The Challenges of Scientific Publishing: An Editor-In-Chief's Perspective

The current and former editors-in-chief of the Fundamental & Clinical Pharmacology journal share their experience and perspectives regarding the present landscape of scientific publishing and the challenges and threats it faces. Several challenges are identified, three of which are of particular significance. The first is how to manage the growing number of submissions. This is a global trend: The number of indexed articles has increased by 50% in less than 10 years, and the challenge of finding efficient and motivated reviewers is particularly acute. The second challenge is how the impact factor has come to be the sole quality criterion for a scientific journal, and by extension for evaluating researchers: Might there not be alternatives? The third challenge is publication fraud, where the editor-in-chief is invariably exposed to endless attempts at manipulation. However, there are fortunately now tools to help combat this. Of course, the editor-in-chief's ultimate weapon is the power to retract a suspicious article, but this is not so simple and is not without consequences.