Abstract

On 1 July 2005 I took over the Editorship of Coral Reefs from Dick Dodge, who is now heavily involved in the planning of the next International Coral Reef Symposium. Dick has done an excellent job for the journal over his 5-year-tenure. We all have to congratulate him for achieving such high standards through his dedicated work. Thank you. My Editorship opens with many new exciting developments for Coral Reefs. Nick Polunin (ISRS President) and Dick Dodge agreed a new page allowance with our publisher, Springer earlier this year. In the current year (2005), the journal will publish 704 pages. This rises to 800 pages next year, and 900 pages in 2007. What does this mean for the reader and the author? For authors, your accepted papers will appear in the printed journal more quickly. For readers, you will experience greater content, and more up-to-date science. Increased publication capacity is just one side of the picture. To improve our manuscript handling and review, we have introduced a new electronic process. From 1 July, authors, reviewers and the editorial team have all had direct internet access to our dedicated site at Manuscript Central: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/coral. Authors now submit their manuscripts electronically to the site, the Editorial Office co-ordinates and oversees the routing of manuscripts to the Topic Editors who handle the review process. Reviewers can then access manuscripts and either work onor off-line. Authors can track their manuscripts at all stages of the process. Using this system we can minimise delays, and reduce time in review. I encourage potential authors to visit the site where they will find helpful guidance. I also recognise that some of you may find the idea alien and impersonal. I can assure you that it is not, ‘real people‘ are working with your manuscript, you can see their names and contact them easily. The academic community has always been at the forefront in adopting new technology and tools, this is a major step forward for Coral Reefs, and a necessary one if we are to keep to the fore of publishing. We have also made changes to the format of ‘Notes’. These are short manuscripts of up to 2–4 journal pages. They are valuable contributions to the science, and are subject to the same critical review process. To enhance their status, Notes will be allowed short abstracts in future. This will enable them to be cross-referenced by the various abstracting services, and so improve their visibility to the research community. There have also been major changes at our publisher, Springer, over the last year. We have a new editorial team based in Holland following the merger between Springer and Kluwer Academic Publishing. The new company is the second largest professional publisher in the fields of science, technology and medicine worldwide. Suzanne Mekking is our Publishing Editor at Springer. The production stays in Heidelberg, Germany, and we welcome Elke Werner as the new Production Editor from 1 August. It is she who liaises with authors once their papers have been accepted and the copy editing/ publishing process is initiated. I, the Topic Editors, the Editorial Board, and the team at Springer look forward to working with you all in striving to establish our journal as the premier location for the publication of papers related to the study of corals and coral reefs.

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