Editor in Chief
What a fantastic year it has been at Pharmacological Reviews. We have done many things to celebrate our 75th anniversary, with this closing issue for 2024 arguably the pinnacle. This issue contains 16 total papers: a 75th Anniversary Celebration Collection Special Section in collaboration with faculty at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at the Karolinska Institutet containing two editorials, one perspective, and four review articles [including one International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (IUPHAR) review], as well as one editorial and eight review articles in our regular section. Here I sum up the year that has been and close with a look forward for Pharmacological Reviews.
Editorials
Each issue of our 75th anniversary year has been led by one or two editorials from previous and current editors in chief and associate editors. In the January issue, I authored an editorial giving a historic overview of Pharmacological Reviews and a summary of where we are now (Daws, 2023). In the March issue, Martin Michel authored a delightful editorial describing his 25-year journey as an author and associate editor of Pharmacological Reviews (Michel, 2024). In the May issue, we shifted to the other end of the spectrum in terms of years served as associate editor of Pharmacological Reviews, where Ali Eid, who had been on the board just over a year at the time of writing his editorial, gives a terrific perspective on how to excel as a new associate editor, which he surely does (Eid, 2024). In the July issue, Rhian Touyz (associate editor for 14 years) writes an excellent editorial on the “Pharmacology of Precision Medicine—Preparing for the Next Era in Clinical Medicine” (Touyz, 2024). In the September issue, we continue the stream of outstanding editorials with contributions from former editor in chief of Pharmacological Reviews, David Sibley, highlighting “the enduring impact” of publishing in the journal and the reasons why it has been so influential (Sibley, 2024), and Eliot Ohlstein, Pharmacological Reviews associate editor of 14 years who handles IUPHAR reviews. IUPHAR reviews are consistently highly cited and provide Pharmacological Reviews with a rich pipeline of outstanding and comprehensive reviews. Eliot’s editorial provides an interesting and informative walk back in time, describing the more than 30-year collaboration between IUPHAR and Pharmacological Reviews (Ohlstein, 2024).
We close this year with the editorial you are currently reading, as well as an editorial by Gunnar Schulte, associate editor for more than 7 years. Gunnar is faculty in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, also celebrating their 75th anniversary. His editorial leads the way into this issue’s special section celebrating the department’s anniversary. This special section features contributions from the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology faculty, which, as mentioned already, includes an excellent perspectives article by Volker Lauschke, Gunnar Schulte, and colleagues, as well as four comprehensive reviews, including an IUPHAR review.
Soon after Pharmacological Reviews was established, members from the British and Scandinavian Pharmacological Societies were added to the editorial board (Stitzel, 1999, and see Daws, 2023). Representatives from these societies have remained on the board ever since, with Gunnar Schulte one of the current Scandinavian Pharmacology Society representatives. It is this 75-year partnership that inspired the special section highlighting our colleagues in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at the Karolinska Institutet, as they too celebrate their 75th anniversary. An excellent overview of the history of this relationship through to the present day is thoughtfully provided in Gunnar’s editorial.
Reviews and Front Matter
In addition to these editorials, Pharmacological Reviews published 39 comprehensive reviews in its 75th anniversary year. The quality and quantity of these reviews are certainly fitting with our content expansion initiative in 2023, where we moved from four to six issues of Pharmacological Reviews a year, allowing reviews to be disseminated more quickly and for authors to have their articles available immediately upon acceptance. In addition, we have begun to include “front matter,” brief editorials written by our associate editors to highlight review articles that they have handled. We expect to see the number of these increase in the coming years.
Annual Meeting of the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
Pharmacological Reviews celebrated its 75th anniversary at the annual ASPET meeting, held in Arlington, Virginia. Here there was plenty of fanfare for Pharmacological Reviews including 75th anniversary badge giveaways and a slide show that took us for a walk down memory lane of Pharmacological Reviews, as well as acknowledged our amazing associate editors and social media ambassadors. We are planning to make this available on the ASPET website soon.
Partnering with Elsevier
Elsevier executives attended the 2024 ASPET meeting, and the Pharmacological Reviews editorial boad meeting that took place there. Here we learned more about the 10-year partnership of ASPET journals with Elsevier, which begins in January 2025. This decision to partner was not made lightly and occurred after years of deliberation among stakeholders. What does this mean for our authors and readership? To quote ASPET Executive Officer Dave Jackson, “We believe this next phase of the ASPET journals will be a very positive change, allowing for long-term growth and security for the society and ASPET journals. ASPET will continue to fully own the journals and will maintain full editorial control with the same boards, same editors, and same staff, along with the addition of a small number of Elsevier staff members to support us as we switch to their submission system and platform. ASPET editors and staff will have access to new and innovative analytical, bibliometric, and plagiarism detection software tools. Because of this partnership, authors will be able to publish with no submission fee and no page charges. While the journals will remain hybrid, open access will continue to be an option.” With Elsevier’s marketing ability, we can look forward to even greater promotion of Pharmacological Reviews and its highly impactful publications.
Social Media Ambassadors
Social media ambassadors are trainees or early-stage investigators who help promote published reviews on our social media channels, including X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and LinkedIn. In June 2024 the last of our inaugural social media ambassadors, Lindsey Galbo-Thomma (USA), Rheure Lopes (UK), and Karla Neves (UK) completed their 2-year term. I extend my greatest appreciation to them and their steadfast efforts in getting this new initiative successfully off the ground. I extend a very warm welcome to Nina Beltran (University of Texas, El Paso, TX, USA), who has been a social media ambassador since last year, as well as Öykü Deniz Bese (Ankara Üniversites, Turkey), Katie-Marie Case (King's College London, UK), Mahan Gholam (Griffith University, Australia), Kimberly Holter (Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA), and Joseph Miller (St. Jude's Children Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, USA), who began their terms as social media ambassadors in July 2024.
Beyond 75 Years
As Pharmacological Reviews moves toward its centennial celebration in 2049, the future is bright. I am delighted to announce that I will serve a second term as editor in chief. I plan to increase our associate editor base further and will continue to incorporate all aspects of diversity in that growth. Our associate editors are the people who make Pharmacological Reviews “tick.” They are the individuals who make Pharmacological Reviews a top-tier, high-impact journal by their efforts to recruit thought leaders in the world of pharmacology to author these comprehensive reviews. We plan to publish more editorials, highlighting reviews published in Pharmacological Reviews. I am also excited to work with Elsevier to promote our journal. The marketing experience they bring will no doubt expand the reach of Pharmacological Reviews and increase our readership even further. In closing, Pharmacological Reviews has the very good fortune of being supported by the incredible ASPET journals staff. Combined, our dedicated and passionate team of ASPET journals staff, together with Elsevier, will elevate Pharmacological Reviews to new heights. Cheers to the next 25 years!
Acknowledgments
The author thanks Kristine Styron, ASPET peer review coordinator, for her assistance with this editorial and for all her support of the editors and authors of Pharmacological Reviews.
Footnotes
- Received September 11, 2024.
- Accepted September 11, 2024.
- Copyright © 2024 by The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics