Establishing a presence in the digital age

Article Outline

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This introduction was crafted on my birthday when I was feeling a bit more aged than I was digital. Perhaps reflection comes a bit more easily on days like this, so I will parlay this midlife reflection into a brief discussion about the future of Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning (CPTL) as we establish additional presence in the digital age.

Although I am grounded by most of the traits identified with the baby-boomer generation, where I choose to “live” daily has become increasingly digital in nature. This change in environ brings an increasing dependence on internet connectivity and a longing for the feeling of interconnectedness that e-mail, Facebook status updates, and tweets summarily fail to provide. Despite these drawbacks, my students have shown me the value of meeting them where they “exist” to facilitate their learning. I certainly can't ignore that the next generation of CPTL authors and reviewers are firmly established in this digital environment.

Primarily an online journal, CPTL already “exists” where the vast majority of our readership interacts with the literature. Now that three complete issues have been published, applications to abstracting and indexing services are anticipated so that our readership, as well as potential authors and reviewers, can more easily search CPTL content. Additional electronic access will eventually contribute to establishing various bibliometric parameters, including an impact factor.

At a recent Elsevier Editors Conference held in Chicago, Illinois, an interesting graphic was presented that showed that there are significantly fewer peer reviewers coming from China and other East Asian countries compared with the number of manuscripts being submitted for publication consideration. Quite the opposite is true in the United States, although if you ask most editors, finding suitable peer reviewers is a constant struggle. In the absence of being abstracted/indexed, CPTL Associate Editor Dr. Jeff Cain has expanded our digital presence by creating both a Facebook page and a Twitter account. A LinkedIn group was previously set up when CPTL was initially launched several years ago. Tips for manuscript submission and reviewer evaluation, calls for topic-specific papers, and solicitation for Editorial Board members have or will appear as status updates, tweets, or discussion items. Starting with the manuscripts accepted for publication in this issue, authors will have the opportunity to have their manuscript titles announced via these social media outlets ahead of publication. We will continue to have as many of our manuscripts available online as “Articles (in press)” ahead of print publication as are possible. We hope that an increased presence in social media outlets will broaden the visibility of CPTL, thereby enhancing the number of potential authors and reviewers from within the academy.

As always, we hope that you find one or more of the articles in this issue of interest. Perhaps you will give us the opportunity to disseminate the results of your scholarly activity and in so doing, enhance the literature in pharmacy education.