Response to: Justifying and reporting the use of severe stress in experiments that use animals

We thank Stanford et al. for their careful attention to an important matter (Stanford et al., 2026). As the substantive points in the letter relate to the validity of the procedure reported, the authors of the original article (Michael et al., 2025) have provided a detailed scientific response, published alongside the letter. As a few points in the letter relate to editorial procedure, it is helpful for the Journal to also respond. The typical peer review process for original research in the BJP is as follows: A submitted manuscript, after some initial checks, is assigned to a Senior Editor. The Senior Editor makes an assessment, and, if they are satisfied, the manuscript proceeds to peer review by being passed to an Editor. The Editor will then make a second editorial assessment, before inviting reviewers. After reviews have been received, the Editor will recommend a decision, which is sent back to the Senior Editor to confirm. At any point during this process, either the Editor or the Senior Editor may choose to ask for input from any Consulting Editor from different specialties (e.g. animal welfare, design and analysis, etc.) to inform their decision. Once accepted, a manuscript is sent to a Press Editor, who conducts a final check on adherence to guidelines, before the manuscript is finally sent for publication. We share the authors' commitment to rigorous scrutiny of all submissions to the Journal. The above outline demonstrates that this scrutiny in the BJP is considerable, while remaining as efficient as possible (Papapetropoulos et al., 2025). Equally important is the ongoing review of our author guidelines and acceptance criteria, widely recognised as a global benchmark for pharmacological research. These best practice guidelines must be continually assessed to ensure they are relevant, rigorous and realistic. In 2025, the Journal updated guidance on experimental design and analysis (Curtis et al., 2025). In 2026, we will update guidance on reporting animal research (Lilley et al., 2020) and studies involving natural products (Wang et al., 2024). We thank Stanford et al. for their suggestion of a systematic use of the Consulting Editor for ARRIVE Guidelines and Animal Welfare on all relevant submissions (Stanford et al., 2026). We will consider this change as part of the forthcoming broader review of our animal research guidelines. As part of this work of updating guidelines, the Journal conducts regular audits of its publications, most recently on the use of anaesthetic agents (Ingrande et al., 2023). A consistent finding is that full compliance with all requirements in all articles is rare: work in the BJP spans a diversity of forms and contexts, where authors, reviewers or Editors may reasonably judge that methods are appropriate and findings are sound. Some articles may not meet every detail of our guidelines, yet still represent robust methodology. Their publication without complete compliance does not indicate, in itself, their scientific invalidity, nor that the peer review process is not working. We welcome this correspondence as an opportunity to reflect publicly on our processes and reaffirm our commitment to achieving the highest expectations of the British Pharmacological Society's members and the wider international pharmacological community. Péter Ferdinandy: Writing—review and editing; conceptualization. Charles Whalley: Writing—original draft; writing—review and editing; conceptualization. David J. Adams: Conceptualization. Steve P. H. Alexander: Conceptualization. Xiuping Chen: Conceptualization. Miriam Cortese-Krott: Conceptualization. Zsuzsanna Helyes: Conceptualization. Kirill Martemyanov: Conceptualization. Claudio Mauro: Conceptualization. Andreas Papapetropoulos: Conceptualization. Hemal H. Patel: Conceptualization; conceptualization. Rainer Schulz: Conceptualization. Ana M. Sebastião: Conceptualization. Alastair G. Stewart: Conceptualization. Nathalie Vergnolle: Conceptualization. Xin Wang: Conceptualization. Stephen Ward: Conceptualization. Hiroshi Yamazaki: Conceptualization. Marie Engh: Conceptualization. Charles Whalley is employed by the British Pharmacological Society, owner of the British Journal of Pharmacology. The other authors report no conflicts of interest.