Pharmacological Reports

At the beginning the journal’s title was Prace Komisji Nauk Farmaceutycznych(Papers / The Proceedings / of the Committee of Pharmaceutical Sciences); under that title there were published four volumes (1949-1953). Since the Department of Pharmacology of the Polish Academy of Sciences was set up in 1954 (since 1974 – the Institute of Pharmacology PAS), the journal has been edited by our Institute. At first the journal had a title in Latin Dissertationes Pharmaceuticae and it appeared quarterly in Polish. Since 1966 it was published bimonthly as Dissertationes Pharmaceuticae at Pharmacologicae.

A successive change took place in 1973: the new title was Polish Journal of Pharmacology and Pharmacy; since 1968 the journal has been published exclusively in English. Another change of the journal`s title, to Polish Journal of Pharmacology, occurred in 1993. Consequently, also the scope of the journal has changed over time: from pharmacy to pharmacology and, most recently, to the pharmacology of the central nervous system. The last modification took place in 2005: starting with volume 57, the title of the journal has eventually been changed to Pharmacological Reports, which accentuates its international character.

The Pharmacological Reports publishes science articles dealing with experimental and clinical pharmacology. It features original papers, reviews, and occasional abstracts from international congresses and symposiums. The journal publishes research results in the field of broadly defined pharmacology covering behavioral, biochemical, molecular and cellular investigations aimed at expanding the knowledge on mechanisms of drugs action and potential therapeutic agents. The thematic profile of the articles is focused mainly on the research involving the dysfunction of the central nervous system, among others, depression, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, neurodegenerative diseases – conditions that represent the most serious challenges tackled by the modern societies in highly-developed countries. Editors are especially concerned with ensuring high quality of published manuscripts through promoting research involving the application of the state-of-the-art methods, including, among others, the use of transgenic animals, optogenetics, transcriptomics, proteomics or modern imaging techniques. The journal is issued bimonthly. The articles are published in English.

Maintaining the high-quality journal content is ensured by the Editor in Chief assisted by the Advisory Board consisting of leading specialists, including foreign researchers, who actively promote the journal and support its development, participate in discussions on the journal’s policy, share their scientific experience as well as knowledge in the particular field by reviewing papers. The Advisory Board is notified of the current journal’s quality and impact by means of annual reports produced by the Publisher. The Editor in Chief is supported by the Associate Editors selected from among experienced researchers, experts in their field of science. The initial, content-related selection of submitted papers by persons with adequate competencies, within the scope of topics addressed in the journal, translates directly into the quality of published manuscripts and shortens the time necessary for preliminary assessment and taking decisions on eventual submission for external reviews.

From 2014 until the end of 2019 the Pharmacological Reports was published in cooperation with Elsevier. Currently, a publishing agreement was concluded with a new publisher – Springer Nature – that on 1st January 2020 accepted full liability towards the journal.

The editorial process is based on an electronic system for editing and publishing the journal. All files uploaded into the system undergo anti-virus as well as anti-plagiarism control. The time necessary for publishing papers and providing online access to the journal content has been reduced to a minimum.

The Pharmacological Reports is sold and distributed in an electronic version using modern international platforms dedicated to scientific, technical and medical topics (ScienceDirect and Springer Nature). Currently the journal has a limited circulation. Only advance and deposit copies are printed.

The Pharmacological Reports is indexed in the most prestigious database, that is the Web of Science, and listed in the JCR (Journal Citation Reports). The papers published in the journal are cited in all most important databases: Biological Abstracts/BIOSIS, Chemical Abstracts, Excerpta Medica/EMBASE, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (IPA), Polish Medical Bibliography GBL, Index Medicus (MEDLINE), Index Copernicus, Biotechnology Abstracts and Scopus.

The new website can be accessed via the following link: https://www.springer.com/journal/43440. Past issues of the journal are also available at: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/pharmacological-reports and http://www.if-pan.krakow.pl/pjp.

In 2019 the Institute received funds for 2019-2020, from the financial sources of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education allocated to activities aimed at popularizing science, for co-financing the project titled: “Increasing the impact and visibility of the Pharmacological Reports among international research society and R&D sector”. The most important tasks undertaken within the scope of the project include, among others: maintaining the upward tend for the impact factor (JCR); building a platform for exchanging information between researchers and R&D sector through establishing cooperation with renowned researchers and experienced leaders in R&D, aimed at publishing articles dealing with the latest research trends and the most significant achievements in the pharmacological sector concerning the implementation of the basic research results; improving graphic design of the review articles and promoting the journal in social media, Internet and at scientific conferences.