When John Smith founded Journal of Enzyme Inhibition in 1985, there were only a few journals publishing interdisciplinary papers on medicinal/pharmaceutical chemistry. Since it focused on a niche area, the immediate success of this new journal was not unexpected, a success also attributed to the high quality papers that were submitted in large numbers from the beginning. The name of John Smith as Editor-in-Chief was a clear signal of high scientific quality, efficiency in publication and balanced judgments of the many submissions received by the journal. John remained the Editor in Chief for the next 25 years, a period in which more than 500 papers were published in Journal of Enzyme Inhibition (until 2001). The journal’s name was later changed to Journal of Enzyme Inhibition and Medicinal Chemistry in 2002, and more than 1000 papers have been published since then.
This year another change occurred: I was selected to be John’s successor as Editor-in-Chief. I had already acted as an associate editor for a number of years and I knew the high standards that John was asking for from his collaborators. I knew that taking over this position would not be an easy task, considering the long experience, excellent activity, and important achievements of the journal under John’s leadership. I accepted the appointment because I feel I can continue the important legacy that John began. I will work to continue to have Journal of Enzyme Inhibition and Medicinal Chemistry as one of the premier reference journals in the field of pharmaceutical sciences, medicinal chemistry and all the interdisciplinary, intertwined fields at the frontier between chemistry, biochemistry and other life sciences.
My main message here is to thank John for all he did in 25 years of brilliant leadership of the journal and to assure him that I will keep the same spirit. In doing this, I am very much comforted by the fact that even though he is retired, John will hopefully continue to read the journal and to “judge” my actions. I also wish to thank Prof. Claire Simons, who acted as an associate editor for many years and was also an integral part in ensuring the journal ran smoothly. I am grateful that she has remained as a member of the editorial board, and her experience and help will be immensely important going forward.
As for the other Associate Editors, I am pleased that both, Prof. Torsten Steinmetzer and Prof. Marc Le Borgne have agreed to continue in their positions. I have enlisted two new Associate Editors and would like to welcome them at this time, Prof. Jean-Yves Winum (from Univ. of Montpellier, France) and Dr. Giuseppina De Simone (from CNR Naples, Italy).
I have also renewed the editorial board, maintaining all the previous members who expressed their wish to continue working with me. Several high profile scientists have also joined our board, among which are Prof. Stephen Neidle from Univ of London, UK; Prof. Dario Neri from ETH, Switzerland, Pof. Paul Wentworth Jr., from Univ of Oxford (UK) and the Scripps Research Institute (USA), to name a few. For a current list of all Editorial Board members, you may find this on the journal website, www.informahealthcare.com/enz. With the existing and new members, we have an excellent team. There continues to be a high number of submissions, and the acceptance rate for manuscripts is around 25 %. My main goal is to continue with the high scientific standard, which is the main legacy from John, and eventually even to try and improve the journal.
I cannot end without mentioning this rather personal note regarding this journal. I first saw an issue of Journal of Enzyme Inhibition in 1987 when I was doing my Ph D, and was immediately impressed by the quality of the papers, the layout, the cover and especially the topic: enzyme inhibition. I was able to submit my first manuscript to the journal only in 1996, when I felt I had a rather good manuscript for evaluation. My disappointment was acute when that manuscript was rejected. A few years later, I was finally able to publish in Journal of Enzyme Inhibition. I started submitting several papers a year to John, who most of the time accepted them for publication. You might be wondering why I mention this personal history. I mention it because our rejection rate is now quite high, and many times I have messages from frustrated (young) authors who had their first manuscript submitted to Journal of Enzyme Inhibition and Medicinal Chemistry rejected (by myself, this time). My main message here is to encourage those authors to continue to work hard and to submit future papers, as I did. We have a very high rejection rate and that is because we want a high level of science to be published in this journal. And we will do our best to ensure that this continues.
Thank you again to John for having created this great journal and for all the excellent work you did with the journal and for the scientific community. We will endeavour to carry on the great work you started and ask you to accept this as our tribute to you.