Nigerian Association of
Pharmacists and Pharmaceutical Scientists in the Americas (NAPPSA) Inc. has
launched a peer reviewed scientific journal, the American Journal of
Pharmacotherapy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (AJPPS).
In a press statement by
NAPPSA to announce the launch, which was signed by the journal’s co-founder and
chair of the Journal Management Board, Dr Anthony Ikeme, the journal is a
culmination of two years of hard work and core part of the NAPPSA 10-Year Growth
Strategy Plan launched in 2020. “NAPPSA now stands as the very first Nigerian
Diasporan professional organization to own her own peer reviewed journal,” Dr
Ikeme said.
The journal has further reinforced
the body’s leadership role and its desire to support global health by enabling
the advancement of pharmaceutical practice, sciences and education, particularly
in its homeland. It also allows the NAPPSA scientific community the opportunity
to help shape the global research agenda. Other key initiatives highlighted in
the roadmap, launched in 2020 by Dr Ikeme as then president, include a NAPPSA Endowment
Fund (NEF), the acquisition of a NAPPSA House in the Washington DC Metropolis and
the set-up of a NAPPSA Research Institute (NRI).
According to NAPPSA, AJPPS
is
an
open-access peer-reviewed journal committed to publishing high-quality articles
in the field of Pharmacotherapy, Public Health, Ethnomedicine, Toxicology, Food
Science, Nutrition, Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Speaking on the
significance of the milestone while expressing his delight and satisfaction with
the feat, Dr Ikeme said NAPPSA has “attained another milestone in its quest to
become one of the respected thought leaders in the evolution of pharmacy and
pharmaceutical science discipline and an important voice for our community.”
According to Dr Ikeme, “This
is a massive accomplishment that we should be very proud of because AJPPS is
not like any other journal. Any individual or group of individuals can set up a
journal, but there is something uniquely special about a professional
organization owning a Peer Review Journal and deploying their collective
intellectual will to the advancement of their profession.”
The association said the
journal, whose editorial board comprises a panel of experts from
pharmaceutical science and allied health, has a highly rigorous
peer-review process that makes sure that manuscripts are scientifically
accurate, relevant, and novel.
The
journal will be edited by Patrick Nwakama, PharmD BCPS Food and Drug
Administration Silver Spring, MD and Ashiwel Undieh, PhD, City University of
New York School of Medicine, New York, USA,
who assured of the highest global ethical standard in line with the Committee on Publication
Ethics (COPE), International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), and World
Association of Medical Editors (WAME), that set standards and provide
guidelines for best practices. The Journal Editorial Board includes prominent
professionals and scientists, including Dr Teresa Pounds (current President of
NAPPSA), Prof. Moji Adeyeye (DG of NAFDAC), and Dr Henrietta Ukwu (Senior Vice
President, Novavax Inc.)
NAPPSA, representing over
7,000 pharmacists, pharmaceutical scientists, pharmaceutical educators in the
Americas, has continued to show leadership and remains a bellwether of critical
intervention initiatives in Nigeria’s fight against the coronavirus pandemic
and the country’s quest to build local capacity for the manufacturing of pharmaceutical
and medical products. In 2020, it took the lead in the donation of coronavirus
pandemic diagnostics, PPEs and other medical consumables to the Nigerian Centre
for Disease Control (NCDC). The association was also instrumental in creating a
pathway for the marketing and distribution of O-Care medical face masks,
produced in Nigeria, in the United States.
Dr Ikeme called on members
and Nigerian-based pharmaceutical scientists and professionals in related
fields “who have the inclination to submit their manuscripts for consideration”
for publication in the journal.
