Just prior to the release of the Draft Recommended Practice from the MECA Working Group, Nettie Lagace, NISO's Associate Executive Director, sat down with Working Group co-chairs Tony Alves of Aries Systems and Stephen Laverick of Green Fifteen Publishing Consultancy as well as Working Group member, Sally Ubnoske, also of Aries, to discuss the progress and output of this initiative, and how MECA might be used by its adopters.
MECA recommendations provide a common means to easily transfer manuscripts between manuscript systems, such as those in use at publishers and preprint servers. Currently, in workflow processes such as manuscript rejection or alternate recommendation for article submission, there is no easy way for a manuscript to move programmatically from one publisher system to another's. The result is frustration for authors and reviewers who complain of wasted time and delays in enabling access to new research. An open protocol for industry adoption will ease this process and support publishing operations and stakeholder communication.
The period for commentary on the draft recommendations remains open until February 16, 2020. You can find the draft Recommended Practice at https://www.niso.org/standards-committees/meca.