Editorial

CJHP Joins the International Collaboration of Pharmacy Journal Editors (ICPJE), Formerly Known as the “Granada Group”

Stephen Shalansky
To cite: Shalansky S. CJHP joins the International Collaboration of Pharmacy Journal Editors (ICPJE), formerly known as the “Granada Group” [editorial]. Can J Hosp Pharm. 2024;77(4):e3731. doi: 10.4212/cjhp.3731

The Canadian Journal of Hospital Pharmacy (CJHP) has joined a group of international clinical and social pharmacy journals, which recently adopted the formal title International Collaboration of Pharmacy Journal Editors (ICPJE). The ICPJE’s collective aim is to increase the quality and impact factors of pharmacy practice journals. The journal editors first met in Granada, Spain, in 2022 to discuss these principles, where they developed the Granada Statements, consisting of 18 recommendations under 6 general topic areas.

Complete descriptions of the statements are available in a review article simultaneously published in several of the ICPJE journals,1–14 and a more detailed description of the ICPJE, formerly known as the Granada Group of journals, is available on their website (https://granadastatements.weebly.com/). In brief, the Granada Statements focus on the following concepts.

The first topic is the “use of appropriate terminology” to better align with the US National Library of Medicine’s (NLM’s) Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). Many disciplines outside of clinical pharmacy have traditionally used more exact technical terminology and thus have more directly influenced the development of MeSH. The ICPJE has discussed several strategies to define terms that could be consistently used by pharmacy authors and perhaps lobby the NLM to revise the MeSH system and/or adopt these terms.

The second topic is “impactful abstracts”. The use of more consistent terminology in manuscripts submitted to pharmacy practice journals, particularly in article abstracts (which are a specific focus of Medical Text Indexer First Line Indexing*), should increase the score calculated by several software platforms that measure a journal’s impact factor. Journals with higher impact factors are more appealing to researchers deciding upon the journal to which they will submit their manuscripts.

The third Granada Statements topic is “required peer reviews”. CJHP has historically had a very robust peer review process, but it has not been easy to maintain, for various reasons: it can be difficult to recruit reviewers, reviewers sometimes get asked to review more often than they prefer, and authors can become disillusioned when the review process takes longer than they anticipated. Researchers should expect to be regularly involved in the review process, and organizational leaders should encourage this activity among their staff.

The fourth topic is “journal scattering”. There is evidence that pharmacy practice authors submit their research to a wide variety of journals, often in disciplines outside of clinical or social pharmacy. Authors should be encouraged to submit their “best work” to pharmacy practice journals to increase the impact factor and visibility of these journals.

This leads to the fifth topic, “selecting the most appropriate pharmacy practice journal”. Even among pharmacy practice journals, there are different scopes and foci. The ICPJE has worked on processes to ensure that authors whose manuscripts are not accepted by one journal are encouraged to submit to other pharmacy practice journals whose scope is better aligned with the main themes of their submission.

The sixth and final Granada Statements topic is “using metrics wisely”. Traditional academic metric systems have often undervalued the scientific contributions of clinical and social pharmacy practice research and review articles. Alternative impact scores have been discussed in both the United States and Europe. The ICPJE intends to explore these approaches and other options based on the principles outlined above.

CJHP will be publishing a brief statement on its website describing the common goals of the ICPJE journals as they relate to the Granada Statements. The underlying motivation for CJHP joining the ICPJE is to increase the awareness and impact of pharmacy practice research, ultimately improving such metrics for CJHP. This initiative should attract more high-quality manuscripts, authors, and reviewers. Along the way, the CJHP Editorial Board and readers can learn about the perspectives and priorities of other clinical pharmacy journals and look for opportunities to further advance initiatives identified as priorities for CJHP. The CJHP Editorial Board feels that the ICPJE is an important initiative for improving the standards of pharmacy practice research and publication for our journal and that it will help advance the profession of pharmacy around the world.

References

1 Fernandez-Llimos F, Desselle S, Stewart D, Garcia-Cardenas V, Babar ZUD, Bond C, et al. Improving the quality of publications in and advancing the paradigms of clinical and social pharmacy practice research: the Granada statements. Res Social Adm Pharm. 2023; 19(5):830–5.
Crossref PubMed

2 Fernandez-Llimos F, Desselle S, Stewart D, Garcia-Cardenas V, Babar ZUD, Bond C, et al. Improving the quality of publications in and advancing the paradigms of clinical and social pharmacy practice research: the Granada statements. Int J Clin Pharm. 2023;45(2):285–92.
Crossref PubMed PMC

3 Fernandez-Llimos F, Desselle S, Stewart D, Garcia-Cardenas V, Babar ZUD, Bond C, et al. Improving the quality of publications in and advancing the paradigms of clinical and social pharmacy practice research: the Granada statements. Explor Res Clin Soc Pharm. 2023; 9:100229.
PubMed PMC

4 Fernandez-Llimos F, Desselle S, Stewart D, Garcia-Cardenas V, Babar ZUD, Bond C, et al. Improving the quality of publications in and advancing the paradigms of clinical and social pharmacy practice research: the Granada statements. Int J Pharm Pract. 2023;31(2):119–25.
PubMed

5 Fernandez-Llimos F, Desselle S, Stewart D, Garcia-Cardenas V, Babar ZUD, Bond C, et al. Improving the quality of publications in and advancing the paradigms of clinical and social pharmacy practice research: the Granada statements. Eur J Hosp Pharm. 2024;31(5):483–8.
Crossref

6 Fernandez-Llimos F, Desselle S, Stewart D, Garcia-Cardenas V, Babar ZUD, Bond C, et al. Improving the quality of publications in and advancing the paradigms of clinical and social pharmacy practice research: the Granada statements. J Pharm Policy Pract. 2023;16(1):43.
Crossref PubMed PMC

7 Fernandez-Llimos F, Desselle S, Stewart D, Garcia-Cardenas V, Babar ZUD, Bond C, et al. Improving the quality of publications in and advancing the paradigms of clinical and social pharmacy practice research: the Granada statements. Farm Hosp. 2023;47(3):133–8. Includes abstract in Spanish.
Crossref PubMed

8 Fernandez-Llimos F, Desselle S, Stewart D, Garcia-Cardenas V, Babar ZUD, Bond C, et al. Improving the quality of publications in and advancing the entire paradigms of clinical and social pharmacy practice research: the Granada statements. Ars Pharm. 2023;64(2): 161–72. Includes abstract in Spanish.
Crossref

9 Fernandez-Llimos F, Desselle S, Stewart D, Garcia-Cardenas V, Babar ZUD, Bond C, et al. Improving the quality of publications in and advancing the paradigms of clinical and social pharmacy practice research: the Granada statements. Pharm Educ. 2023;23(1):109–17.
Crossref

10 Fernandez-Llimos F, Desselle S, Stewart D, Garcia-Cardenas V, Babar ZUD, Bond C, et al. Improving the quality of publications in and advancing the paradigms of clinical and social pharmacy practice research: the Granada statements. Rev Bras Farm Hosp Serv Saúde. 2023;14(1):913. Includes abstract in Portuguese.
Crossref

11 Fernandez-Llimos F, Desselle S, Stewart D, Garcia-Cardenas V, Babar ZUD, Bond C, et al. Mejora de la calidad de las publicaciones y avance en los paradigmas de la investigación en farmacia práctica clínica y social: la declaración de Granada / Improving the quality of publications in and advancing the paradigms of clinical and social pharmacy practice research: the Granada statements. Pharm Care Esp. 2023; 25(2):65–99. Article in Spanish and English.
Crossref

12 Fernandez-Llimos F, Desselle S, Stewart D, Garcia-Cardenas V, Babar ZUD, Bond C, et al. Improving the quality of publications in and advancing the entire paradigms of clinical and social pharmacy practice research: the Granada statements. J Pharm Clin. 2023;42(2):53–60.

13 Fernandez-Llimos F, Desselle S, Stewart D, Garcia-Cardenas V, Babar Z, Bond C, et al. Mejorando la calidad de las publicaciones y avanzando en todos los paradigmas de la investigación de la farmacia asistencial, clínica y social: las declaraciones de Granada [Improving the quality of publications in and advancing the paradigms of clinical and social pharmacy practice research: the Granada statements]. Farm Comunitarios. 2023;15(4):31–8. Article in Spanish, with English abstract.
Crossref PubMed PMC

14 Fernandez-Llimos F, Desselle S, Stewart D, Garcia-Cardenas V, Babar Z, Bond C, et al. Improving the quality of publications in and advancing the paradigms of clinical and social pharmacy practice research: the Granada statements. J Pharm Health Serv Res. 2023; 14(3):237–43.

Stephen Shalansky, BSc(Pharm), PharmD, ACPR, FCSHP, is the Clinical Coordinator of the Pharmacy Department, St Paul’s Hospital, and is a Clinical Professor in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia. He is also the Editor of the Canadian Journal of Hospital Pharmacy.

Address correspondence to: Dr Stephen Shalansky, Pharmacy Department, St Paul’s Hospital, 1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver BC V6Z 1Y6, email: sshalansky@providencehealth.bc.ca

(Return to Top)

* Medical Text Indexer First Line Indexing is a system used by NLM to partially automate its standard indexing process. This system provides initial indexing for a citation, which is then reviewed and modified as needed by a human indexer.

Competing interests: None declared.

Canadian Journal of Hospital Pharmacy, VOLUME 77, NUMBER 4, 2024