I wrote an article. Revised it. Revised the revisions. I have no problem with this – it’s all intended to make it a better article, and hopefully it is now better. However, I feel less positive about the mechanics of submitting it! You have to use a platform called Manuscript Central. Manuscript Central is a product of the ScholarOne platform. (It was owned by Thomson Reuters, then Clarivate and is now owned by Silverchair. Still with me?) I Googled it, and one journal publisher described it as user-friendly.
I’ve used it before. Indeed, I’ve uploaded revisions before. But today, I couldn’t work out how to do all my re-revisions within the platform. After much huffing and puffing, I did submit a manuscript. I’m less confident as to whether I submitted it correctly! And I dislike feeling thwarted by technology. It doesn’t encourage me!
On the positive side – I normally have the greatest difficulty stopping research activity when I stop being a part-time researcher for the day, but today I was more than happy to close the document. Gently, if metaphorically shutting the door behind me!
On Thursday, I’ll turn to the next article for submission. Hmm, which platform for this one …?
Karen McAulay, Musicologist 