Editorial Cite This: J. Med. Chem. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
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A Message from the Editors-in-Chief
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he Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (J. Med. Chem.) is regarded as the premier international medicinal chemistry journal thanks to the concerted efforts of the editors, reviewers, and staff and the high-quality research contributions from the authors in the community. We are delighted that J. Med. Chem. continues to see a steady growth in manuscript submissions and impact, which reflects the robust investment in medicinal chemistry research worldwide in both academia and the biotech/pharmaceutical industry. Readers depend on the accuracy of information published in J. Med. Chem., and we put a lot of care and effort into ensuring that we deliver on quality and accuracy. However, we also realize that there are “requirement myths” that we must dispel. As such, we take this opportunity to provide clarification on a number of important issues that authors have often raised with our editorial team.
with a clear biological target(s). It should be emphasized that in vivo animal data are not required for a manuscript to be published in J. Med. Chem.
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REPRODUCIBILITY Scientific reproducibility has become a hot-button topic in the scientific community, as well as for funders and society at large. J. Med. Chem. has long maintained its vigorous scientific standards. J. Med. Chem. requires all important target compounds to be characterized and to meet purity standards of ≥95% with accepted scientific methods as detailed in the Author Guidelines. We also recognize that in some instances, certain target compounds do not meet the ≥95% purity standard. Our approach has been to encourage authors to make all the efforts to meet the purity standard. In some cases, the purity standard cannot be met, and in those instances, we ask our authors to make a request to our editors and to clearly state the reason(s) why the purity standard cannot be met. We do not decline publication simply based on purity standards. We will assess, on a case-by-case basis, if such a level of purity for certain compounds is acceptable for J. Med. Chem. To ensure the reproducibility of all scientific data in our published articles, we require our authors to provide detailed descriptions for reported experiments, including experimental procedures and reagents.
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SCOPE OF THE JOURNAL As stated in our Author Guidelines, J. Med. Chem. invites original medicinal chemistry research contributions exploring chemical−biological relationships. The primary objective of J. Med. Chem. is to publish studies that contribute to an understanding of the relationship between molecular structure and biological activity or mode of action. Although J. Med. Chem. has been historically focused on novel bioactive small molecules, diagnostic agents, labeled ligands employed as pharmacological tools, and peptides, the medicinal chemistry field has broadened significantly in scope going beyond small synthetic compounds and natural products and on to modified peptides and proteins, antibody−drug conjugates (ADCs), and vaccines. Recognizing this, we welcome manuscripts investigating chemical−biological relationships of large molecules, including proteins, DNAs, RNAs, and ADCs as applied in drug discovery and development.
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IN VITRO AND ANIMAL STUDIES In addition to sharing comprehensive methods and statistical tools, it is crucial that authors are transparent in sharing information on their cellular and animal studies. We take this opportunity to lay out our requirements for research involving cellular and animal experiments. For cellular experiments, the origin of the cells, as well as culture conditions and passage numbers, should be specified. The source and catalog number for all biological reagents such as proteins, antibodies, and siRNA should be provided. The number of replications and independent experiments should be indicated. For animal experiments, the source, sex, age, species, strain, dose, route of administration, and number of animals used in each experiment should be provided. All of the animal experiments should use an institutionally approved animal protocol, and such information should be provided, along with the statistical analysis method used to analyze the data.
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NOVELTY AND IMPACT J. Med. Chem. focuses on publishing original research articles and Perspectives articles, which are timely and significantly advance the field of medicinal chemistry. Accordingly, when making a decision to decline or accept a submitted manuscript, our editors consider not only whether the study meets all the technical requirements specified in the Author Guidelines but also whether the study represents the cutting-edge of medicinal chemistry research. For example, for a new therapeutic target or a new research area, a study reporting the discovery of tool compounds enabling further investigation of the target and its potential role in human disease may represent cutting-edge research and warrants publication in J. Med. Chem. In comparison, a study reporting structure−activity relationships of a class of compounds for a well-established therapeutic target will need considerable novelty in the chemical class and/ or major improvements over previously reported compounds. Although J. Med. Chem. in the past had published manuscripts reporting compounds with biological activity but without a defined molecular target(s), J. Med. Chem. has now mainly published manuscripts reporting investigations of compounds © XXXX American Chemical Society
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DRUG ANNOTATIONS Molecules that have been advanced into human clinical trials or have achieved approval by the health authorities for marketing occupy a very special place in the hearts of medicinal chemists because so many hurdles have to be overcome in the process. J. Med. Chem. launched a new manuscript type in 2014, named the Drug Annotations Series, with the objective to provide medicinal chemistry case studies of molecules that were undergoing clinical trials or had
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.9b00235 J. Med. Chem. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
Editorial
achieved approval by the health authorities. To distinguish the Drug Annotations Series from other contributions to J. Med. Chem., we were interested in manuscripts that cover one development candidate and the SAR story related to the identification, optimization, and preclinical advancement of this agent and derivatives thereof. We encouraged authors to highlight medicinal chemistry challenges that were addressed as lessons learned that could benefit readers in their own research. We have published over 50 articles in the Drug Annotations Series, which were greatly enjoyed by our readers. However, in spite of the efforts made by our contributors, the human clinical information available at the time of submission for most of the Drug Annotations Series has often been limited. While we continue to encourage our contributors to include human clinical information, we have now revised the Drug Annotations section in the J. Med. Chem. Author Guidelines to indicate that human clinical data are not absolutely necessary, and manuscripts can focus on the drug discovery story from the bench to current status. We hope that this important modification in our Author Guidelines will significantly increase the number of submission of articles in the Drug Annotations Series. We invite you to reach out to our Drug Annotations Editors if you have particular drugs in mind or have questions about the series. (View editorial at DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.9b00038).
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CONFLICT-OF-INTEREST DISCLOSURE To ensure transparency, J. Med. Chem. requires authors to disclose financial interest and other potential conflicts-ofinterest in manuscript submissions, which will be published under Author Information as a Note. Shaomeng Wang* Gunda I. Georg* Editors-in-Chief, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Authors
*S.W.: e-mail, wang-offi
[email protected]. *G.I.G.: e-mail, georg-offi
[email protected]. ORCID
Shaomeng Wang: 0000-0002-8782-6950 Gunda I. Georg: 0000-0002-8900-9460 Notes
Views expressed in this editorial are those of the authors and not necessarily the views of the ACS. We also take this opportunity to thank our readers on behalf of all J. Med. Chem. editors for their loyal following, the reviewers, Editorial Advisory Board members, and the authors for their constant support which allows J. Med. Chem. to serve the community at large.
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.9b00235 J. Med. Chem. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
