Introduction: JAPhA centennial celebration

Abstract

The year 1912 was a propitious one for the American Pharmaceutical (now Pharmacists) Association (APhA) with the long-awaited arrival of the Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association. After years of debate and planning, the Association launched a new monthly journal designed to replace the publication of the annual Proceedings of the American Pharmaceutical Association and expand the scope of the short-lived monthly Bulletin of the American Pharmaceutical Association, thus building on an already long tradition of professional publication. From its very beginnings, APhA embraced the need to widely communicate information that would be of value to all pharmacists. In 1851, a small group of representatives from several colleges of pharmacy met in New York to discuss the continuing problem of the importation of adulterated drugs. Of signal importance, the group decided to meet again in Philadelphia in 12 months with the purpose of establishing a national organization of pharmacists. At the 1852 meeting, a committee composed of William Procter Jr., Samuel Colcord, and George Coggeshall recommended that the proceedings of the meeting be prepared and circulated broadly.1 The original Association constitution specified that the duties of the officers included the collection and dissemination of what transpired at the annual meetings.2 The Proceedings were first published in 1852 and continued until 1911. By the turn of the century, it was clear that the Association needed something more timely than an annual publication. In 1906, the Bulletin was initiated as a monthly publication in addition to the ongoing annual Proceedings. Although now mainly forgotten, this shortlived publication provided experience in publishing association information in a timely manner rather than a oncea-year account of reports and business items presented at the annual meeting. The role of the editor took on a much different scope than was required for the annual publication. Business issues, such as advertising and circulation, were important for perhaps the first time. Even as the Bulletin was introduced, plans were well under way to supplant it with a more ambitious monthly journal and discontinue the Proceedings. The first issue of the Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association appeared in January 1912 with the stated objective “to furnish a more direct and speedy means of communication between the Association and its members than is possible through the columns of other pharmaceutical journals.”3 It immediately became an important resource for pharmacy. Articles from all components of pharmacy (i.e., practice, education, manufacturing, research, governance) were welcome, including those with views markedly different from the editor’s. Organizations, including the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) and the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, which met concurrently with APhA, used the Journal to keep their members informed of progress and issues. With the launch of the Journal, it was decided that an important component of the Proceedings, the annual Progress of Pharmacy would be split off and published as an annual Yearbook of the American Pharmaceutical Association. The Yearbook was published from 1912 until 1934, when the utility of the content and the costs of publication led to its discontinuance. By the late 1930s, it was determined that the structure of the Journal had become too unwieldy to meet the needs of the rapidly changing profession. In 1937, AACP initiated its own journal (American