Publication Guide
The British Pharmacological Society (BPS) is the UK's learned society for pharmacology. It was founded in Oxford in 1931 - a small group of pharmacologists brought together on the initiative of Professor James Andrew Gunn - and is today headquartered in London. Three of its members have gone on to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: Henry Hallett Dale, James Black, and John Vane.
Unlike large commercial houses, the Society publishes a focused portfolio of exactly three peer-reviewed journals, all produced in partnership with Wiley and hosted on Wiley Online Library: the British Journal of Pharmacology (BJP), the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology (BJCP), and the fully open-access Pharmacology Research & Perspectives (PR&P), which is co-owned with the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET). This guide covers which journal fits your manuscript, open-access routes and APCs, peer review, and how to submit.
Which BPS journal fits your paper?
| You're most likely to... | Choose this journal |
|---|---|
| Report experimental pharmacology - receptor, molecular, cellular, in vivo, or translational work | British Journal of Pharmacology (BJP) - the Society's flagship, established 1946, covering all aspects of experimental pharmacology. 2024 Journal Impact Factor about 7.7. |
| Study drug action, safety, or dosing in humans - clinical pharmacology, therapeutics, pharmacokinetics | British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology (BJCP) - established 1974; the clinical sister journal, bridging medicine, clinical research, and the pharmaceutical sector. |
| Want a fully open-access venue for sound preclinical or clinical pharmacology, including negative and confirmatory results | Pharmacology Research & Perspectives (PR&P) - Gold OA since 2013, co-published by BPS, ASPET, and Wiley. |
What the Society publishes
- British Journal of Pharmacology - founded in 1946 as the British Journal of Pharmacology and Chemotherapy, taking its current name in 1968. Publishes research papers, reviews, and themed issues across experimental pharmacology, and produces The Concise Guide to PHARMACOLOGY with IUPHAR - a companion to the free IUPHAR/BPS Guide to PHARMACOLOGY database.
- British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology - founded 1974; a monthly journal on all aspects of drug action in humans, from first-in-human studies to pharmacoepidemiology and prescribing policy.
- Pharmacology Research & Perspectives - launched 2013 as a fully open-access journal welcoming original research across preclinical and clinical pharmacology, including replication studies and well-powered negative results.
All three journals are indexed in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science.
Open access & APCs
| Route | Applies to | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Gold OA (fully open access) | Pharmacology Research & Perspectives | APC listed up to ~$4,280 (also quoted as EUR 3,130 / GBP 2,700); CC BY, CC BY-NC, or CC BY-NC-ND |
| Hybrid OA | BJP and BJCP | Optional per-article OA fee, typically in the ~4,300 range - confirm on Wiley's current APC list before submitting |
| Subscription (no fee) | BJP and BJCP | Publish at no cost; articles become freely available after a delay (typically 12 months) |
| Green OA (self-archiving) | All titles | Accepted-manuscript archiving under Wiley's standard self-archiving policy |
| Read & Publish agreements | All titles | APCs covered for corresponding authors at institutions with a Wiley transformative agreement - check the ESAC registry or your library |
Wiley applies its waiver and discount policy for authors in Research4Life-eligible countries, and APCs are revised annually, so always verify the current fee on the journal's Wiley page.
Peer review
BPS journals use single-anonymized peer review as the default model: reviewers know the authors' identities, but not vice versa. BJP is known for its rigorous experimental-design and data-analysis requirements, including its published guidance on statistics and reproducibility that authors must follow. Editorial decisions rest with academic editors-in-chief - currently Peter Ferdinandy (BJP), Serge Cremers (BJCP), and Jennifer Martin (PR&P).
How to submit
- Pick the journal. Match your manuscript scope using the table above - experimental (BJP), human/clinical (BJCP), or Gold OA across both (PR&P).
- Read the author guidelines. Each journal has title-specific requirements on Wiley Online Library; BJP additionally requires compliance with its design-and-analysis and nomenclature guidance (drug and target names should follow the IUPHAR/BPS Guide to PHARMACOLOGY).
- Prepare your manuscript. Use the journal's Word or LaTeX template on SciSpace; references follow the journal's author-year style.
- Submit online. BPS journals have historically used ScholarOne Manuscripts; Wiley has been migrating titles to its newer Research Exchange submission platform, so follow the submission link on the journal's homepage.
- Respond to review. Expect at least one revision round; decisions are communicated through the submission system.
Ethics and integrity
As a society publisher working through Wiley, BPS journals follow COPE guidance on publication ethics, retractions, and authorship disputes. Clinical work in BJCP must comply with the Declaration of Helsinki and trial-registration requirements; animal studies in BJP must follow ARRIVE reporting guidelines. Data-availability statements are expected, and the Society actively promotes reproducibility standards in pharmacological research.
Why publish with a society journal?
Surplus from BPS publishing supports the Society's charitable work - meetings, education, and career development for pharmacologists - rather than shareholder returns. Authors get society-run editorial boards of working pharmacologists, alongside Wiley's production, indexing, and open-access infrastructure, including transformative-agreement coverage at thousands of institutions.
