Drugs and Drug Candidates: Year in Review

First of all, I would like to wish you, readers, authors, referees, Editorial Board Members, and colleagues of the editorial offices, a Happy New Year filled with plenty of familial joys and professional achievements. The success of Drugs and Drug Candidates, we owe it to you. Thank YOU.

1. Looking Back on 2023

What a large step since the inaugural announcement [1] of the launch of Drugs and Drug Candidates (DDC)! At the end of 2023, the Editorial Board of DDC gathered thirty-six eminent members representing sixteen countries on four continents and narrowly reached parity between women and men.

With Volume 2, Drugs and Drug Candidates achieved its first full year of publications at a rhythm of almost one paper per week. This is an encouraging situation that illustrates the confidence of the authors in this new journal, despite the numerous solicitations they receive from competing editors and publishers. Noteworthily, there is a well equilibrated balance between research articles (44%) and reviews (56%). Targeting high-quality submissions is one of our goals, so that it is not astonishing that our rejection rate actually exceeds 60% of the submissions.

The journal is divided into seven sections and each of them has attracted authors.

• Those sections are the following:

• Marketed Drugs;
• In Silico Approaches in Drug Discovery;
• Medicinal Chemistry and Preliminary Screening;
• Preclinical Research;
• Clinical Research;
• Intellectual Property, Regulatory Affairs, and Market Analysis;
• General.

• The Section Medicinal Chemistry and Preliminary Screening offers four topical collections:

• Anti-Parasite Drug Discovery

        Collection Editor: Philippe Loiseau

• Bioinorganic Chemistry in Drug Discovery

        Collection Editors: Tanja Soldatović, Snežana Jovanović-Stević

• Chirality in Drugs and Drug Candidates

        Collection Editors: Carla Fernandes, Maria Emília De Sousa

• Drug Candidates from Natural Sources

        Collection Editors: Fatma Sezer Senol Deniz, Duygu Sevim

• Two Special Issues were launched in 2023 and will remain open in 2024:

• Drugs of the Kallikrein–Kinin System

        Editor: François Marceau

• Fighting SARS-CoV-2 and Related Viruses

        Editors: Jean Jacques Vanden Eynde, Annie Mayence

Launching a new journal is not easy work, and it is necessary to improve its reach not only by inviting colleagues but also by disseminating announcements during scientific meetings. A booth dedicated to DDC enabled Annie Mayence (Editorial Board Member) and Jean Jacques Vanden Eynde (Editor-in-Chief) to present the journal during the 30th Young Research Fellows Meeting, organized in Paris (France; February 2023) by the Société de Chimie Thérapeutique of France. Paul Hyman (Editorial Board Member) kindly promoted DDC at the 25th Biennial Evergreen International Phage Meeting held in Olympia (WA, USA; August 2023). Our journal was also an official sponsor of the 31st Annual GP2A Medicinal Chemistry Conference, which took place in Marseille (France; August 2023). Media partnerships allowed researchers to discover DDC during the 57th International Conference on Medicinal Chemistry—RICT 2023 (Lille, France; July 2023)—and the 10th EFMC Young Medicinal Chemists’ Symposium (Zagreb, Croatia; September 2023).

2. Looking Forward to 2024

We can make numerous New Year wishes centered on the growth of DDC. We hope to increase the number of publications and to strengthen our visibility in the landscape of scientific conferences and journals. Our promotional budget is limited, but offering travel grants to reward high-quality work will be our focus throughout the year.

Media partnerships with different conferences have already been arranged and can be found on our website [2]. DDC will be represented at the 15th National Organic Chemistry Meeting and the 8th National Medicinal Chemistry Meeting, which will take place at the University of Algarve (Faro, Portugal; January 2024). DDC will also be part of the delegation of MDPI at the National Spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (New Orleans, LA, USA; March 2024) and at the 4th Molecules Medicinal Chemistry Symposium organized in Barcelona (Spain; April 2024).

As you can see, our journal is animated by a limitless enthusiasm to assure its success. But the target cannot be reached without your confidence and your support. If you have any suggestions or any partnership opportunities, do not hesitate to contact us!