It is an obvious fact that researchers need to publish their work in high-visibility, high-impact scientific journals, not just for the purpose of career advancement but also to ensure that their results reach a wide audience.

Some years ago, the SEFH established the strategic goal of including its journal Farmacia Hospitalaria (Farm Hosp) in the Journal Citation Report (JCR) of the WOS—which includes the most prestigious scientific journals and to get its impact factor (IF) within the Pharmacy and Pharmacology category. A journal's IF reflects its visibility in the academic world and is essentially a measure of the number of citations that its articles have received from other authors in other journals.

This strategic objective involves a long and complex process that requires adherence to quality criteria, both quantitative and qualitative.

The Editorial Committee of Farm Hosp—established in 2017—define a Strategic Plan dedicated to achieving this objective. A Scientific Committee was also to provide support for the outlined strategies.

The initial step was to secure inclusion in the WOS Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), requiring us to fulfil 24 qualitative criteria. Farm Hosp was included in the ESCI in 2019.

Over the last 4years, the journal has been under continuous evaluation, and as of June 2023, Farm Hosp has been listed in the JCR with an IF level of 1.4. The IF of Farm Hosp has steadily risen every year, progressing from 0.32 in 2018 to its current level of 1.4.

The strategic plan to raise the visibility of the journal has been the key to achieving this target and continues to be crucial to our plans to consolidate and improve on this year's results. In this regard, social networks have been essential tools. The X.com (previously Twitter) account @farm_hosp continues to grow in its number of followers, which currently stands at 5.890, having grown by 15% between June 2022 and July 2023. Compared to 2017 data, the number of followers has increased by 36.4%.

Furthermore, there was an average of 15 posts per month on LinkedIn referencing articles published in the journal in 2022.

The journal's website is another relevant source of visibility, receiving 114,395 visits in 2022. The majority of users were from Spain (41.46%), followed by those from Latin American countries such as Mexico (12.23%), Peru (8.49%), Colombia (6.33%), and Argentina (3.88%). A significant percentage came from the USA (5.46%).

Another valuable approach to increasing our visibility has been the publication of monographic issues encompassing new developments in research and healthcare practice. Since 2022, three such issues have been published; the most recent one, focussing on telepharmacy, was published in December 2022. We are currently preparing a new monograph issue entitled “New challenges and roles for the hospital pharmacist”, which will be published in the first quarter of 2024.

In addition, Search Engine Optimisation serves as a valuable tool to increase the visibility of manuscripts, and we continue to use this approach for each of the articles published.

In March 2022, the journal started publishing a newsletter, designed to present each issue's articles in an engaging format facilitating easy comprehension. To disseminate the articles more widely, we issue professional and/or general press releases. Seven of these were issued between June 2022 and June 2023.

In collaboration with the SEFH Continuing Education Director, we conducted two workshops in 2023 as part of the Continuing Education Plan to raise awareness of the Strategic Plan and the role of a scientific journal Editor.

Other visibility strategies include fostering relationships with professionals from other pharmaceutical fields and from other countries. Thus, we form part of the Group of Editors in Journals on Pharmacy Practice, which started at the Granada Conference in June 2022. This group currently covers 11 Open Access journals. The aim of the conference and the resulting Granada Statements was, and remains, to increase the visibility and quality of articles in social pharmacy and pharmacy practice. The result of these efforts was the special article “Improving the quality of publications in and advancing the paradigms of clinical and social pharmacy practice research: The Granada Statements”, which was published in all the participating journals. (Farmacia Hospitalaria 47 (2023) T133–T138. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.farma.2023.04.001).

At the suggestion of the SEFH Board, a similar document entitled “Proposed lines of work between the journal Farmacia Hospitalaria and the ASHP” was formulated to facilitate collaborative analysis between the two societies.

Naturally, we continue to conduct a rigorous peer review process to improve the quality of articles published in Farm Hosp. The type of manuscripts received in 2022 can be broken down as follows: originals (49.17%), special articles (16.57%), reviews (14.9%), brief reports (4.42%), clinical cases (4.41%), and editorials (3.31%).

The average acceptance rate for manuscripts following peer review was 42.54%, a figure consistent with rates observed in previous years.

It is noteworthy that, in 2022, 21.88% of authors were non-Spanish, indicating a significant increase of 83.68% compared to the figures from 2018.

We have a database of reviewers, including hospital pharmacy specialists, experts in various fields of knowledge, and doctors from various specialties.

In January 2023, the Elsevier publishing company assumed publication of Farm Hosp. Consequently, several changes have been needed to adapt our journal to the standards of the new publisher.

To reiterate, the inclusion of Farm Hosp in the JCR Index with an IF level of 1.4 is a great achievement for the SEFH, our scientific society. This means that Farm Hosp is now a member of the most prestigious group of scientific journals in the world of science, which will undoubtedly increase its visibility both nationally and internationally. It also means that SEFH members have an internationally recognised medium in which to publish their research.

These achievements have been made possible thanks to the dedication and continuous efforts of the members of the Editorial Committee, the support of the SEFH Board, the diligent work of the reviewers, and trust on the part of the authors to publish the results of their research in Farm Hosp.

Nonetheless, we remain committed to increasing the IF, and improving the quality, novelty, and attractiveness of our publications. We also remain dedicated to disseminating the results of the outstanding research groups within our scientific society, as well as those from other specialties collaborating with hospital pharmacists in their daily healthcare practice. Our final goal is to position our journal as a benchmark publication in the field of hospital pharmacy.

It is very likely that Farm Hosp will soon become included in the Science Citation Index Expanded of the WOS Core Collection in the Q4. This is all the more reason to persist in our efforts regarding the established Strategic Plan.

We are counting on everyone to ensure that Farm Hosp continues to advance along this path.