As 2009 marks my 10th year as Editor of Pharmaceutical Development and Technology (PHD), I look back over these busy years with wonder. This past year, 2008, especially has brought many exciting changes.
The publisher, Informa Healthcare, transferred management of PHD from the Clinical Medicine subdivision of Informa Healthcare to a newly-created Pharmaceutical Science division.
I began working with Elizabeth Yepez, US Managing Editor, and Sandy Thomas, Production Editor and am very pleased with our interactions, their insights, and in general the new organization that will enable this journal to continue to improve.
Our impact factor increased by 30% (0.695 to 0.876) in one year. This was a year of growth, also evidenced by a 20% increase in full text downloads in 2008.
Manuscript management was transferred to Manuscript Central, which not only makes submissions easier for authors, reviewers, and, perhaps most of all, the editor, but also resulted in a doubling of manuscript submissions in 2008 compared to any previous year since PHD started in 1995.
Several improvements have been made in the journal style (typeface and layout) and the front cover.
After 14 years of service as founding members of the PHD Editorial Advisory Board (EAB), the following 5 highly respected pharmaceutical scientists and leaders rotated off the EAB at the end of 2008—Drs. Bradley Anderson, Gilbert Banker, James Boylan, Lee Kirsch, and Dale Eric Wurster. All five served this Journal very well, and their work was deeply appreciated. I wish to thank them sincerely for all their support.
On the other hand, four pharmaceutical scientists were added to the PHD EAB in 2008:
Dr. Ajay Banga, Chairman and Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the College of Pharmacy at Mercer University. Dr. Banga’s primary research interests are non-traditional methods of transdermal delivery such as iontophoresis and microneedle delivery. He has written two books, formerly was editor-in-chief of Critical Reviews and was elected AAPS Fellow in 2007.
Dr. Y.S.R. Krishnaiah, Associate Professor of Pharmaceutics in the Faculty of Pharmacy at Kuwait University. Dr. Krishnaiah recently joined the pharmaceutics department of the College of Pharmacy at Nova Southeastern University; his research interests include the development of colon-specific, transdermal and oral controlled release drug delivery systems. He has published over 100 full research articles.
Dr. Jagdish Singh, Chairman and Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the College of Pharmacy at North Dakota State University. Dr. Singh’s primary research interests are mechanistic studies for developing and testing novel delivery technologies for biopharmaceutical molecules with special focus on transdermal, smart polymers, and nanoparticulates delivery systems of proteins, peptides and genes. He has published hundreds of research papers and abstracts, and is an active AAPS member and Fellow.
Dr. Lynne S. Taylor, Associate Professor of Industrial and Physical Pharmacy at Purdue University. Dr. Taylor’s research interests are wide-ranging in the characterization and analysis of solid state phenomena. Her current research efforts are directed towards developing a better understanding of crystallization from amorphous systems as well as probing water-solid interactions.
A research journal is only as good as the scientists who serve as referees for manuscripts submitted for publication. Accordingly, I wish to thank all the scientists listed in the following 2008 referee acknowledgment pages. Many reviewed two or more manuscripts; some, as many as six. They have done a thorough job assuring that only the finest research articles eventually get published in PHD. With a rejection rate of more than 60%, only a third of the manuscripts submitted in 2008 were accepted for publication.
Again, my heartfelt appreciation is extended to every person on this list.