News from July 2020
Nomination of deputy editors
The European Heart Journal - Acute Cardiovascular Care (EHJ-ACVC) is pleased to announce the appointment of Drs. David Morrow, and Frederik Verbrugge as deputy editors.
Dr. David A. Morrow is the director of the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) and Section Head of Critical Care Cardiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Boston, USA). A cardiovascular medicine specialist, he is also a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS). He received his medical degree from HMS. Dr. Morrow’s clinical focus is on cardiac intensive care, including implementation of multidisciplinary programmes in shock and acute aortic syndromes. Dr. Morrow’s research centres on clinical management strategies and novel therapeutics in cardiac critical care and stable and unstable ischemic syndromes. He is an author of over 200 peer-reviewed publications.
Dr. Frederik Verbrugge is a cardiologist and intensive care physician with a dedicated interest in heart failure, (exercise) haemodynamics and cardiorenal physiology. He graduated in 2010 (KU Leuven, Belgium) and obtained a PhD degree in 2015. Dr. Verbrugge currently works as a research fellow at Mayo Clinic, and happy to take up a staff position at University Hospital Brussels (Belgium) later this year. Dr. Verbrugge has published over 80 PubMed-cited articles, authored a book chapter in "Heart Failure: A companion to Braunwald’s heart disease", and has edited "Cardiorenal Syndrome in Heart Failure". He is a current member of the European Society of Cardiology Heart Failure Association study group on cardio-renal dysfunction.
I am delighted to welcome Drs. Morrow and Verbrugge in our team. The EHJ-ACVC will benefit from their dedication, contribution, and broad knowledge in the field of acut) cardiology and intensive care. With the addition of Drs. Morrow and Verbrugge we aim to further expand onwards and upwards to reach our full potential. The EHJ-ACVC indisputably needs to become truly global. The ACVC has grown in size, scientific diversity, and cultural wealth. So must the EHJ-ACVC!
Dr. Pascal Vranckx, Editor-in-Chief
I am honoured and excited to have this opportunity to help increase the dissemination of robust science in the field of critical care cardiology and look forward to enhancing transatlantic collaboration as an essential element of that aspiration. Dr. Morrow
EHJ- ACVC Impact Factor July 2020 update
We are very pleased to announce to our readership that the European Heart Journal-Acute Cardiovascular Care (EHJ-ACVC) 2019 Impact Factor is 3.813!
The EHJ-ACVC confirms its actual position among the Journals in the Cardiology and Critical Care category and we owe special thanks to our team of editors, reviewers and authors for their valuable contribution to the journal and for their continuous efforts to improve it.
It is our ambition to further expand onwards and upwards to reach our full potential. The EHJ-ACVC indisputably needs to become truly global.
We are being challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic hitting hard on our communities. The pandemic affected the very heart of our profession.
Despite this situation, the EHJ-ACVC made sure that impactful research and valuable educational papers were published in a timely manner. The EHJ-ACVC will continue to strive to be at the service of our readership, the cardiology and intensive care community.
This impact factor is a testament to the commitment and expertise of our Editorial Board and reviewers and highlights the increasing quality of the articles published in the journal.
Editorial - April 2020
I feel honored of being chosen to become editor-in-chief of the European Heart Journal - Acute Cardiovascular Care Medicine (EHJ-ACVC). I realise that I am going to pilot an Association for Acute CardioVascular Care (ACVC) super engine along the acute cardiovascular care highway that plunges through the medical publishing galaxy.
The ACVC has grown in size, scientific diversity, and cultural wealth. So must the EHJ-ACVC. The numbers of accessed and downloaded articles need to increase further, as do the citations. EHJ-ACVC needs to compete on impact factor in the intensive care arena.
The EHJ-ACVC ambition is to best represent our community and to foster and disseminate our research. Despite being the official journal of the ACVC, the EHJ-ACVC indisputably needs to become truly global.
Over the last decade the EHJ-ACVC profoundly improved its profile and metrics. However, it has not yet fulfilled 50% of its potential.
The journal must therefore continue onwards and upwards. Our success can only be built on a foundation of brilliant authors striving to address relevant clinical questions by applying appropriate methods, skilled reviewers intent on guiding authors towards improving their work, and gifted editors dedicating their valuable time to share their hard-earned wisdom.
Quality editors attract quality papers!
One obvious area for improvement is identification of the best work among the many excellent submissions via initial manuscript selection, peer review, and internal discussion.
Another more innovative task would consist in offering editing and rewriting of accepted manuscripts by professionals with expertise in science, English language, and EHJ-ACVC style.
This journal needs professional medical writers and editors who thoroughly revise all papers before they are released in print and online. We target substance and form!
Speed of the review and publication process should become our hallmark for all articles, not only those designated for the 10-day profile submissions.
Decisions are needed within three days when manuscripts are not sent out for review, within three weeks overall for 85% of submissions and within seven days on average for 10-day profile submissions. We will ask for extraordinary efforts by editors and reviewers to shorten the submission turnover time.
Medical journals are often perceived as working behind closed doors to apply enigmatic procedures they have no wish to disclose. The editor-in-chief is thus seen as holding the keys to the mystery of how to get published. This should be different for the EHJ-ACVC, the goals developed by the editorial board must be broadcast clearly and regularly to ensure a harmonious channeling of energies.
The editorial line defined in the last few years by the Editorial Board will be refined, but the principles in place will remain. As indicated, the journal should breath the ACVC, and reflect current and future trends in the field of intensive and acute cardiovascular care.
The EHJ-ACVC aims for high-quality, original papers which include critically ill cardiovascular patients with clear messages for all physicians working in the field. Manuscripts providing new findings from large interventional studies can still be submitted as 10-day profile publications, allowing important data to be rapidly available in the public domain.
The methodology and the content of original articles, review articles, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses will be evaluated closely for application of high-level methodological standards. The EHJ-ACVC will require authors to fulfill the appropriate Equator (Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research) network checklist and to respect the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) requirements.
The journal will remain a forum for controversial issues, presenting different opinions from experts. Moreover, it will live up with its ambition be an educational resource for the newer generations, having some review articles, what’s new, educational pieces, and images. For images, we intend to expand the section to now include short pieces with an attached video. We will also be starting to accept short research letters, a forum for communicating early results, proofs of concept, or interesting data on small cohorts. Such contributions are increasingly published and appreciated.
Stay tuned! The EHJ-ACVC will keep its tradition of having thematic issues;
The changeover is not only for the Editor-in-Chief.
Some of the esteemed editors will leave the board as their mandate has ended. Thanks to all of them for helping the journal to become what it is now, and I’m sure to have their support also for the future!
New editors will enter the board over the next months. The incoming editors will increase diversity, covering different sub-specialties, geographic provenience, and heterogenous backgrounds. Keep following us and stay posted!
The team will include:
- Up to two deputy Editors
- Up to 6 associated Editors
- A statistics editor
- Two guest editors
- A team of junior editors who will focus on the new generations’ needs and in developing new social media strategies. “Visual abstracts” will become available for most of the original articles and will be part of our communication.
Before concluding this editorial, a great and warm thanks to Christiaan Vrints.
For sure, the actual EHJ-ACVC is the result of thousands of hours of his work.
Our mission: To reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease.