2010 Re-launch of BJP

Abstract

BJP has a new look and is re-launching in this first issue of 2010. We have been listening to what authors and readers want from a pharmacology journal and hope that you will choose to submit your best papers here. Similarly, readers will find the best science on how drugs work in every system and at every level.

However, the substantial aspects that should attract you are as follows:

• Impact Factor for 2008 is a highly competitive 4.902

• Wider scope – we cover all aspects of pharmacology, molecules to man; translational and integrative bioscience is pharmacology

• Free to author colour throughout – print and online

• No initial handling charge

• No page charges

• Open Access policy that meets all funding body requirements

• High quality press editing service

• PowerPoint downloads of all figures

• Downloadable movies and other supporting information files

• New Editorial Board and peer-review process

• Linked commentaries on exciting or controversial papers

• Themed Issues and Sections

• Press releases on newsworthy papers

• Ensuring the readership for your paper by targeted marketing

This re-launch issue contains a themed section on ‘QT Safety’, dealing with drug-induced toxicities associated with prolongation of the cardiac QT interval (http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121548564/issueyear?year=2010). Subsequent issues will have themed sections on Imaging in Pharmacology (guest edited by Anthony Davenport and Craig Daly) and GPCRs (guest edited by Roger Summers; following on from the highly successful 2009 GPCR Issue (http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122575288/issue).

Our new, fresh, blue cover design harmonises with our sister journal BJCP's similar green cover, symbolically indicating that our two journals, in the BPS stable, are now working together to cover all of pharmacology. The new design reflects the BPS logo (British Pharmacological Society).

In the course of 2009, BJP has been steadily revising its approach and policies and now, to start 2010, is re-launching with a new look and new aspects that should appeal to authors and readers alike. We hope that you will find these changes attractive enough that you will submit your best papers here and that you will find it a top line scientific resource.

Free colour throughout

No charge for colour in any figures: pictures, graphs, histograms, diagrams, etc.

Subtle use of coloured text aids readability to increase the impact of articles, making titles and headings stand out, and tables easier to read, with an overall more attractive and interesting look. This will be rolled out as new papers go into production.

We encourage all authors to use colour to enhance all of their figures if they wish, but are happy to accept monochrome, if preferred.

There are no colour restrictions, except aesthetic ones, but we encourage you to find alternatives to red/green combinations, which are challenging to the 8% of men who, like the Editor-in-Chief, are colour blind.

Impact Factor for 2008 is 4.902

There are no general pharmacology research journals ahead of BJP by Impact Factor; we are 18th in the ISI category Pharmacology and Pharmacy and our competitors are reviews and one specialist journal (well done Neuropsychopharmacology – 6.835). We are highly competitive with JPET (4.309), Mol Pharmacol (4.711) and Biochem Pharmacol (4.838).

BJP aims to be the first port of call for authors, and will achieve this by constantly improving our service to authors and, by attracting the best papers, further increasing our impact factor, in a virtuous cycle.

No initial handling charge and no page charges

BJP makes no charges to authors for publication of their manuscripts. There are no submission charges, handling charges, page charges or charges for colour.

Open Access policy

All research articles published in BJP (and its sister journal BJCP) are made freely available online 12 months after publication, and selected content (the Guide to Receptors and Channels {GRAC; Alexander et al., 2009}, and some reviews and themed articles) is made freely available prior to 12 months after publication. Authors of research articles can also opt to pay a fee of $3000 for their accepted articles to be made freely available online immediately upon publication via our OnlineOpen service. By providing these two routes to open access, both BPS journals are fully compliant with the requirements of the major funding bodies worldwide with respect to open access publishing, including the Wellcome Trust. Further, Wiley-Blackwell provides automatic services for PubMedCentral deposit and free access on Wiley InterScience for NIH and HHMI funded articles, with embargos set to match their requisite policies.

Back archives of all issues of both journals that were published before 1997 were made for the BPS by the Wellcome Trust and are available on PubMedCentral.

High quality press editing service

This excellent, free service to our authors is now extended to include our reviews, as well as our papers. The service includes language editing by a qualified, native English pharmacologist and is not just a checklist and return of your article over trivia.

PowerPoint downloads of figures

Being introduced during 2010 to facilitate the use of your science by the community in teaching and research communication, slide sets of all of the figures from articles will be freely available.

Wider scope

The journal seeks to re-engage with pharmacology: drugs and drug targets.

We aim to widen the definition of pharmacology – molecules to man.

All-through and ‘first in man’ studies are a priority.

We seek to re-engage with drug hunters inside and outside of the Pharma industry.

BJP will publish an increasing proportion of ‘translational’ pharmacology – whatever your definition of that is. In our view, pharmacology is translational bioscience.

We are increasing our coverage of growth areas such as endocrinology and diabetes, inflammation, and cancer. The journal started life in 1946 as the British Journal of Pharmacology and Chemotherapy. The rapid growth of cancer biology returns this as a priority.

We recognise that Biologics (etc.) have a pharmacology too. If it is chemical and introduced to the body to produce an effect, then understanding its action is pharmacology.

BJP will cover the whole spectrum of pharmacology in co-ordination with our sister journal BJCP, which concentrates on the clinical end of the spectrum.

Our new blue cover design reflects that BJP is all about drugs and harmonises with our sister journal BJCP's similar green cover, indicating that our two journals cover all of pharmacology. The cover reflects the logo of the British Pharmacological Society, owner of the journals. Free on-line access to the journals is a benefit of membership (http://www.bps.ac.uk) for students and researchers.

New Editorial Board and Review process

We have a new team in place, with 40 new editors.

The Board is very experienced, balancing youth and well-known established names.

We have broad coverage both in terms of expertise & geography – i.e. it's not a ‘British’ journal per se– our editors are drawn from across the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australasia.

New systems have been implemented for reviewing and decision-making to identify the best papers and draw out what is special about them for our readers.

We are raising the bar on quality for research papers, so your work is presented with other high calibre papers, and readers can trust BJP to publish the best work.

Themed Issues and Sections

In the last two years we have stepped up our content of Themed Issues and Sections (see Box 1 for a list of our 2009 and 2008 special issues), these collections of important articles are commissioned and edited by expert guest editors. This includes our extremely useful Guide to Receptors and Channels, an essential resource for pharmacologists, with the latest up-to-date edition published in November 2009 (Alexander et al., 2009).

Box 1 – BJP special issues published in 2009 and 2008

2009 Themed issues, sections and supplements

Volume 158 Issue S1 – November 2009 (S1 – S254)

Supplement: Guide to Receptors and Channels (GRAC), 4th edition

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122684220/issue

Volume 158 Issue 4 – October 2009 (933-1172)

Themed Section: Mediators and Receptors in the Resolution of Inflammation: Guest Editor: AG Stewart

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122653185/issue

Volume 158 Issue 2 – September 2009 (393-632)

Themed Section: Advances in Nutritional Pharmacology: Guest Editor: CL Wainwright

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122580182/issue

Volume 158 Issue 1 – September 2009 (1-391)

Themed Issue: GPCR

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122575288/issue

Volume 157 Issue 4 – June 2009 (491-673)

Themed Section: Endothelium in Pharmacology

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122428743/issue

Volume 157 Issue 2 – May 2009 (151-330)

Themed Section: Vector Design and Drug Delivery: Guest Editor: K Takeda

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122368280/issue

Volume 157 Issue 1 – May 2009 (1-149)

Themed Issue: Histamine: Guest Editor: P Chazot

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122312381/issue

2008 Themed issues, sections and supplements

Volume 154 Issue 7 – August 2008 (1379-1553)

Themed Issue: Safety Pharmacology: Guest Editor: M Pugsley

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121666672/issue

Volume 154 Issue 3 – June 2008 (493-724)

Themed Section: Drugs in Sport: Guest Editors: JC McGrath and DA Cowan

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121667126/issue

Volume 154 Issue 2 – May 2008 (259-492)

Themed Issue: Neuropharmacology of Addiction: Guest Editors: AJ Lawrence, PM Beart, and PW Kalivas

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121667247/issue

Volume 153 Issue S2 – March 2008 (S1-S209)

Supplement: Guide to Receptors and Channels (GRAC), 3rd edition

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122206250/issue

Volume 153 Issue S1 – March 2008 (S1-S470)

Supplement: Life Sciences

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121662356/issue

Volume 153 Issue 2 – January 2008 (177-401)

Themed Issue: CB2 Receptors: Guest Editors: K Mackie and RA Ross

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121667727/issue

Box 2 – BJP virtual issues published in 2009

G-protein coupled receptors http://www.brjpharmacol.org/view/0/VirtualIssues.html#G-protein_coupled_receptors

Endothelium

http://www.brjpharmacol.org/view/0/VirtualIssues.html#Endothelium

Cannabinoids

http://www.brjpharmacol.org/view/0/VirtualIssues.html#Cannabinoids

Cancer

http://www.brjpharmacol.org/view/0/VirtualIssues.html#Cancer_VI

We have also launched a series of Virtual Themed Issues (e.g. McGrath JC, 2009; Milligan and McGrath, 2009), which gather together new articles and notable contributions (that we have published separately over the previous months) in a particular field. This provides a valuable educational and research resource and also draws attention to papers by placing them in context. We produced four of these in 2009.

Ensuring the readership for your paper

We work hard to generate additional impact for your paper through commentaries, virtual issues, press releases and targeted marketing of your work to readers in the same field.

We give free access to themed issues and reviews matched to the interests of email recipients and/or conference delegates.

We have increased our presence at a wide array of pharmacology and disease research meetings, with free copies of relevant issues available and chances to meet and interact with our Editors on Wiley-Blackwell booths.

This relaunch issue contains a themed section on ‘QT Safety’, dealing with drug-induced toxicities associated with prolongation of the cardiac QT interval (Valentin, 2010; see Box 3). Subsequent issues will have themed sections on Imaging in Pharmacology (guest edited by Anthony Davenport and Craig Daly) and GPCRs (guest edited by Roger Summers; following on from the highly successful 2009 GPCR Issue (http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122575288/issue).

Box 3 – QT themed section articles

Abi-Gerges N, Valentin J-P, Pollard CE (2010). Dog left ventricular midmyocardial myocytes for assessment of drug-induced delayed repolarization: short-term variability and proarrhythmic potential. Br J Pharmacol159: 77–92.

Darpo B (2010). The thorough QT/QTc study 4 years after the implementation of the ICH E14 guidance. Br J Pharmacol159: 49–57.

Ducroq J, Moha ou Maati H, Guilbot S, Dilly S, Laemmel E, Pons-Himbert C et al. (2010). Dexrazoxane protects the heart from acute doxorubicin-induced QT prolongation: a key role for I_Ks. Br J Pharmacol159: 93–101.

Guth BD, Rast G (2010). Dealing with hERG liabilities early: diverse approaches to an important goal in drug development. Br J Pharmacol159: 22–24.

Mannikko R, Overend G, Perrey C, Gavaghan CL, Valentin J-P, Morten J et al. (2010). Pharmacological and electrophysiological characterization of nine, single nucleotide polymorphisms of the hERG-encoded potassium channel. Br J Pharmacol159: 102-114.

Malik M (2010). Facts, fancies and follies of drug-induced QT/QTc interval shortening. Br J Pharmacol159: 70–76.

Pollard C, Abi Gerges N, Bridgland-Taylor MH, Easter A, Hammond TG, Valentin J-P (2010). An introduction to QT interval prolongation and non-clinical approaches to assessing and reducing risk. Br J Pharmacol159: 12–21.

Salvi V, Karnad DR, Panicker GK, Kothari S (2010). Update on the evaluation of a new drug for effects on cardiac repolarization in humans: Issues in early drug development. Br J Pharmacol159: 34–48.

Shah Rashmi R (2010). Drug-induced QT Interval Shortening: potential harbinger of proarrhythmia and regulatory perspectives. Br J Pharmacol159: 58–69.

Wallis R (2010). Integrated risk assessment and predictive value to humans of non-clinical repolarization assays. Br J Pharmacol159: 115–121.

Valentin J-P (2010). Reducing QT liability and proarrhythmic risk in drug discovery and development. Br J Pharmacol159: 5-11.

Valentin, J-P, Lainée P, Hammond T (2010). Value of non-clinical cardiac repolarisation assays in supporting the discovery and development of safer medicines. Br J Pharmacol159: 25–33.