When a journal has been in existence since 1909, much effort by many individuals has established and consolidated its importance to the field. Most recently, my friend and colleague Mike Jarvis is stepping down after 6 years at the helm of JPET. His contributions to the journal are too numerous to list, but suffice it to say he has provided a strong infrastructure to allow a smooth transition into the editorship role. We are all indebted to his vision and hard work over this past six years. Continued support from the talented members of the ASPET editorial office will certainly help to maintain the qualities of the journal.

Since JPET is a Society journal, we have a major responsibility to serve our members at ASPET. The Divisions of ASPET are a major potential pipeline for the submission of high quality manuscripts, and one early initiative will be to reach out to the officers of each of the (now) ten divisions, to encourage them to participate formally in various aspects of journal. In noting the addition of a new Division for Cancer Pharmacology, the opportunities to build in this area present themselves. I am particularly keen that some of the high quality symposia presented at annual meetings might be presented in the pages of JPET or turned into special editions, where interrelated articles might serve to focus the readers’ attention and perhaps provide more depth of coverage for a specific topic. For example, approaches to drug discovery and development frequently involve partnerships between academia and industry and are to be highly represented at the 2016 ASPET meeting. Iterative preclinical steps in drug discovery and development cut across many disciplines in pharmacology and are of interest to a broad audience. Moreover, new drugs that gain traction at various stages of the FDA approval process would also be of particular relevance to JPET. By design, this should serve to enhance the interface of the journal with scientists in the pharmaceutical sector.

Scientists and publishers grapple with the importance of citation impact factors. In our present information-byte society, these numerical values provide a short cut to assessing journal importance. In many instances (particularly in Europe), citation indices contribute to academic advancement and therefore are factored into decisions about manuscript submissions by authors. Whatever the positive or negative views of these measurements (and there are many), impact factors retain some allure and cannot be ignored. For many journals, review articles serve to enhance citation indices. Within the last two years, JPET has trended toward publishing a larger number of “perspective” articles and minireviews, and we will maintain this initiative under the editorial guidance of Joe Blumer. Other factors that influence citation impact are more nebulous, but where achievable, we will make efforts to augment this value.

In the near term, JPET will attempt to recruit associate editors from developing countries, with a view to encouraging submissions from high quality research laboratories. Proportionally, there is likely to be a significant growth of publications from scientists in these geographic locales.

As always, I encourage questions, comments or constructive recommendations from interested parties, particularly the membership of ASPET and prospective authors, either through E-mail through the editorial office (jpet{at}aspet.org) or communication at meetings.

• Copyright © 2015 by The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics