Highly Commended Paper of the Year 2025

The inaugural International Journal of Pharmacy Practice (IJPP) Paper of the Year 2024 Award. This Award aims to recognize the most significant work published in the IJPP in the preceding year. Papers are shortlisted based on quantitative metrics such as article views, Altmetric scores, usage, and citations and then voted on by a judging panel comprising the eight Associate Editors of the journal based on the following criteria: topicality and originality, appropriateness of methodology and rigor of method, and potential to influence policy and/or professional practice/future research approaches. The judging panel were impressed by the quality and importance of the shortlisted papers and reflecting this the following four were awarded ‘Highly Commended’, this included, Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of community pharmacists providing over-the-counter emergency hormonal contraception: a scoping review by Ruth A. Nona et al. (https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpp/riae062) [5] The scoping review highlights the need to improve pharmacists training while delivering emergency hormonal contraception. ‘Pharmacists displayed positive attitudes but remained conservative about supplying ECPs to adolescents and third parties.’ The shortlisted papers, selected on the basis of objective criteria, serendipitously represent an interesting snapshot of pharmacy practice research today. Three of the papers report systematic reviews of the literature, conducted well, in accordance with an established method. Given the rapidly expanding volume of published research a systematic assessment of what is already known on a topic is an essential first step to undertake before embarking on new research. One of the other two papers is based on observational data, demonstrating a structured and reproducible approach to selecting cases to evaluate against a set of predetermined characteristics. The other is an in-depth qualitative interview study, reported well using the COREQ checklist. The topics across the five papers are also of interest highlighting how pharmacists can contribute to environmental sustainability, support patients at the end of life, improve sexual health, confirm patients’ positive views on extending role of pharmacists in delivering front line care, and provide objective evidence on why we should be aware of some of the caveats associated with AI. We thank the authors of these papers, and indeed authors of all our published papers, for pushing back the boundaries of knowledge and supporting better patient care.

https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpp/riaf109