This blog is part of our Research Roundup series, hearing from the Editors-in-Chief of our three journals, Physiology Reports, Experimental Physiology and The Journal of Physiology each month. Their blogs are featured in our Research Roundup, a monthly newsletter, summarising the recent research published in our family of journals.
Professor Damian M. Bailey
Editor-in-Chief, Experimental Physiology
Happy New Year to all! I hope you’re reading this blog in the very best of health and cheer, fully recharged and ready for all that 2025 will bring. The festive break gives us the opportunity to spend precious time with family and friends, and that rare occasion to reflect on the year’s achievements. It was a busy one for Experimental Physiology (EP) and I’d like to formally thank the Editorial Board and Editorial Staff for their hard work, high spirits and engagement: we really do have a great team and it’s been a joy to work with you all!
An audit of EP’s performance reveals that our overall growth is positive, which is encouraging as our (inevitable) recovery post pandemic, and flip to Open Access in January 2023, continues. The volume of both submissions and acceptances in 2024 have exceeded those reported in 2023. We can attribute this to a number of strategic changes that include: increased volume of transfers from The Journal of Physiology (JP) led by Professor Kim Barrett, to whom I am indebted; change in our editorial strategy to work more closely with authors to help them achieve the ‘quality bar’ required for publication, and higher proportion of commissioned content via our Special Issue pipeline bolstered by the full support of The Physiological Society’s in-house publishing team, and commissioning tools offered by our publisher, Wiley.
Establishing a robust pipeline of special issues is one of EP’s core strategies that we are actively expanding through more extensive collaboration with our Editorial Board, as well as new initiatives including our Future Leader Scheme launched in summer 2024. And on that note, we’re looking forward to working with Drs Sophie Broome, Callum Brownstein, Daniel Craighead and Fabio Sarto who have just started their terms! Please reach out to discuss any ideas you may have for a Special Issue (ephjournal@physoc.org) and once crystallised, please complete the online proposal form.
I’m pleased to report that there has been a great deal of interest in our series of editorials dedicated to ‘The physiology of lived experiences’, a concept, originally conceived by our former Editor-in-Chief (EiC) and TPS President-Elect Professor Mike Tipton. As a gentle reminder, these editorials seek to combine personal experience with a review of the physiology underpinning that experience, to help demonstrate the broad relevance and integrated translational impact of physiology. Please take a look at Professor Tipton’s ‘Any old iron, man’ selected as an Editor’s Pick and reach out if you want to discuss any ideas you may have. These editorials will help encourage discourse and bring out the fun of physiology!
Publication of our first ‘complete’ Registered Report in physiology, including both a Protocol and Results in combination with a recent editorial helping put this category into clearer conceptual perspective has resulted in a number of new submissions. This is an excellent opportunity that I encourage you to take full advantage of and stands testament to our commitment to improve how research is constructed, assessed, reported and incentivised.
You may also be aware that our family of TPS journals is growing and I’d like to extend a personal welcome to Professors Colleen Clancy and Craig Sale who are the inaugural EiCs of The Journal of Precision Medicine: Health and Disease and The Journal of Nutritional Physiology, respectively. These new journals have been selected to compliment and not compete against our existing journals and will bring additional exciting opportunities to the wider physiological community. We’re keen to support one another and explore collaborative opportunities to better harness the power of physiology.
In closing, we are welcoming nominations for our 2025 Mid-Career Researcher Prize (closes 28 February 2025). The winner of this annual prize will publish their Review article in EP and will receive a prize of £1,000. The two best runners-up will each receive £500 each and will also be invited to submit a Review. Full details of this award including eligibility, article format information, judging process and how to apply can be found here.
Best wishes to you all.