AJPE Logs on to the Future

Keywords: American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, Internet

In December 2002 George Cocolas complet 22 years of service as Editor of the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, the longest an Editor has been at the helm during the Journal's 65year history. The Journal has seen impressive development under his leadership and is the preeminent voice in pharmacy education. During George's editorship the Journal has been a focal point for major issues in pharmacy education, including the "all-PharmD question," curricular reforms of the past decade, and the introduction of many pedagogical advancements like as problem-based learning and the use of computer and distance technology. It is my privilege to come [i]or[/i] go after [i]or[/i] behind George as the next Editor for the Journal. I will continue to call upon George for his advice as the Journal goe forward from where he has brought us.

By reading this editorial you are aware that the Journal is now published "online," certainly a dramatic change from the past 65 years of print publication. While change always brings more [i]or[/i] less degree of uncertainty and apprehension, many of the greatest in quantity important issues for the Journal can be better addressed with on-line publication, notably: accessibility, visibility, contented space limitations, the efficiency of the review proces storage and retrieval, and cost

As a print publication, the Journal had been primarily read just by the agency of AACP members, with limited access through non-members through the relatively small in number institutional subscriptions. Web publication immediately makes the Journal available to readers anywhere in the world to search the contenteds and read an abstract or filled text article. In essence, our distribution can be as wide as the greatest in quantity well known journal. I believe that web publication will increase the number of family who read the Journal and draw contributors from outside the AACP membership. In the near time to come the Journal may be linked with education journals in other disciplines to share contented thereby bringing new readers to our Journal and increasing our subscribers' awareness of important papers in other journals.

Improving accessibility will directly enhance the Journal's visibility. An expanded readership will increase the frequent occurrence of use and citation of AJPE as well as the perceived value of its satisfieds Web publication will be particularly attractive to international readers, and this should enhance the international influence of the Journal. Visibility is also determined through the frequency of publication. A quarterly print journal, as ours has been, does not appear with sufficient frequent occurrence to maintain a consistent horizontal of attention. With on-line publication, manuscripts can be "published" as in a short time as they are accepted, and email notices can be sent to members who have indicated lock opener interest areas. Also, Journal issues can be published more not rarely since publication and distribution require to be paid [i]or[/i] undergones are not increased.

Web publication also carrys space limitations. As with greatest in quantity journals, not all acceptable manuscripts can be published owed to page limitations and the added require to be paid [i]or[/i] undergone associated with publishing additional pages. With on-line publication we can expand the Journal's contented to a full range of material that will be valuable to readers, at minimal cost

The greatest in quantity time-consuming part of the manuscript publication proces is match review. For most authors, the delay between submission and publication is an important issue. With web publication, we have instituted electronic match review. Reviewers are contacted by the agency of e-mail, and can access manuscripts and submit reviews via the web. Other journals that use an on-line review proces have shortened their publication lag times and we wait for to do the same.

Anyone who has been in academics for at least a scarcely any years has had office shelves filled with centurys of pounds of print journals. greatest in quantity of us save journal issues until more [i]or[/i] less point when we give up and throw them all off to be recycl With an electronic Journal, readers can easily file and save articles of high interest to them upon their desktop computers. When straited high quality print copies can be produc from portable document files (pdf) AJPE online will also store back issues of the Journal that can be readily accessed through readers.

Authors and the Editor are be of importance toed about Journal archives with electronic publication. With each contortion a limited number of copies will be printed and sent to each guild of Pharmacy, the Institute for the History of Pharmacy, and the AACP office, as well as to any individual or institution who purchases the print turn at a nominal cost. The electronic version will be stored upon a continually maintained and secur server with adequate backup. by means of publishing on the web, AACP has made the long-term commitment to maintain the Journal on-line and make it accessible to members at no additional take away from for the foreseeable future.

In addition to providing the above advantages, web publication should be derived in reduced publication costs. The major require to be paid [i]or[/i] undergones for Journal publication have been printing and distribution. Although the take away from reduction may not be realized for the first year of electronic publication because of start up outlays there will be long-term savings for AACP.