After three years as the Society’s Communications Manager, I’m leaving the BPS. During this time, I’ve proudly taken on the role of Managing Editor of the Content Board, which oversees the publication of BPS’ articles, blogs, and multimedia.
My job has been to connect our Content Board together, encouraging editor collaboration. It is also to source content – which I find in droves from our membership, at our events, and through our journals – and to support members who want to write for us. I keep track of all the articles currently being pitched, drafted, edited and processed for publication, normally about 10-15 pieces at a time. It’s a lot of juggling, but it’s worth it when we get to publish the invaluable insights of the membership.
For me, good content is what makes the BPS’ work come to life, and I love celebrating research and promoting member activity. Plus, the Content Board, led by Dr Aisah Aubdool, is an incredibly supportive team, always ready to give their time and editorial energy to this fun and engaging area of the Society’s work. Their inspiring ideas are what keeps the content flowing, and I am happy to be a part of it (even when they ask me to write about myself, a task I usually delegate to everyone else!).
Since I joined, there has been lots of change and progress, and I have more highlights than I could possibly fit into one article – but here are a few key moments that have made me proud to be part of the team:
Revising the strategy
When I first started at the BPS, we were publishing batches of longform content three times a year. One of the first things I wanted to do was to explore changing the strategy, aligning with what I’ve seen in other organisations I’ve worked for and with. This type of change is nerve-wracking, as it requires a leap of faith. What if it’s the wrong move? But the data was showing me that the move was logical, so the next step was to pitch it. Again, nerves are to be expected when you’re suggesting such a drastic change to how we put out content – but I was relieved that the content board embraced it with open arms. This excitement supported our pitch to Council, who backed it fully when it was presented to them. It was warming to know that the content we are publishing is valued, and that Trustees want to see it continue in the most relevant possible format.
The benefit of embracing that change has been evident in the amount of exciting work we’re regularly publishing, the way we’re able to seek out more authors outside of our usual circles, and the creative pitches we receive from members who want to get involved in content development. Long may it continue!
Working with the team
I’ve already touched upon the supportive, friendly nature of the Content Board, but it bears repeating: this is a team of hard-working, insightful individuals who have been nothing but generous with their time. It can be tricky to work in a space where the subject matter is not your area of expertise – and as a layperson with a limited scientific background, I am often asking for explanation – but the Content Board have always helped me learn and understand their work, respected the experience I bring through my communications and journalism background, and made me feel like an equal part of the team.
I’ve worked with some editors since joining, and others are new, having been recruited in 2024. I’m especially pleased to see how we’ve brought more ECRs onto the board, and how their approach to content development, and their keen enthusiasm for video and social media will continue to enhance what we bring to the membership.
In my three years, I’ve worked with three fantastic Editors-in-Chief, all of whom have brought a personal and professional touch to their term. Maggie Cunningham, who led the board for a number of years, and saw a lot of change herself having supported the transition to digital content and through COVID-19; Steve Tucker, who supported the development of the new strategy, and was an ideas machine, and Aisah Aubdool, who has nurtured our new ECR editors, given platform to countless voices from our membership and beyond, and continues to serve brilliantly as our Editor-in-Chief. I can’t thank them enough.
Article highlights
Over the last three years, we’ve published over 100 pieces of written content, covering a lot of pharmacological ground. They are the result of a lot of hard work by the Content Board and authors, and it’s hard to pick favourites.
There are lots of key pieces I’m particularly proud of, though, often because I think they have the ability to inspire or empower readers. My experience is in public health, and I am especially interested in ways to tackle health inequality and support better inclusion in the clinical workforce. I was proud to commission two pieces that explore this from an LGBTQ+ perspective, which is close to my heart:
Beyond Pride: Improving inclusion and safety for the LGBTQ+ medical workforce, which was a collaboration with GLADD, and
Advances in trans and gender diverse pharmacology: A step forward in challenging times, which spotlit an important BJCP issue on the same topic.
We also touched upon other timely topics through our editors’
exploration of Ozempic, a pharmacological dive into this popular subject, and thought about sustainability through a piece on
reducing university waste in laboratories.
I was especially proud to crown our winners and runners up of the Early Career Professional Writing Prizes, where we saw some amazing, talented writers emerge. In 2023, Jade Pullen won with
A trip to West Africa: Gabon’s indigenous psychedelic, and in 2024 Daniel Saffer asked
Why are treatments for osteoarthritis so elusive?. It is great to see so many ECRs take on the challenge of writing a long article and finding exciting topics to share with us – watch this space, as we’ll have a brand-new undergraduate prize launching in the future.
The show goes on…
I won’t be working with the lovely Content Board anymore, but they’ll keep sourcing exciting content for you to keep reading, and I know you’ll continue supporting their hard work. I’ve been incredibly proud to be part of their team, and I’ll remain an avid reader of the BPS’ varied and unique content.
If you have an idea for a future piece of content, make sure you let the team know by
submitting a pitch.
Comments
If you are a British Pharmacological Society member, please
sign in to post comments.