunately, Debra decided to leave her job at RHS and pursue a new career. We hope MPPOL was not a contributory factor! Overall, we were pleased with the encouraging responses we got from authors and readers, and we kept coming up with new ideas for the future. Our main worry was, were we ahead of our time? Was plant pathology really ready for an on-line only journal? We strongly believed it was the way to go, but we didn't want to end up in the equivalent of the `phoney war' of 1939. First Birthday presents Well it was a bit early, but we decided to give MPPOL some birthday treats: a new format for the papers and a general `spruce-up'. John Antoniw was mostly responsible for the new look as he is far more capable than I at HTML programming. You will find that mppol/1997/0612nadeem and subsequent papers have an improved `page' layout with the thumbnail graphics, major section headings and navigation aids in a left margin. When you use either the thumbnail graphic or the text link to the figures, a new window opens displaying it at the same time as the text. You can size either window as you wish or switch between full screen versions. Linking to a reference is also easier as it is now displayed in a frame at the bottom of the screen which you may also scroll. Growing up The other changes will not be so apparent in the final paper but should make the road there easier. To avoid the e-mail transmission problems which have slowed editing and refereeing we will convert all submitted scripts to HTML so that editors and referees can access them from a confidential web location. Obviously all editors and referees will need a browser and preferably a printer, but there should be no software compatibility or transmission encoding difficulties. To administer the new process we welcome Dr James Brown (editor of this Newsletter also), who will act as Coordinating Editor. He will get all submissions converted to HTML, transfer them to the web server and inform the Editor he has selected where the script can be accessed. The Editor will obtain two referees reports and make a recommendation to the Senior Editors. A decision will then be made by the Co-ordinating Editor and one other Senior Editor which will be conveyed to the author. All communication in this process will be by e-mail whenever possible. The future To finish I'll steal a paragraph from the publicity leaflet we have just produced: "We recommend this journal to you as a first choice for publishing your high quality molecular plant pathology papers. Access the web site today for more details on our international board of editors, links to existing papers and information on how to submit your manuscript." So please encourage your colleagues to access the web site and submit their scripts to MPPOL. Adrian Newton
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