A Note from Dave’s Desk

ASPET’s Strategic Plan: Authoritative Scientific Resource

Over the last two months, I highlighted the impact of the 2023–2027 ASPET Strategic Plan when it comes to the Society serving as the “leading voice promoting the field” and “cultivating an inclusive and diverse culture.” This month, I want to focus on what the Society is doing to serve as an “Authoritative Scientific Resource” for pharmacology. ASPET aims to be the trusted source of scientific knowledge and information regarding the effectiveness and safety of drugs and therapeutic agents.

The primary method ASPET uses to serve as an authoritative scientific resource is its journals. A major change to ASPET’s journals this past year is the announcement of our new partnership with Elsevier. This new partnership, set to launch in 2025, will provide ASPET with the potential to elevate an already excellent author experience, provide more support and new tools to our reviewers and editors, and further expand the reach of our influential journals.

Along with setting the journals up for success into the future, the editors of the ASPET journals have been implementing new initiatives to ensure the Society’s journals are impactful today. These initiatives include many Special Sections focused on hot topics in the field today (some examples include Medical Countermeasures and Mechanism-Based Predictive Methods in Drug Metabolism and Disposition), as well as the launch of the JPET Editorial Fellowship Program to build important skills as a peer reviewer and as an editor. These initiatives, along with the diligent efforts of all our journal editorial teams, have resulted in submissions increasing for all of ASPET’s original research journals over the past year (no easy feat in this very competitive publishing environment).

Our annual meeting also serves as a major avenue for ASPET to serve as an authoritative scientific resource for pharmacology. With the goal of having the best possible science at the ASPET Annual Meeting, the Society puts significant focus and emphasis on encouraging our community to submit proposals. This focus paid off with the highest number of session proposals for an ASPET Annual Meeting since before COVID. At least in part to being able to select from so many worthy proposals, about 90% of ASPET 2024 Annual Meeting attendees were satisfied with the scientific excellence and novelty of speakers in sessions.

We hope you join us and help position ASPET as the authoritative scientific resource for the field of pharmacology.