Bauman

Through strategic planning, the members and leaders of ACCP decided to begin a new and second official journal. With the relatively recent increase in new journals, including official journals of medical professional societies and for-profit biomedical journals, not everyone thought this was a good idea. But ACCP members and leaders felt that returning ACCP’s first official journal, Pharmacotherapy, back to its original aim (i.e., publishing impactful papers on clinical pharmacology and therapeutics) would create an unmet need for research and reviews on clinical pharmacy practice, clinical education, and health policy affecting clinical pharmacists. Thus, JACCP was established to provide a forum specifically for clinical pharmacists, including not only the membership of ACCP but all clinical pharmacists around the world. JACCP is unique among biomedical journals in this respect. And so it is: ACCP has two official journals with distinct, but complementary aims. JACCP is now in its seventh year.

The first two issues were published in 2018, and publication frequency increased over the next 2 years: six issues in 2019; eight issues in 2020; and monthly issues from 2021 to present. Since going monthly in 2021, JACCP has received over 350 submissions per year. The acceptance rate has held steady at around 44% over this time; however, the acceptance rate for unsolicited submissions has dropped to about 27% (eliminating invited papers and editorials, letters to the editor, and official ACCP papers). Official ACCP white papers, commentaries and meeting abstracts are now published in JACCP. Citations of papers published in JACCP have increased impressively through the years: 86 citations in 2021; 244 citations in 2022 (a 184% increase); and 336 citations in 2023 (a 49% increase). Examples of impact are “Feeling the Burn? A Systematic Review of Burnout in Pharmacists” with 50 citations (doi.org/10.1002/jac5.1218) and the “2019 Update to the American College of Clinical Pharmacy Pharmacotherapy Didactic Curriculum Toolkit,” a guide for colleges of pharmacy developing their didactic curriculum, with 48 citations (and downloaded over 4000 times [doi.org/10.1002/jac5.1178]). Some of JACCP’s most-downloaded manuscripts can be attributed to its rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic. An editorial published online on March 30, 2020, titled “Roles of the Clinical Pharmacist During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” has been downloaded over 29,000 times and cited 52 times (doi.org/10.1002/jac5.1231). As an international journal, JACCP followed this article with “Global Contributions of Pharmacists During the COVID-19 Pandemic” in September 2020, which represented nine countries and has been downloaded over 20,000 times and cited 43 times (doi.org/10.1002/jac5.1329). In 2023, 50% of all downloads occurred outside the United States.

JACCP is indexed in Clarivate’s Emerging Sources Citation Index, which allows for the attainment of an impact factor (IF). JACCP is also indexed in Elsevier’s Scopus database, which gives JACCP its version of an IF called CiteScore. JACCP’s IF (granted in 2023) is 1.6, and its CiteScore for 2022 is 2.1. However, the CiteScore can be adjusted on a monthly basis: in early January 2024, JACCP’s CiteScore increased to 2.6. Impact factors and CiteScores are calculated somewhat differently, but both use the number of citations over a time interval as the numerator and the number of citable papers published over a time interval as the denominator. Hence, as the number of citations increases from year to year (as they have for JACCP), the IF and CiteScore correspondingly increase. This is anticipated to be the case for JACCP. However, the most widely used biomedical journal indexing service is MEDLINE, which is also the most difficult to attain. JACCP applied for MEDLINE indexing in fall 2021 but was unsuccessful (the success rate of applicants in this pool was about 8%). JACCP is currently reapplying with the hope that this application will be viewed positively and a decision will be made within this calendar year. Once MEDLINE indexing is secured, the number of submissions, the IF, and the CiteScore will also increase.

JACCP aims to publish papers that significantly affect clinical pharmacy practice and education. Therefore, JACCP requires that potential authors use the EQUATOR Network, including the STROBE Checklist for observational trials and the PRISMA guidelines for systematic and scoping reviews. In addition, a recurring section titled “Research and Scholarly Methods” was created to guide investigators and authors through appropriate research methods to improve manuscript quality. Experts in statistical methods and pharmacoeconomic analyses were added to the editorial board to provide valuable feedback to authors.

I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to JACCP’s initial success, including the associate editors of JACCP; the staff at Pharmacotherapy Publications, Inc.; the JACCP editorial board; those who provide expert reviews for submitted papers; and, most importantly, the authors of the papers submitted and accepted for publication in JACCP.