As we begin our appointments as Co-Principal Editors of Neuropsychopharmacology (NPP), we wanted to convey our vision for this publication, and the wonderful NPP team, as we continue to enhance this high-quality monthly publication which has been a cornerstone of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) since 1987. Our goal is to ensure the strength of the Journal (both NPP and our annual review issue, NPPR), and bring further innovations to the Journal.

We first want to describe a few changes that we think will enhance the Journal for our readership, and encourage more authors (whether ACNP members or not) to submit their best work to NPP. During the next year, we will introduce a new feature “This Month in NPP”, which will feature brief descriptions of each article in the Issue. As with many other journals in our field of psychiatry and translational neurosciences, we want to make our content accessible to a growing readership, including trainees, other scientists and even the general public, as our content is increasingly covered by social media.

In addition, we want to feature the work of early career scientists more prominently in the Journal, as they are the future of our College. We will feature early career published articles in “Meet the Author”, a short perspective which outlines the work, and some of the challenges for early career scientists. We hope that this will provide a forum for discussion of the challenges that young scientists face as they begin their journeys in our field. This new feature will be led by our Special Projects Manager, Sofiya Hupalo, Ph.D., with the assistance of our Editorial Intern.

We also want to increase the number of review articles published in the Journal. While many of these reviews will be invited, we encourage the submission of unsolicited reviews. We suggest that authors check with our senior editorial team first with a pre-submission inquiry send to us journal@acnp.org.

Finally, look for some changes in our cover images, which have traditionally focused on colorful images from basic science articles published in each issue. We will also feature content from our human studies articles, which currently make up around 40% of our published articles. As many of our readers know, in September, 2022, we introduced a new system to facilitate the process of clinical trials submission including the mandatory use of CONSORT materials and Clinical Trials Registration. This new process was described in our Editorial in the November, 2022 issue [1].

We have had the honor to serve as Senior Editors with William (Bill) Carlezon, Ph.D., our out-going Principal Editor, over the past 10 years. Bill’s vision and creativity, and his guidance, patience, mentorship and collegiality have been much appreciated. We are thankful for his leadership in the growth and increasing impact of this Journal since 2013. Bill will not be going far, as he will lead ACNP’s efforts to launch a new Open Access Journal, focusing on digital-based approaches to the study and treatment of psychiatric illness, which will fill a unique role in the growing space of mental health publications.

The Journal has seen recent increases in impact factor (8.294, in 2021), and it’s visibility in social media (e.g., Twitter) has been outstanding, largely in part to early career scientists and trainees. The excellent work of our Social Media Editor Keri Martinowich, Ph.D. and our NPP Editorial Assistant Lori Kunath has allowed us to develop this impressive social media presence. Furthermore, our annual NPPR issue, led by John Neumaier, M.D., Ph.D. our Deputy Editor for NPPR, continues to thrive. We are also fortunate to work with an impressive group of Associate Editors at NPP, including Sheena Josselyn, Ph.D., Markus Helig, M.D., Susanne Ahmari, M.D., Ph.D., Yavin Shaham, Ph.D., Francis McMahon, Ph.D., Stan Floresco, Ph.D., Arthur Brody, M.D., Luan Phan, M.D., Ph.D., Anissa Abi-Dargham, M.D. and Kathyrn Cunningham, Ph.D. (Hot Topics Editor). Given some expected transitions, including the changes in our roles at NPP, we expect to recruit new senior editors to the group. We want to acknowledge the work of our wonderful NPP team who work behind the scenes, including Jennifer Mahar and Terri Bowen (Origin Editorial), our Springer Nature colleagues (Elizabeth Yepez, James Sleigh, Evi Kraemer and Susan Ciambrano), our ACNP team (Sarah Timm, Erin Shaw and Lori Kunath) and our current Special Projects Manager and Editorial Intern (Chloe Jordan and Sofiya Hupalo). Finally, we want to thank our diverse editorial board. We hope to recruit new members, especially from our growing community of psychiatric neuroscience researchers.

We look forward to the continued growth of NPP and building on the excellent work that has been the hallmark of ACNP’s Journal for the past 35 years. We invite our readership to contact us with your thoughts and feedback about the Journal, and how we can better serve you as ACNP members and our general readership. This is an exciting time in psychiatry and neuroscience, and with decreasing stigma and increased advocacy for people with mental illness [such as the introduction of national suicide hotlines (e.g., “988”) in both the US and Canada], and NPP will continue to be part of these conversations. We are honored and humbled by this opportunity to serve together as Co-Principal Editors of this storied Journal.