Due to the expansion of the professional schools in health sciences at the University of California, San Diego, I have been asked to serve as Interim Chair of the Department of Pharmacology. Recognizing that I would need to give up some responsibilities to do this, I have made the decision to step down as Editor ofMolecular Pharmacology. The team of Associate Editors directing Molecular Pharmacology has functioned in a highly effective manner, and we felt that we could easily continue our mission by changing the leadership within the group. Accordingly we requested that Dr. Paul A. Insel serve as Editor, leading the same team of Associate Editors (including myself) and board members until a decision regarding editorship is reached. I will be stepping down on January 1, 2003, and would like to take this opportunity to thank all who have made the process work so efficiently, including the capable staffs in Bethesda and in La Jolla, and the dedicated Editorial Board members. I have truly enjoyed my time as Editor and am proud that the journal has grown both in format and breadth of coverage.
Joan Heller Brown, Ph.D.
Department of Pharmacology, UCSD
The Board of Publications Trustees thanks Joan Heller Brown for a very successful three years as Editor of Molecular Pharmacology. Under her leadership the journal has continued as one of the most widely read and cited journals in pharmacology. She assembled and directed an outstanding team of Associate Editors and a very distinguished Editorial Advisory Board who together have significantly expanded the range of the journal and its readership. We extend our thanks to Joan for her distinguished service as editor over the past three years and offer her our best wishes in her new appointment.
We are very grateful to Dr. Paul Insel for agreeing to serve as Editor of the journal while we conduct a search for a new Editor. Dr. Insel is currently an Associate Editor and he is located in the Department of Pharmacology at UCSD. He has been very much involved over the last three years in the management of the journal along with Joan Heller Brown, and he also has considerable editorial experience with several other major journals in addition to Molecular Pharmacology. We have full confidence in his ability to lead the journal with distinction during the search for the next Editor. We are also grateful to the present team of Associate Editors and the journal staff in the La Jolla office for agreeing to continue to serve the journal until a new Editor is appointed.
The Board of Publications Trustees is now opening a search for an Editor for Molecular Pharmacology. Nominations of outstanding individuals and inquiries about the position are invited from all of our readers. Editors are appointed for a three-year term with the option of extending this term for another three-year term with the agreement of the Board. Send nominations to:
Brian M. Cox, Ph.D.
Chairman, Board of Publications Trustees
American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
9650 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20814-3995
E-mail: journals{at}aspet.org (include “To Chair BPT” in the subject line)
Footnotes
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We know that Molecular Pharmacology's authors, reviewers, and editorial board members want an online manuscript submission, tracking, and review system for the journal. Such a system is coming for Molecular Pharmacology. As you may be aware, one of ASPET's other publications, The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, began accepting manuscripts in January 2002 using Bench>Press, the online manuscript system JPET developed with HighWire Press. A version of Bench>Press is being developed for Molecular Pharmacology. The Molecular Pharmacology version will benefit from the changes and improvements made to Bench>Press during the past year, including the ability to publish accepted manuscripts online prior to print publication. This feature will allow articles to be published at least eight weeks earlier than in print. Based on JPET's experience with Bench>Press, we expect to reduce the time for peer review as well. The ASPET Journals Department staff is working to put Bench>Press in place as soon as possible. Look for it early in 2003.
- The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics