Dr. Rose-Marie Bluthé awarded the Prestigious 2025 Service Award from the International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology

Dr. Rose-Marie Bluthé has been awarded the 2025 Service Award from the International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology (ISPNE) to recognize over 30 years of service to the society and to the affiliated academic journals Psychoneuroendocrinology and later Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology, spanning from editorial assistant to managing editor.

Rose-Marie is the face and heart behind the success of the journals for ISPNE. As generations of scholars have gravitated towards research on brain-body communication, scholars in this field have each had experiences of submitting manuscripts, reviews, or apologies for being late to Rose- Marie. These communications are met with disembodied auto-replies for most journals, except for PNEC and CPNEC. Here, Rose-Marie personally and emphatically communicates her intent. Your review is LATE. The extension is granted. Your paper has been accepted. CONGRATULATIONS. In an ocean of AI generated spam, the personal touch matters deeply.

Across her 33 years with the society and the journal(s), Rose-Marie’s connection to authors and reviewers shines through behind the scenes. She protects reviewers time if they have had health problems or are out on parental leave. Uncharacteristically late reviewers get a stern, but knowledgeable, reminder that they are not themselves and is everything OK? This long- stretched memory for the person –who is also a reviewer and sometimes author– provides a welcome connection to the journal(s) and society that is impossible to duplicate. It is the view of the society that Rose-Marie is largely responsible for so many award winners across the years describing this society as their intellectual home and academic respite.

In her career, Dr. Bluthé began in the laboratory carrying out an in vivo research program about the impact of cytokines on behavior in rats using behavioral pharmacology methods. After obtaining her PhD under the mentorship of Dr. Robert Dantzer in Bordeaux, France, Dr. Bluthé seized an opportunity to become editorial assistant for Psychoneuroendocrinology on May 1, 1992, when Robert Dantzer became editor-in-chief for the journal for Europe and Dr. Ned Kalin was appointed editor for North America at the same time (and remained there until 2018). Dr. Bluthé stretched to become the editorial assistant for a second journal, Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology, when Robert Dantzer launched the companion journal in 2020.

Encompassing most of the history of PNEC (and all of CPNEC), Rose-Marie has seen the publishing process from postal mailings to computerized software. She experienced Elsevier replacing Pergamon, the original publisher of the journal. She faced exhaustion when the publication component relocated to India and the frequent turnover of personnel in charge required her to, again, educate the new team members about how this field really operates. She has participated in the real-world testing and, sometimes with substantial burden, debugging of various editorial systems used by publishers. She works tirelessly to ensure the efficient, timely, and confident coordination of the editorial processes, including checking the conformity of submitted manuscripts, inviting reviewers, helping them enter their reviews on the journal’s website, reminding everyone (!) about deadlines, communicating with authors and, even more demanding, managing the publishing process to ensure the journal issues were presented correctly. As Dr. Bluthé describes it, “On the positive side, I had the privilege of viewing the International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology from a different perspective than the one that is available to its members, and I could also meet several authors who eventually became friends.”

When an opportunity arose for the International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology to recognize Dr. Robert Dantzer’s achievements on the 50th anniversary of the society’s journal, it was a unanimous and enthusiastic vote to parallel that recognition for Dr. Rose-Marie Bluthé at the same time. In her characteristic mix of enthusiastic and emphatic all-caps, Rose-Marie responded: it was really a BIG SURPRISE! Once again I thank you.

On behalf of the International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology, Rose-Marie we thank YOU!