Editorial

Abstract

On behalf of the Editorial Team of the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences (JPharmSci®), I would like to take this opportunity to thank John Carpenter (University of Colorado-Denver), Susan Hershenson (Gates Foundation), Rodney Ho (University of Washington), Susumu Uchiyama (Osaka University), David Volkin (University of Kansas), and Gerhard Winter (Ludwig Maximilians Universitat) for serving as the Guest Editors of this Special Issue entitled “Two Decades of Publishing Excellence in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology.” These individuals have performed a truly exceptional job in helping the Editors and Editor-in-Chief select those manuscripts that contained the most original and most significant scientific findings for inclusion in this Special Issue of JPharmSci®. Because of the time and effort put forth by the Guest Editors, this Special Issue of JPharmSci® contains a total of 48 papers, including three Reviews, two Commentaries, one Rapid Communication, one Note, and 41 Research Articles. Further, it is worth noting that like the “Giants in the Pharmaceutical Sciences” Dedicated Issues, this Special Issue will have a prominent place on the journal’s web site, and visitors to the JPharmSci® web site will have open access to their papers. These papers will be a lasting tribute to the vision and foresight of Professor William I. Higuchi, who in 1994 made the decision to recruit Professor C. Russell Middaugh to join JPharmSci®’s Editorial Team as an Associate Editor and to gave him the responsibility for building the journal’s presence in a new, rapidly emerging area of the pharmaceutical sciences (i.e., pharmaceutical biotechnology) that focused on the characterization, stabilization, formulation, and delivery of drugs and drug candidates forthcoming from so-called “biotechnology companies.” The responses that the Guest Editors received from scientists working in the areas of pharmaceutical biotechnology to submit manuscripts for this Special Issue of JPharmSci® were extremely positive. In addition, the quality of the papers ultimately submitted and eventually selected for inclusion in this Special Issue of JPharmSci® was truly exceptional. This outpouring of interest and enthusiasm from pharmaceutical biotechnology scientists worldwide to contribute to this Special Issue and the exceptional quality of the papers included in this Special Issue clearly demonstrate that JPharmSci® has become THE journal wherein scientists working on the characterization, stabilization, formulation and delivery of peptides, proteins, antibodies, vaccines, and nucleic acids want to publish their most original and most significant scientific findings. Numerical evidence to support this conclusion includes the observation that the number of papers published in JPharmSci® in the area of pharmaceutical biotechnology has grown approximately 10-fold over the past two decades (i.e., from eight papers in 1993 to 86 papers in 2013), and the total number of pharmaceutical biotechnology papers published in JPharmSci® over the past two decades was approximately 1000. Again congratulations and thanks to Professors Higuchi and Middaugh for their vision and foresight in 1994 concerning JPharmSci®’s potential role in publishing papers forthcoming from the then emerging area of pharmaceutical biotechnology and for their dedication and commitment over the past two decades to making JPharmSci® THE journal for scientists to publish their most original and most significant scientific findings in pharmaceutical biotechnology.