The first paper in this issue of Prometheus is about academic publishing, an activity so very profitable for the large publishers who dominate the industry, and so very costly for the academics who provide these publishers with papers free of charge, and editorial and refereeing services equally gratis. What comes free is not always appreciated and is readily squandered, which perhaps says something about the logic of manuscript submission systems. For years, journals have insisted that manuscripts be submitted on automated systems supplied by the publisher and tailored, at least nominally, to each journal’s requirements. These systems are supposed to help journal editors keep track of papers going through the submission and assessment process. Not all editors like these systems, though a few were able to find a use in their own research for ‘the submission data authors needlessly have to upload to our data system’