About the Journal

Focus and Scope

Pharmacy Education journal provides a research, development and evaluation forum for communication between academic teachers, researchers and practitioners in professional and pharmacy education, with an emphasis on new and established teaching and learning methods, new curriculum and syllabus directions, educational outcomes, guidance on structuring courses and assessing achievement, and workforce development. It is a peer-reviewed online open access platform for the dissemination of new ideas in professional pharmacy education and workforce development. Pharmacy Education supports Open Access (OA): free, unrestricted online access to research outputs. Readers are able to access the Journal and individual published articles for free - there are no subscription fees or 'pay per view' charges. Authors wishing to publish their work in Pharmacy Education do so without incurring any financial costs.

In addition we are listed in EBSCO, and indexed in the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI - Web of Science), EMBASE and SCOPUS.

The Journal also recognises the importance of policy issues and current trends in the context of education, professional development and workforce.

The Journal publishes reports of research and innovation in all aspects of professional pharmacy education and training, case studies, country studies, innovations in laboratory and professional educational practice, workforce issues and development, reviews and reports on information technology in education and reviews of current literature.

The Journal has a clear international perspective, and has a longstanding policy of facilitating publication, in particular for younger Faculty, and those authors whose first language may not be English, and manuscripts from all regions seeking low cost engagement with the wider global community.

The Journal is published by the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) and is aligned to the global mission of advancing education, advancing practice and advancing science.

Peer Review Process

Pharmacy Education has adopted a double-blind peer review process - the identities of the Authors and Reviewers are kept from being known to each other. A step-by-step checklist is provided for Authors, Reviewers and Editors to ensure this.

Peer Review Process: Once a submission is received, the assigned Editor will select appropriate Reviewers based on their expertise and proven ability to critique. The peer reviews received will assist the Editor in determining the validity, significance and originality of the work submitted. Reviewers will also provide comment on manuscript content for scientific value, check for adherence to general scientific practice as well as Pharmacy Education’s specific guidelines. The Peer Review process will look closely at methodology and the data validity, and consider the ethical approach. Reviewers are encouraged to provide suggestions for improvement and recommend to Editors if manuscripts should be accepted, accepted with revisions, or rejected.

Please note that an invitation for Authors to submit a revised version is not a guarantee of acceptance. Ultimately, the final decision lies with the Editor assigned to each submission. An Editor can reject any article at any time before publication, including after acceptance if concerns arise about the integrity of the work.

As part of their agreement with Pharmacy Education, Reviewers will keep manuscripts and associated material strictly confidential, and will not appropriate Authors’ ideas before the manuscript is published. Once a review has been completed, Reviewers will be directed and expected to permanently delete/destroy any retained copies of manuscripts they hold (see Privacy Statement).

Timeliness: Reviewers are expected to respond promptly to requests to review and to submit reviews within the time agreed. Reviewers are also required to declare their conflicts of interest and recuse themselves from the Peer Review process if a conflict exists. Editors will do their utmost to ensure timely processing of manuscripts. Authors will be notified on any unusual delays in publication of manuscripts via email. Authors will ne notified as soon as possible if a manuscript is going to be rejected, either by the Journal Manager or Editorial Team. 

 

Journal Ownership and Editorial Scope

Pharmacy Education is published by the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP). Appointments and dismissals to the Editorial Team are made by the Editor-in-Chief in consultation with FIP. 

Editorial roles and responsibilities

Editor-in-chief  - The Editor-in-Chief has full authority over content publication in Pharmacy Education. In co-operation with the wider Editorial Team and publisher, they direct overall strategy of the journal. Together with the Editors and Associate Editors, the Editor-in-Chief reviews and decides upon submitted manuscripts, ensuring timely publication of submissions.

Editor - The Editor assumes day-to-day responsibility of managing the submissions flow to Pharmacy Education. They liaise with Authors and Reviewers where needed, clarifying the Submission and Review process as well as responding to all general enquires. 

Editors and Associate Editors – Editors and Associate Editors are appointed for a three (3) year term to the Editorial Team. Their responsibilities include, but are not limited to, decision making based on peer review feedback, recommending appointments to the Reviewer Board, and responding to editorial enquiries.

Advisory Board – Pharmacy Education is currently engaged in establishing an Advisory Board who alongside the Editor-in-Chief, Editors and Associate Editors will assist with:

- Guidance on the peer review and publishing policies of Pharmacy Education and where necessary, suggest reviewers to the Editor-in-Chief.

- Developing the journal by providing expertise to the Editor-in-Chief and FIP on how to increase impact and reach

- Impartial Judgement in appeal cases by providing professional, independent  scientific comments to the Editor-in-Chief and FIP

- Promoting Pharmacy Education

Managing Editor – The Managing Editor has the responsibility of managing the copyediting and publication process. The Managing Editor completes all typesetting, proofreading and online publication of accepted manuscripts once accepted by the Editors. 

Advertising in Pharmacy Education

Pharmacy Education does not provide opportunities for advertising on any of its platforms, including downloadable content. This policy maybe reviewed in future in conjunction with the publisher, FIP.
 

Competing Interest Guidelines

To assist Pharmacy Education in ensuring public trust in the scientific process and the credibility of articles that it publishes, all those involved in the Submissions and Peer Review process are required to disclose perceived as well as actual conflicts of interest.

Authors: When submitting an article to Pharmacy Education, all Authors are required to disclose all financial and personal relationships that may bias their work (see Submission Preparation Checklist)

Peer Reviewers: Reviewers are asked at the time of conducting a review if they have conflicts of interest that may impact on their ability to provide an unbiased review. Reviewers are asked to disclose conflicts of interest to the assigned Editor. The assigned Editor will then cancel the review and reassign the article to another reviewer. Reviewers agree to not use knowledge of the work they are reviewing before its publication to further their own interests.

Editors and Journal Staff: Editors making final decisions on manuscripts will recuse themselves where conflicts of interest or relationships that pose potential conflicts are present. All editorial staff (including guest editors) provide the Editor-in-Chief with a completed Editorial Disclosure Form (up to date description of financial interests/conflicts). Editors will annually publish disclosure statements about potential conflicts of interests related to the commitments of journal staff.

Research involving Human participants and Informed Consent

It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure that research involving human subjects has been reviewed and approved by the appropriate research or ethics review committee, or that it has been determined to be exempt from such review. 

Confirmation of this should be included in the Cover Letter and also included in the Methods section of the manuscript. Where informed consent is required, authors should include a statement in the manuscript detailing that informed consent was obtained from human subjects (see Submission Preparation Checklist)

Article Corrections, Replacement, Retractions & Removal Policy

Published articles are a permanent record that should remain unaltered. However, Pharmacy Education recognises that in exceptional circumstances, articles may need to be corrected, replaced, retracted or removed.

The Editor-in-Chief has full authority over content publication in Pharmacy Education. In making decisions regarding publication, the Editor-in-Chief is guided by the policies of the Journal as well as legal requirements such as libel, copyright, infringement and plagiarism.

 

Corrections

Detailed below are our procedures for managing requests for corrections post publication 

Minor errors

If Authors identify a minor error once an article has been published online, they are advised to email their request for corrections to Pharmacy Education for consideration.

Minor errors include: errors in spelling, data, medical terms; missing text; amendments to tables, figures or appendices; errors in correspondence details, etc. The Journal may decline proposed corrections that are for aesthetic reasons; errors to text, typography tables, figures and appendices if the meaning is unchanged; errors in acknowledgments lists etc.

Significant Corrections             

Corrections may be needed if honest errors have resulted in a portion of an article being misleading; if the author/contributor lists are disputed; or if potential conflicts of interest affecting authorship are disclosed post publication.

Where the Editor-in-Chief agrees that a correction is needed, the Journal will:

-       Correct the error online, and to any article file for download, linking to a Correction Notice via a footnote

-       The Correction Notice will detail the changes made to the original version, and the dates the changes were made.

 

Replacement

Honest errors such as mis-classification or miscalculation may lead to significant changes to the results, interpretations and conclusions. In such cases, the Journal will consider retraction with replacement of the article:

- The changed version of the article will undergo further editorial review;

- The authors will be required to detail and explain the changes made which will be published as supplementary material or in an appendix;

- The supplementary material/appendix will be attached to the changed version, allowing for complete transparency.

 

Retraction

An article will be retracted if the results or conclusions are unsound and/or where misconduct breaching professional ethical codes has occurred. The publisher and Editor-in-Chief will conduct an investigation into the errors or misconduct before retracting an article. The following steps will be taken where articles are retracted:

- A Statement of Retraction, giving the reasons for the retraction and signed by the authors and/or the Editor-in-Chief will be published online linking to the original article.

- The original article is preceded by a screen containing the Statement of Retraction. The reader can then proceed to the article itself.

- A watermark will be added to the original PDF indicating on each page that it is “RETRACTED”

- The Statement of Retraction will be included as a numbered page in the Table of Contents to ensure proper indexing, and will include the article title in its heading

 

Removal

Very occasionally, it may be necessary to remove an article from the online database as a consequence of legal action (e.g., defamatory content, infringement on legal rights, article is subject of a court order, or might pose a serious health risk if an article's content is acted upon). 

In these circumstances:

- The article's metadata (title and author details) will be retained and the text replaced with an Article Removal Notice

- The Article Removal Notice will be included in the Table of Contents and prefix the metadata. 

 

Expressions of Concern

If concerns or allegations of misconduct regarding a publication are raised, the Editor-In-Chief will consult the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) http://www.publicationethics.org and initiate the appropriate procedure based on the nature of the concern or allegation. The Editor-in-Chief, with appropriate support form the Editorial Team, will assess each situation individually. 

The Editor-in-Chief will consider issuing an Expression of Concern if:

- the Editor judges that readers should be made aware of potentially misleading information contained in a published article;

- investigations into any concerns of misconduct remain inconclusive;

- concerns remain over the impartiality of any investigations into alleged misconduct;

-an investigation is pending and a judgment is not expected for some time.

An Expression of Concern will be published and appear in the Table of Contents and include the title of the article in its heading. It should be noted that Pharmacy Education understands the potential repercussions that issuing an Expression of Concern can bring and will only take this action where it is deemed necessary.

If an investigation produces evidence of misconduct or reveals that the concerns raised are well founded after an Expression of Concern has been published, the Journal will instigate the Retraction process 

 

Appeals and Complaints

Appeals

Authors are entitled to appeal editorial decisions if they believe their submission has been unfairly or inappropriately rejected. An appeal letter should be submitted to the Journal Manager (pej@fip.org)

The appeal letter should provide appropriate detail and context. For example, if an Editor has provided peer review comments it is worthwhile responding to each item in the letter. If the appeal is against the editorial decision made on the submission, explaining and justifying clearly the work's importance, relevance, and usefulness in the appeal letter is recommended.

An invitation to submit a revised version after sending an appeal letter does not guarantee acceptance; the revised article will proceed through the Peer review process again.

Appeal letters will be ordinarily acknowledged within 5 working days, followed by a full response containing the appeal decision within 4 weeks.

 

Complaints

Pharmacy Education aims to respond quickly, courteously, and constructively to complaints about the Journal’s procedures, policies, or actions.

Complaints will be considered if:

- the complainant defines their dissatisfaction as a complaint; and

- it concerns a failure of process, i.e. a long delay or a severe misjudgement; and is not simply disagreement with an editorial decision;

- the issue being raised is within the responsibility of Pharmacy Education’s editorial remit

Complaints should be directly emailed to the Journal Manager (pej@fip.org) who will ordinarily formally acknowledge receipt within 5 working days.

- The Journal Manager will forward the complaint to a relevant person within the Journal organisation who will aim to provide a full response within four weeks. If this is not possible, an interim response and update will be given within the four weeks.

- Following this action, if the complainant remains unhappy, complaints will be escalated to the Editor-in-Chief whose decision is final.

- If a complainant remains unhappy, they may complain to an external body such as the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) http://www.publicationethics.org. They will consider complaints against Editors once a Journal's own Complaints procedures have been exhausted.

 

Whistleblowing

Pharmacy Education recognises that there may be legitimate reasons for individuals who wish to remain anonymous when raising issues relating to publication ethics. Concerns or allegations raised anonymously will be handled as they would be if the complaint were from another source, following the processes and procedures of the Journal.

If concerns remain after processes have been followed, The Editor-in-Chief will seek advice from Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) http://www.publicationethics.org

 

Sources of Support

FIP Education Initiative

 

Journal History

Pharmacy Education has been publishing peer reviewed education, training, research and evaluation in the field of pharmaceutical education since 2000. 

The Journal encourages manuscript submissions from younger career scientists, academics and practitioners and has a focus on supporting authors who do not have English as a first language. 

Through our FIP publication platform we are able to reach out to over 3 million pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientist worldwide.