>> What happens after submission of a paper ======================================== Procedures: 1) A member of the board receives a new manuscript. a) If a member of the board receives a submitted paper directly, the board member deletes the paper and forwards a message to the author which includes a note that the journal is fully automatic, and instructions on how to submit the manuscript properly. b) The author-selected member of the board receives the paper properly through mpej. In this case, the manuscript is already on file at mpej. It already has been assigned a manuscript number "MPEJ YY-NN", and both the author and the editor have received this number. Other automatic actions at mpej include: sending information about procedures and forwarding mail to the author, and sending the abstract to all members of the board. 2) The editor saves the (properly submitted) paper on his/her local machine, tries to print it on paper, and ... a) If an error occurs, or if the paper is not in postscript, the local copy of the paper is deleted, and the editor forwards a message to the author mentioning the problem (optionally including the error message by the printer or by ghostview), and including a form letter saying that the paper was rejected due to its unrecognized format, and asking the author to convert the paper to standard postscript format and to resubmit it. b) If the format is correct (including sizes and spaces), the editor forwards a message to the author saying that the manuscript was received and that it is going to be refereed. 3) The editor forwards the paper to one, two, or more referees through mpej or, if the editor prefers, through other means of communications (mail, by hand etc.) (No forwarding to self is necessary if the editor is one of the referees.) In a first message, the editor sends a letter and includes general instructions for referees; a second message contains (essentially) just the paper to be refereed. In the instructions, the referee is also asked to acknowledge receipt of the two messages. 4) All correspondence between the editor, referee, and author is systematically forwarded through mpej, using the "SUBJECT: MPEJ YY-NN", where YY-NN is the manuscript number. If the editor is one of the referees, the referee report still has to be forwarded (to his/her own address) through mpej. In case the author decides to withdraw the paper, he/she forwards this decision to the editor, using "SUBJECT: MPEJ YY-NN, withdrawn". 5) After the editor has received all referee reports, he/she decides whether to accept or reject the paper or request corrections and revisions. The editor forwards, when the revision process is over, the proposed decision to the editors in chief who make the formal decision. (The editors in chief are bound to the editor's decision, unless they want to challenge it publicly within the editorial board.) The editors in chief forward their final decision to the editor and the author. The editor may delete his/her local files related to MPEJ YY-NN . After a paper has been accepted, no further revisions are possible, since it is published within a very short time. During this period of time, the only way for the author to "revise" the paper is to withdraw it (as indicated in 4) and to submit the revised version as a new manuscript. 6) The paper is given its final number (a new volume is started if the current volume is decided to be full) and MPEJ proceeds to put the header in the designated space above the abstract. The resulting file is forwarded to the author, together with a letter of agreement (copyright policies) referring to the enclosed paper. The author is asked to return everything below an indicated ---cut--- which includes the proper MPEJ headers, the agreement, and the paper. a) If the author returns the agreement and paper unaltered, the paper is added to the designated volume. The mail message is saved, but all other correspondence concerning MPEJ YY-NN is deleted at mpej. b) If the author does not agree that MPEJ publish the current paper under the indicated conditions, the paper is considered withdrawn.