An electronic submission refers to a manuscript

Manuscript

A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...

 submitted by electronic means: that is, via e-mail

Email

Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...

 or a web form on the Internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

, or on an electronic medium such as a compact disc

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

, a hard disk

Hard disk

A hard disk drive is a non-volatile, random access digital magnetic data storage device. It features rotating rigid platters on a motor-driven spindle within a protective enclosure. Data is magnetically read from and written to the platter by read/write heads that float on a film of air above the...

 or a USB flash drive

USB flash drive

A flash drive is a data storage device that consists of flash memory with an integrated Universal Serial Bus interface. flash drives are typically removable and rewritable, and physically much smaller than a floppy disk. Most weigh less than 30 g...

. Traditionally, a manuscript referred to anything that was explicitly "written by hand". However, in popular usage and especially in the context of computers and the Internet, the term "manuscript" may even refer to documents (text or otherwise) typed out or prepared on typewriter

Typewriter

A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical device with keys that, when pressed, cause characters to be printed on a medium, usually paper. Typically one character is printed per keypress, and the machine prints the characters by making ink impressions of type elements similar to the pieces...

s and computers and can be extended to digital photographs and videos, and online surveys too. In other words, any manuscript prepared and submitted online can be considered to be an electronic submission.

History and Early Usage

There is no concrete data indicating when and by whom were electronic submissions used for the first time. However, research based universities in several countries have been encouraging the collection of course assignments and projects in the form of electronic submissions for almost a decade now. Several governments and organizations are also switching to electronic submissions for the collection of research papers, grant applications and government application forms.

Types of Electronic Submissions

Since modern computers can store and process information and data in virtually any format and with the Internet allowing easy transfer of this data, the number of scenarios in which submissions can be collected electronically has increased exponentially in the last few years. Some of these scenarios are described below. It is interesting to note that in most of these scenarios, submissions were collected on hard paper until the Information Technology

Information technology

Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...

 revolution struck in.

Academic Submissions

Teachers, professors and teaching assistants often collect course assignments and projects electronically. Electronic submissions are usually collected using a web-based system which more often than not also helps in the management of submissions

Submission management

The art and science of collecting and managing submissions is called Submission Management. Traditionally, submissions were collected offline i.e. in the form of 'hard' paper files or folders...

 collected and stored on it.

Research Papers

In call-for-paper or academic conference

Academic conference

An academic conference or symposium is a conference for researchers to present and discuss their work. Together with academic or scientific journals, conferences provide an important channel for exchange of information between researchers.-Overview:Conferences are usually composed of various...

s, prospective presenters are usually asked to submit a short abstract or a full paper on their presentation or research work electronically, which is reviewed before being accepted for the conference.

Proposals for Grants

Several grant-giving organizations like the NSA, W3C, NIA, NIH etc. require grant seekers to submit a proposal which if accepted result in the desired grants. A majority of these proposals are now submitted electronically on systems that also help in the managing and tracking the proposals submitted.

Articles for Publication

Magazines, newspapers and other publishing houses have begun accepting electronic submissions for articles from various sources - both internal (by journalists and writers hired by them) as well as external (by users and popular readers). The submitted articles are stored on a server hosted by the publication house or by a third-party vendor and are usually evaluated before being given a green signal.

Contests and Competition Entries

Almost every kind of contest

Competition

Competition is a contest between individuals, groups, animals, etc. for territory, a niche, or a location of resources. It arises whenever two and only two strive for a goal which cannot be shared. Competition occurs naturally between living organisms which co-exist in the same environment. For...

 or competition requires participants to submit an entry in a format described by the organizers of the contest. If the contest is an Internet based one, then the entries or nominations for the contest are collected electronically using e-mail or other electronic means depending on feasibility and the choice of the organizers.

Government Applications

The governments of several countries are turning to electronic submission of applications and forms for various government procedures. Electronic submissions allow easier management

Submission management

The art and science of collecting and managing submissions is called Submission Management. Traditionally, submissions were collected offline i.e. in the form of 'hard' paper files or folders...

 of the applications and forms submitted.

Resumès and CVs

It has become commonplace for job-seekers to submit soft copies (electronic versions) of their resumès and CVs to recruiting agencies and online job portals. This is usually done over the Internet using e-mail or a pre-hosted web-based system.

Submission Management Systems

The art and science of collecting and managing electronic submissions is called Submission Management

Submission management

The art and science of collecting and managing submissions is called Submission Management. Traditionally, submissions were collected offline i.e. in the form of 'hard' paper files or folders...

. Certain software vendors have begun developing submission management system

Submission management system

A submission management system is a software system that streamlines and eases out the collection, tracking and management of electronic submissions...

s to assist in the collection, tracking and management of complex submission processes realized electronically. Most of these systems are web based and accessible from any device with a browser and an Internet connection. However, a majority of these systems are application specific and cannot be applied to all submission management scenarios.

Resistance to Electronic Submissions

Despite the widely accepted fact that electronic submissions are easier to manage and track as compared to their paper-based counterparts, wide spread adoption and use of electronic submissions and systems for managing them has been hampered by several facts that include but are not limited to:

• Inconvenience while drawing figures, diagrams and equations on a computer
• Resistance to change and adopt new technologies
• Lack of or limited access to the Internet