Our International Connections

Abstract

The American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education has been at the forefront of pharmacy education in the United States for almost 70 years. During that time the Journal has grown from a communication vehicle primarily among deans to an internationally recognized medium with readership among pharmacy faculty members, students, and other health disciplines. It is important that we have a realistic view of our international status and assess the opportunities that are open to us. Four years ago, when the Journal was only distributed in printed version, there were approximately 3000 subscribers, which included a few hundred international subscribers. The number of pharmacy faculty members in the United States at that time was approximately 4,000, indicating that our readership hardly reached all faculty members and represented minimal visibility among international readers. It is likely that print copies were passed from one faculty member to another, but this was not an efficient method of information dissemination and our overall visibility was limited. In January 2003, we began open-access, online publishing. As you know, the Journal is accessible by all without a password. While open-access publication changes the model for financial support of journals, it can greatly expand journal visibility. Over the past 6 months our readership has exceeded 20,000 unique individuals. Given the number of US pharmacy faculty (now about 4,200), this level of usage indicates a large contingent of international readers. At the Journal office, we are also seeing a large increase in international manuscript submissions and general inquiries. What is it about international readership that is important? It greatly expands the influence of our authors. By publishing in AJPE, our authors' work not only commands the attention of the US pharmacy academy but is also viewed throughout the world. As in the United States, many countries are struggling with issues related to medications and are looking to pharmacists to play a greater role in solving these problems. Through international exposure, much of what we are doing in the United States to upgrade pharmacy education becomes available to the world, including research articles, descriptions of new instructional methods, the best practices of our Teacher of the Year honorees, and abstracts from our meetings, as well as AACP council and committee proceedings. Given the great expense of medical publications and limited resources in most countries, an open-access journal such as AJPE is viewed as a unique opportunity for communication and advancement. There is no limit to the influence that our authors can have on pharmacy education throughout the world. Also, by opening channels to international authors, we learn about the best practices that are going on throughout the world and can use them to improve pharmacy education in the United States. Countries with health care delivery models quite different from our own have developed advanced roles for pharmacists, and corresponding instructional models that we would like to have here in the United States. We have already learned much from our Canadian colleagues over many years. Last year our Rufus Lyman Award winners for the best paper published in AJPE in 2004 were from the United Kingdom. Many of our individual colleges have recognized the benefits of international collaboration and have established shared programs and faculty member or student exchanges with colleges of pharmacy outside of the United States. For the Journal, we view the experience of the past few years as just the beginning of our international efforts. We would like to create a forum for more international contributions; most importantly, those that are of general interest and have the potential of influencing pharmacy education in many countries. As we continue to push pharmacy education forward and seek to identify innovation and improvements we should expand our international connections and identify the opportunities for progress.