New Opportunities for AJPE Authors

The goal of the Editorial Team and Editorial Board is to advance the important role AJPE plays in providing a forum for communication of relevant information for pharmacy educators and all others interested in the advancement of pharmacy education.¹ Throughout the last year, we evaluated and revised our instructions to authors with a focus on assisting authors in their submission process. We combined this process with a revision of manuscript categories to accommodate the broad array of scholarly work being conducted in the academy. We know how important it is for our colleagues to have a peer-review forum to share their scholarship of teaching and learning and to provide commentary on current topics in the academy. We believe the updated instructions to the authors, as well as an author checklist, will provide the tools to guide new and previous authors in the manuscript submission process. In addition, more explicit requirements and expectations for authors can serve to enhance the initial review process for editors, provide better guidance for peer reviewers, and assist in the final preparation of manuscripts for publication.

We also know the importance of the timely release of the peer reviewed results/findings of scholarly work for advancing the academy given the rapid and exciting changes in educating future pharmacists. Thus, we will be introducing “publication ahead of print” for manuscripts accepted for publication in AJPE (AJPEPAP). This process enables accepted publications to be published on AJPE’s website prior to the final copyediting process. Papers released in this format will be assigned a unique digital object identifier (DOI) number that will enable others to locate this paper as well as the final paper once it is assigned to an issue. It is essential to remember that these manuscripts will not be the same as the final published paper in AJPE. The AJPEPAP manuscript will be removed following the posting of the final paper on the AJPE website. We will provide more details on this advancement in a future Commentary.

The development of revised manuscript categories was based on the belief that the scholarship of teaching and learning should reflect the well-grounded foundations for the presentation of scholarly work. Updated categories for AJPE papers will include Reviews, Research, Briefs, Commentaries, and Letters to the Editor. Reviews are comprehensive, well-referenced descriptive papers on teaching or research topics directly related to entry-level and graduate or postgraduate education and training or skill development, as well as the history of pharmacy education. Reviews should be no longer than 25 double-spaced pages for all components and should be systematic, include all relevant data, and not influenced by opinions and biases of the authors. All Reviews are peer-reviewed.

The papers related to new scholarly work are Research articles, Research Briefs, or Educational Briefs. Research articles describe experimental or observational investigations that used formal methods for data collection and reporting of results of studies directly related to pharmacy education. This category also includes novel methods for professional and graduate student instruction (lectures, laboratories, practice experiences, or courses), or informational manuscripts on programmatic and curriculum development (formerly the Instructional Design and Assessment category) and must be no longer than 25 double-spaced pages for all components. Institutional review board (IRB) or ethics committee approval or exemption from approval are needed as appropriate for Research articles. All research articles are peer-reviewed.

Research briefs are smaller scale studies or pilot works with limited outcomes data. Educational briefs describe new and creative approaches to teaching and learning, curriculum, or evaluation, with limited assessment measures or outcomes data. The concepts in these papers should be timely, significant, and of interest to others in the field. Peer review and IRB approval are required for both categories of briefs. Briefs should not exceed 4 double-spaced pages for all components.

Another new category is Commentaries. These manuscripts are descriptive and intended to stimulate reflection and dialogue about issues in pharmacy education (includes previous categories of Statements, Special Articles, and Viewpoints). Manuscripts in this category are subject to peer and/or editorial review. Authors may request editorial consideration of a proposed commentary by submitting to the Journal Editor for approval a brief paragraph describing the proposed paper. Editors, Associate Editors, members of the AJPE Editorial Board and Elected Officers and AACP staff will still have the opportunity to submit this to the category without submission of a proposal. Commentaries can vary in length from 3-12 pages and must be properly cited.

We will continue to have Letters to the Editor. These will serve as a forum for commenting on matters of interest relevant to previously published articles in AJPE. They are also an avenue for critiquing or expanding on information presented in a previously published paper. Authors are required to identify themselves, and Letters must be appropriately cited. The Editor reserves the right to reject, shorten, excerpt, or edit letters for publication. These must be no longer than 2 double-spaced pages.

Authors can find more detailed information and a checklist on what is required for all manuscript submissions on the AJPE website (www.ajpe.org). We believe these categories will enable more opportunities for communication of the rapidly expanding, novel, and relevant information for pharmacy educators and serve as the foundation for enhancing undergraduate, graduate professional, graduate and postgraduate education.

• © 2016 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy