Imagine Collaboration, Without the Faff

Imagine if there was a better way to write, format, and review scientific manuscripts for publication. A fast, efficient process that makes communication between authors effortless...

doDOC Document Collaboration Expert Leif Måsvær believes there is. Leif explains how this cloud-based platform is a game-changer that overcomes the major obstacles present during the authoring, writing, and reviewing process.

Michele Wilson (MW): When working with others, e.g. when co-authoring a scientific manuscript, there can be many delays and hiccups during the writing and reviewing process. Can you give us an overview of these pain points, which guided the development of doDOC?

Leif Måsvær (LM): We have been talking to hundreds of scientists, writers and publication experts from pharma companies, agencies and universities. They all talk about major obstacles in the authoring, writing and reviewing process:

• The information is dispersed and collaboration could be based on stagnant information
• Their current way of working does not create the necessary dynamic interaction that generating new knowledge so desperately need.
• Not having visibility of other writers' edits and comments
• Handling formatting for publications
• Working with citations
• Different versions of a file
• Commenting, discussing changes and collaborating is clunky and frustrating

MW: Can you tell us about the team behind doDOC's development?

LM: The doDOC team has its roots in MIT and developed out of the need for collaboration in manuscripts. By gathering document collaboration experts from different corners of the world and employing a young  and innovative development team, doDOC set out to make the optimal collaboration tool.

MW: What are some of the main features of doDOC that make the writing/reviewing process more efficient?

LM: Realtime Collaboration is the heart of doDOC. Instead of downloading a document and working on it one person at the time, you log into the document and can write, comment and see tracked changes. This gives the possibility to let the manuscript evolve with true frictionless interaction.

Citation Manager directly connected to PubMed and Scopus, with import of EndNote citations. Everybody with access to the document can share their citations with the rest of the team and working with references becomes easy.

Automatic Journal Formatting to whatever journal you are targeting. You can also reformat the whole manuscript in two seconds if you want to resubmit to another journal. There are over 2000 journal templates to choose from.

MW: There are other cloud-based platforms that offer real-time editing. What does doDOC offer that makes it particularly ideal for scientists?

LM: Other platforms offers a solution for some of the collaboration challenges but they may solve one thing, but generates another problem, e.g you can comment but have no full track changes, or you can write but no citation management or automatic journal formatting.

MW: Who was doDOC designed for? What sort of companies have been showing the most interest?

LM: doDOC was designed for the pharma industry with a strong focus on manuscript authoring. The software has also developed to be a preferred tool for other collaborative documents like:

• Clinical Study Protocols
• Investigational New Drug applications
• Master File Document
• Clinical Trial Studies
• Medical Response information
• Proposals
• Due Diligence Documents

Basically any kind of collaborative document in the industry.

MW: What is your approach to getting doDOC in the hands of those who you think could benefit from it? Do you offer trial periods? What is the best way for people to learn more?

LM: The best way to understand if doDOC could be a good tool for you is to see it demonstrated. doDOC offers demonstration meetings on a daily basis with a demo of the software and a questions and answers session. There is no obligation to buy.

doDOC also offers short free trials and longer paid trials as needed.

We are also hosting a webinar 26th of July on the topic: Scientific publications, How to write and publish with higher quality.

You can register for the FREE webinar here.

Leif Måsvær was speaking to Michele Wilson, Science Writer for Technology Networks.