Author Guidelines

 Open Access | Preparing your Submission | Editorial Policies | Production

About the Journal

RPS Pharmacy and Pharmacology Reports (RPSPPR) is a fully open access, interdisciplinary journal from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

The RPSPPR team is committed to fair, transparent, and author-friendly publication of research across all areas of pharmacy, pharmacology and interfacing areas of science. The criteria for publication are that the work must be scientifically sound, adhere to accepted ethical and scientific publishing standards, and be of interest to the community. 

RPSPPR welcomes both direct submissions and manuscripts transferred from our sister journal, Journal of Pharmacy & Pharmacology (JPP). Both journals are editorially independent, publish high-quality research and uphold a rigorous standard of peer review. However, RPSPPR is focused on publishing high-quality research that is scientifically accurate and may not always apply the same criteria for novelty that may be a factor in acceptance decisions for JPP. 

From the discovery of new drugs to drug development, RPSPPR is a forum for members of the pharmacy, pharmacology, chemistry, biochemistry, physiology, and microbiology communities alike to come together to develop life-changing medicines of the future. Key topics of interest include (but are not limited to): 

• Drug discovery and design
• Chemical and biological examination of drugs from natural sources
• Drug formulation and delivery
• Drug action
• Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics
• Clinical pharmacology and translational research
• Drug analysis

How to Submit

Please submit your paper via our online submission system at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/RPSPPR.

For assistance with online submission please email [email protected] or visit ScholarOne Manuscripts FAQs & Help.

Peer Review

This journal uses single blind peer review where the reviewer identity is concealed from the author. Visit Fair editing and peer review for more information about the peer review process.

Open Access

All papers published in RPS Pharmacy and Pharmacology Reports are made freely available online under an open access licence immediately upon publication. Charges for the open access licence options are listed below:

Non-member Charges:

Charges for CC BY or CC BY−NC: £2,163

Royal Pharmaceutical Society Member Discount Charges

Member discount for CC BY or CC BY−NC: 20%

There is no charge for the following article types: 

• Commentaries
• Letters to the Editor
• Invited Editorials

If you select a CC BY licence, you grant OUP a non-exclusive licence. For the CC BY-NC licence, you grant OUP an exclusive licence to publish and distribute the content.

For all licences you, the author, retain copyright for the content and have the reuse rights described therein.

Further information on open access Charges and Licences is available.

Corresponding authors based in countries and regions, that are part of the developing countries initiative are eligible for a full waiver of publishing fees in our fully open access journals. For further details, please see our APC Waiver Policy.

OUP has a growing number of Read and Publish agreements with institutions and consortia which provide funding for open access publishing. This means authors from participating institutions can publish open access, and the institution may pay the charge. Find out if your institution is participating.

Preparing your Submission

Article Types

Research Paper

The word count should be around 4,000 words.

Review

Reviews providing a comprehensive overview of a relevant topic in the field are welcome, including systematic reviews.

Title Page

Please submit a title page including the following:

• Manuscript title
• Full author names, affiliations and countries at the time the work described in the manuscript was carried out. Authors should meet all criteria for authorship, and all who meet the criteria should be identified as authors, as defined in the ICMJE guidelines.
• Corresponding author email address
• Declaration of interest statement noting any potential conflicts of interest for all authors, as defined here. If no conflict exists, please state: The author(s) declare that there are no conflicts of interest.
• Author contribution statement briefly detailing the contribution of each author to the research including their roles in formulating the research question(s), designing the study, carrying it out, analysing the data and writing the article.
• Data access statement indicating whether the authors had complete access to the study data, with an explanation of the nature and extent of access, including whether access is ongoing.
• Data availability statement indicating whether the materials supporting the findings are available, and if so, where readers may access them. Please find sample statements at Research Data Policy.
• Funding statement fully citing all relevant information, e.g. 'This work was supported by the Medical Research Council [grant number xxx]' or ‘This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors’.
• State whether the funding sources were involved in the study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; writing of the report; any restrictions regarding the submission of the report for publication; or state that the supporting source had no such involvement or restrictions regarding publication.
• Acknowledgements recognising individuals or organisations who provided non-financial advice and/or support such as materials and results obtained from outside the authors’ laboratories, as defined in the ICMJE guidelines. Their contribution should be specified and ensure named individuals consent to be included in your article.
• Word count excluding abstract and references.

Abstract

Abstracts should be around 250 words and use the following headings: objectives, methods, key findings and conclusions. The abstract must not contain reference citations or abbreviations.

Graphical abstract

A graphical abstract is a single figure prepared by the authors that summarizes the key point(s) of an article and serves as a visual introduction to encourage interest in the content. When preparing your graphical abstract, keep in mind that they are ideally suited for promoting your article on social media, so text should be large enough to be read in that context and the image should be oriented in landscape format.

Please also consider the accessibility of your graphical abstract to all readers. See OUP’s Guidelines for making figures accessible.

Graphical abstracts are peer reviewed and published as part of the article online and in the PDF. It also appears in the table of contents and some other journal pages including in search results.

Submission instructions

Your graphical abstract should be submitted as a separate file, selecting the appropriate file type designation in the online submission system. The file should be named “graphical_abstract”. Please see OUP's guidance on appropriate file format and resolution for graphics.

Abbreviations

Please define nonstandard abbreviations at the first occurrence.

Tables

Please number all tables (e.g., Table 1, Table 2, Table 3) and reference them in the text. You must place all tables at the end of the main text. Tables should be in an editable format, and not embedded as an image file.

Figures

You must include figure titles and legends within the manuscript file—they should not be included in the image file.

Please submit each figure as an individual image file. Submit all panels of a multipanel figure on a single page as one file. For example, if the figure has 3 panels, the figure should be submitted as one file. Each panel should be labeled as a letter (A, B, C, D, etc.) in the upper-left corner of each panel.

Images of photographs or paintings can be provided as raster images. Common examples of raster images are .tif/.tiff, .raw, .gif, and .bmp file types. The resolution of raster files is measured by the number of dots or pixels in a given area, referred to as “dpi” or “ppi.”

• minimum resolution required for printed images or pictures: 350dpi
• minimum resolution for printed line art: 600dpi (complex or finely drawn line art should be 1200dpi)
• minimum resolution for electronic images (i.e., for on-screen viewing): 72dpi
• Images of maps, charts, graphs, and diagrams are best rendered digitally as geometric forms called vector graphics. Common file types are .eps, .ai, and .pdf. Vector images use mathematical relationships between points and the lines connecting them to describe an image. These file types do not use pixels; therefore resolution does not apply to vector images.
• Figures prepared as .doc/.docx or .jpeg/.jpg files will not be accepted.

Figure accessibility and alt text

Incorporating alt text (alternative text) when submitting your paper helps to foster inclusivity and accessibility. Good alt text ensures that individuals with visual impairments or those using screen readers can comprehend the content and context of your figures. The aim of alt text is to provide concise and informative descriptions of your figure so that all readers have access to the same level of information and understanding, and that all can engage with and benefit from the visual elements integral to scholarly content. Including alt text demonstrates a commitment to accessibility and enhances the overall impact and reach of your work.  

Alt text is applicable to all images, figures, illustrations, and photographs. 

Alt text is only accessible via e-reader and so it won’t appear as part of the typeset article. 

Detailed guidance on how to draft and submit alt text. 

References

You may format references in any readable numbered style at submission. If an author/date system is used then this will be queried by the production team for a resupply. Please also note that the author is responsible for the accuracy of reference information. 

Please include the full DOI link where available.

LaTeX

Information on LaTeX files and formatting is available.

Supplementary Material

Please submit supplementary data or supplementary material at the same time as the main manuscript.

• Supplementary material must be cited in the text of the main manuscript.
• Supplementary material will be available online only and will not be copyedited or typeset.
• Style and formatting of supplementary material should be consistent with that of the manuscript.
• Supplementary material should be formatted to function on any internet browser.
• Supplementary material files should be no larger than 2MB each.

Pre-submission Language Editing

If you are not confident in the quality of your English, you may wish to use a language-editing service to ensure that editors and reviewers understand your manuscript. The RPS Journals partner with Enago, a leading provider of author services. Prospective authors are entitled to a discount of 30% for editing services at Enago, via the Specialist English Editing Services for Oxford University Press Authors page.

Enago is an independent service provider that will handle all aspects of this service, including payment. As an author you are under no obligation to take up this offer. Pre-submission language editing is optional and does not guarantee that your manuscript will be peer reviewed nor accepted.

Editorial Policies

The use of Natural Products

In studies that describe the use of natural products, the source organism must be authenticated by an expert and include reference to appropriate voucher specimens. All organisms must be validated taxonomically (in case of non-cultivated plant species http://mpns.kew.org/mpns-portal/ or  http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org/ or http://www.ipni.org/ need to be used.

Chemical Composition of Extracts from Natural Products

All extracts from natural products should be fullly characterised to ensure that full details of the chemical composition is known. For this purpose, separative methods (e.g. HPLC) following by structural elucidation methods are required (e.g. spectroscopy). Furthermore, an HPLC chromatograph should be included, where appropriate.

Electrophoretic Gels and Blots

RPSPPR allows cropped gels and blots in the main paper only if they improve understanding of the data reported. Cropping must be indicated in the image and mentioned in the figure legend. Full-length gels and/or blots are to be made available as Supplementary material, which will be published online if the manuscript is accepted.

All gels must include positive and negative controls, as well as molecular size markers; where these are not visible in the cropped figure then such controls must show clearly in the expanded Supplementary material.

Please provide a citation for characterized antibodies. Where a citation is not yet available, then a detailed characterization demonstrating the specificity of the antibody and the range of reactivity of the reagent in the assay, should be supplied as Supplementary material. RPSPPR recommends submission of data and linking with an antibody profile database (e.g. Antibodypedia, 1DegreeBio).

While RPSPPR discourages quantitative comparisons between samples on different gels/blots, if this is part of the experiment reported, then the legend must state that the samples derive from the same experiment and that gels/blots were processed in parallel. Sliced images that compare lanes that were non-adjacent in the original gel must have a dark line delineating the boundary between the gels. Loading controls (e.g. GAPDH, actin) must be run on the same blot. Sample processing controls run on different gels must be identified as such, and distinctly from loading controls.

Cropped gels/blots in the paper must retain important bands, and RPSPPR recommends at least six band widths above and below the band under investigation.

Over exposure may mask additional bands and high-contrast gels and blots are therefore discouraged. Grey backgrounds are expected as the norm. If high contrast is unavoidable then multiple exposures should be presented in the Supplementary material. For quantitative comparisons, appropriate reagents, controls and imaging methods with linear signal ranges should be used.

Publication Ethics

We will consider your manuscript as long as

• it is your own original work and does not duplicate any previously published work, including your own;
• it is not under consideration, in peer review, or accepted for publication in any journal other than RPS Pharmacy and Pharmacology Reports;
• it has not been published in any other journal; and
• it contains nothing abusive, defamatory, libelous, obscene, fraudulent, or illegal.

Authors should observe high ethical standards and obey publication best practices. The following are all unacceptable:

• data falsification or fabrication
• plagiarism, including duplicate publication of your own work without proper citation
• misappropriation of work

We treat any case of ethical or publication malpractice very seriously. We will address them in accordance with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines. Further information about OUP’s ethical policies is available.

Availability of Data and Materials

Where ethically feasible, RPS Pharmacy and Pharmacology Reports strongly encourages authors to make all data and software code on which the conclusions of the paper rely available to readers. We suggest that data be presented in the main manuscript or additional supporting files, or deposited in a public repository whenever possible. Information on general repositories for all data types, and a list of recommended repositories by subject area, is available here.

Preprints

Authors retain the right to make an Author’s Original Version (preprint) available through various channels, and this does not prevent submission to the journal. For further information see our Online Licensing, Copyright and Permissions policies. If accepted, the authors are required to update the status of any preprint, including your published paper’s DOI, as described on our Author Self-Archiving policy page.

Self-Archiving

You may self-archive versions of your work on your own webpages, on institutional webpages, and in other repositories. If you want more information about the reuse rights you retain if you publish with us, please visit our Author Self Archiving Policy page.

Third-Party Permissions

If you wish to reproduce any material for which you do not own the copyright—including quotations, tables, or images—you must obtain permission from the copyright holder. The permissions agreement must include the following documents:

• nonexclusive rights to reproduce the material in your article in RPS Pharmacy and Pharmacology Reports
• both print and electronic rights, preferably for use in any form or medium
• lifetime rights to use the material
• worldwide English-language rights

Further information on obtaining permissions is available.

Use of Chatbots and Large Language Models

RPS Pharmacy and Pharmacology Reports supports the World Association of Medical Editors’ recommendations on chatbots and scholarly manuscripts. If a chatbot or similar program is used in the development of a paper for RPS Pharmacy and Pharmacology Reports, the following is required:

• The Large Language Models (LLM) cannot be credited as an author, as authorship requires that the author be accountable for the submitted/published work, and artificial intelligence cannot fulfil this requirement of authorship;
• Authors listed on the paper must review the content generated by the LLM and take full responsibility for it, as they would for any other content within the submitted/published work;
• The use of LLM tools must be noted in the cover letter;
• The use of LLM tools must be documented in the Methods, Acknowledgments, or another appropriate section of the paper.

Production

After your manuscript is accepted, you must sign a licence to publish form on our Author Services website.

RPS Pharmacy and Pharmacology Reports articles can be published under the following Creative Commons licences (Others may be available depending on any specific requirements):

• Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY)
• Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial licence (CC BY-NC)

Your funding agencies may have specific requirements for what type of open access licence to use, so please check before selecting a licence. Please see Creative Commons licences for more information. Please check with your funding body if you are unsure of any licence requirements.

You can pay open access charges on the same Author Services site you used to sign your licence to publish. You can pay immediately online or request an invoice by email or post. You may also refer the charges to an institutional prepayment account. Any applicable discounts can also be applied prior to payment.

Once a paper is accepted, RPS Pharmacy and Pharmacology Reports will publish the pre-proofed, pre-copyedited accepted manuscript online within 48 hours of receiving a signed licence. This will be replaced by a copyedited, proofed version of the paper in an issue.