Howard Ratner reports on Nascent, NPG’s web publishing blog, on a recent meeting at the NPG New York office of staff from Microsoft, various publishers and companies that produce editing or manuscript tracking tools to discuss problems in the use of Word 2007 in scientific publishing.
Publishers provided an overview of the stages in a journal’s publication process, from the writing of a manuscript by an author, through submission to publication, including the types of software systems and standards used. Presentations detailing incompatibilities between Word 2007 and automatic editing tools followed.
As a result of the meeting, Microsoft will establish a web page with details on how to use Word 2007 for publishing. The Nascent post provides links to more information and resources for authors.
Nature is currently testing Word 2007 manuscripts in its editorial production system. If you are using Word 2007 and would be able to send a sample manuscript (created from scratch in Word 2007) please contact us via authors@nature.com or as a comment to this post.

Nature 449, xiii; 13 September 2007