Editors’ Report, December 2008

During 2008 BJCP published 182 (+6% compared with 2007) original research papers (including 23 short reports); 15 reviews (+36%); 1 review of 2007; 9 commentaries (including 1 historical commentary); 12 Editors’ Views; 1 Editors’ report; 56 letters (+100%); 8 book reviews and 1 obituary. There was one themed issue on ‘Cardiovascular Clinical Pharmacology’. Proceedings of the Clinical Section of the BPS and abstracts of the Dutch Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Biopharmacy meeting (March 2007), and Dutch Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Biosciences meeting (April 2008) were published. We received 388 (−1%) original submissions, of which 345 were full papers and 43 were short reports. Of this total 83 have been accepted and 186 rejected; the rest are pending a decision or awaiting revision. The end of the year rejection rate is therefore 48%, increased by 8% from 2007 when it was 40%. Submissions from 1/11/07 to 31/10/08 came from 47 (+14%) countries: UK (54;−19%), France (32;+19%), China (30;+43%), Netherlands (27;−13%), Australia (25;+25%), USA (25;−26%), India (19;−5%), Japan (18;unchanged), Denmark (14;+40%), Canada (13;+30%), Germany (13;+30%), Italy (13;−32%) and 35 other countries (<10 submissions each). Papers are submitted and handled electronically via the Manuscript Central website. Median times were: from submission to first decision: 41 days (range 0–149); from receipt by the referee to return of their report: 13 days (range 0–85); from submission to acceptance: 86 days (range 0–329); from receipt at Blackwell Publishing to Early View publication: 44.7 days from receipt at Blackwell Publishing to print publication: 90.7 days The timelines were virtually unchanged from 2007 although we managed to reduce the overall receipt to print time by 8 days. The Impact Factor is 2.68, similar to 2007. Jim Ritter (London, KCL) took over from Jeff Aronson (Oxford) as editor in chief. Evan Begg (Christchurch) completed his tenure as the founding Australasian editor: the Journal, the society and the publishers are extremely grateful to him. Andrew Somogyi (Adelaide) was appointed in his stead. Lionel Lewis's term as American editor has been extended. Yoon Loke replaced Jim Ritter as European editor. James McLay (Aberdeen), Una Martin (Birmingham), Andrew McLachlan (Sydney), Edmund Lee (Singapore), Terry Blaschke (California), Gerd Mikus (Heidelberg), Ray MacAllister (UC London) and Emma Baker (St George's London) joined the executive editorial board. Andrew Somogyi demitted to take up the Australasian editorship. Leon Aarons (Manchester) and John Miners (Adelaide) each completed exceptionally long and active terms of service for which the Journal is very grateful. Xia (Connie) Chen has been extremely helpful to the Journal by providing correct Mandarin translations of the sections that accompany each article describing what it adds, which we hope will increase exposure of the scientific papers in China. We are encouraged by the increase in submissions from mainland China and in due course we hope to appoint executive editors from this important region. After a careful selection process completed by a working party of the BPS with the help of Mark Ware, an external consultant, the contract with Wiley Blackwell was renewed for a further 8 years. Wiley Blackwell is now also the publisher for the BJP and this opens interesting prospects for collaboration between the two journals. Reviews are of great importance to BJCP. To build on our position in this area it has been agreed to form a reviews board under the chairmanship of Derek Waller (Southampton) acting in concert with the reviews editor (Mike Schachter, Imperial College, London). Founder members all have considerable editorial experience with the Journal: Martin Lennard (Sheffield), Richard Donnelly (Nottingham), Munir Pirmohamed (Liverpool), and Leon Aarons (Manchester). In addition the board will benefit from the experience of the BJP reviews board editor Mike Curtis (KCL). Their role is to widen the appeal of the journal, promote it at conferences that the publishers cannot attend, write reviews and act as reviewers. Albert Frauman (Melbourne) and John Miners (Adelaide) joined the international editorial board. The Editors thank all Board Members, both Executive Editors and International Editors, for their continuing enthusiastic and competent contributions over the past year. The Journal Management Board met in person three times in 2008. Monthly teleconferences between senior editors and publisher were initiated in August. The editors wish to acknowledge the support of several key individuals: Michael Willis Editorial Services Manager, Editorial Assistant Carys Thurlby, Production Editor James Martin and his successor Martin Childs, and Phil Wright (Marketing) have been key members of the team, overseen as always with calm efficiency by our publisher Elizabeth Whelan.

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