Manuscript Exchange Common Approach (MECA) – Collaborating toward the shared goal of systems interoperability – info@manuscriptexchange.org

"Authors lose time and effort when their manuscript is rejected by a journal and they have to repeat the submission process in subsequent journals. Plus, it is estimated that 15 million hours of researcher time is wasted each year repeating reviews. Both of these challenges could be addressed if journals and publishers could transfer manuscripts between publications using different submission-tracking systems. With the growth of cascading workflows, manuscripts are regularly transferred within a publishing group. But a growing challenge is to transfer the manuscript (and, optionally, peer-review data) across publishers and manuscript systems and even to and from preprint servers. A group of manuscript-management suppliers has taken up this challenge and is working together with NISO to develop a common approach that can be adopted across the industry. ..."