Whatever the prophets may have said, the paperless office is nowhere in sight. But in Nature's offices, at least, the sheer quantity of accumulated paper is set to diminish progressively. For we are now able to receive electronic versions of manuscripts of submitted Articles and Letters from all disciplines, and to handle the documents through refereeing, discussion and editing, entirely electronically (we already accept electronic pre-submission enquiries.)

Many specialist journals have offered such a facility for some time. But since Nature is a general journal, the range of disciplines covered, with their respective and diverse established formats, has impeded its ability to open the electronic hatch to all comers, even though pilot experiments have been working successfully for several months.

No one should conclude that those submitting on paper will be discriminated against in any way. Nor will potential referees be excluded because they cannot handle a submission in electronic form. The publication process may prove slower on average for paper submissions, but only for the inescapable practical reasons that the Internet is faster, more readily usable and more accessible by authors and referees than fax transmission, let alone the post.

Details of our online services for authors are gathered together in one virtual location: http://www.nature.com/submit (for a quick tour of what we can offer, see overleaf). Alternatively, simply e-mail nature@nature.com for instructions. Online submission is based on three stages: information via the Nature website; transmission via WAM!NET, a dedicated high-speed network providing reliable and secure file transfer using the Internet; and conversion to Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) for assessment and refereeing.

Over the coming weeks, we will extend this facility to encompass Brief Communications. Over the months and years ahead, we expect burgeoning bandwidths to play their part in encouraging an increasing amount of electronic submission and refereeing. We expect, too, to be able to handle a greater variety of digital formats, both known and as yet unknown. Meanwhile, authors looking for the greatest speed of response from Nature are encouraged to use the new system.