2011 Annual Summary. Another Meeting With Our Readers

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December has arrived and, following the tradition at the Revista Española de Cardiología (REC), the editorial team has put together its annual reader's issue.^{1, 2, 3, 4, 5} This year we have very important developments to share, as well as challenges for the future of REC. Part of the information in this “Editor's page” was also presented to the REC editorial committee, and in a condensed form to the Plenary Session and Assembly of the Sociedad Española de Cardiología (SEC) at the annual meetings held during the Congreso Nacional de las Enfermedades Cardiovasculares (cardiovascular diseases national conference) in Maspalomas, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands (Spain).

DEVELOPMENTS FROM 2011

In the “Editor's page” presenting the new editorial staff in May 2010,³ we set out the priority objectives for this group: a) reducing publication times, b) simultaneous publication of editions in English and Spanish, and c) a renovation of the Webpage. We will describe here our progress in these 3 categories.

Reducing Publication Times

This aspect has received much attention since it is the main concern held by authors who want to see their studies evaluated and published as soon as possible. Additionally, the most prestigious journals have very short turnaround times, and REC should be capable of achieving similar results.

Publication times are determined by 2 temporal segments: the time from receipt of a document until an editorial decision is made, and the time between acceptance and publication. During the first interval, reviewers play a decisive role, whereas in the second interval new electronic possibilities such as electronic publication ahead of print facilitate the dissemination of study results and references cited (using a digital object identifier system: DOI) without having to wait for a printed copy.

From Document Receipt to Editorial Decision

Figure 1 shows the mean delay time between receiving an article for publication and reaching a first editorial decision during 2011, which was 17.5 days. This has been made possible by the extraordinary dedication to this process by our reviewers, not only those on the Editorial Committee but also collaborators who have generously given their time to review articles using the highest scientific standards.

Figure 1. Mean time between receiving a document for publication and reaching a first editorial decision. Data from the first 8 months of each year.

From Acceptance to Publication

Traditionally, this has been the most difficult time span to reduce, since it depended on waiting to publish the article in the first paper version with available space, and this depended both on the type of article and the quantity of accepted articles waiting to be published. During 2011, we completely changed the production process for REC, such that once an article is accepted, it enters directly into the electronic production process, which is finalized by creation of a file in portable document format (pdf) and publication ahead of print on the REC Website. Simultaneously, the article is available on PubMed and can be cited. The new production process began this year and takes an average of 16 weeks, but we hope to have it down to 10 weeks by early 2012.

We are convinced that these changes have already been noted by our authors, who appreciate that the article can be cited within a very short time period, and by the editors, who have noted increased pressure to receive their comments within 14 days.

Simultaneous Edition in English

Coinciding with the new electronic production of REC, we decided that all articles would be translated and corrected before starting the production process of the pdf in Spanish. In this manner, both versions of the article enter the electronic production process at the same time. There are many advantages to this methodology, including simultaneous corrections made to both versions during the edition process, but the most important is that both versions are perfectly edited and electronically published on the same day. This objective covers one of the primary goals of the editorial team, which was to avoid having articles in English on PubMed that were still pending corrections for 30 days. In order to achieve this objective, the professionalism and dedication of the copy-editor team made up by Dominick Angiolillo, Scott Wilson, and Elaine Lilly has been fundamental, and has resulted in impeccable English versions of original articles. We would like to especially thank Elaine Lilly for her work in this process.

New Web Site

Following hard months of work, at the start of this year we released the new REC Webpage. As our readers will have noticed, we have made important modifications to the Webpage, above all in design, navigability, and expanded content.

The home page (www.revespcardiol.org) has modern aesthetics and simplified navigation, showing the current issue with direct access to articles, both as pdf files and complete texts. From this site, we can also gain access to all ahead-of-print articles, archives, supplements, and journal committees. Since REC is a bilingual journal, the Web design was carried out with special emphasis on facilitating access in both languages, and readers can now switch between English and Spanish at any moment using a link in the shape of a flag in the upper right corner of each page. Since March 2011, we have also provided bilingual tables of content by email to give users direct access to Web content of recently published issues. The statistics demonstrate that a large number of readers access the journal content through the links provided in this email, and that more and more readers are accessing our edition in English.

We have also created a blog (http://www.revespcardiol.org/es/blog), accessible from the home page, to provide coverage of the major cardiology conferences (American College of Cardiology, European Society of Cardiology, and American Heart Association), along with news and summaries of scientific articles from Spanish authors published in other cardiology journals. In the coming months we plan on opening the blog and new tabs on the home page to include content from the combined activities of REC and other international editorial groups of cardiovascular journals.

The editorial team is very satisfied with the excellent success that the new Web presence has garnered, reflected by the increase in pdf downloads and the good results from the Web site launch survey, which can be accessed on the blog.

BIBLIOMETRICS AND ARTICLE MANAGEMENT

In this section we will discuss the articles we have received, ahead-of-print publications, and bibliometric indexes.

Articles Received

In 2011 we received approximately 706 articles, a similar amount to the year before (712), the majority of which were original articles. Of the articles received, 28% were written in English. Some 34% of articles came from other countries, primarily from Argentina, the United States, and Mexico. The general acceptance rate was 33%; by article type, just 16% of original articles were accepted, 50% of brief reports, 18% of submitted images in cardiology, and 70% of letters to the editor.

Ahead-of-Print Publication

As previously mentioned, 2011 was a year for transitioning between a journal produced and conceptualized as a printed publication and an eminently electronic one. This has allowed us to make all REC articles available ahead of print even while they were still in the publication process, and posting articles as soon as they were accepted. At this time, more than 80% of these articles have been published electronically, and we predict that by the start of 2012 REC will no longer have articles in stock. There are already many articles in both versions available on the Web site under the tab “Ahead of Print.” We are convinced that the authors are satisfied, since the articles are citable and available on PubMed even though they may have to wait a few months to be included in an issue. We also want to point out that each regular issue includes 3 editorials, mostly in reference to original articles while others are dedicated to specific aspects of modern cardiology. It has been an honor for the REC to count on recognized experts and internationally renowned writers who have generously provided us with these editorials.

Bibliometric Indexes

The impact factor (IF) of REC in 2010 was 2.157, lower than in 2009, when it was 2.746. This popular index, which is based on the number of citations during a given year (in this case 2010) of articles published in the previous 2 years (2008 and 2009), is published by Thomson Reuters and appears yearly in Journal Citation Reports. The reduction in IF in 2010 was both unfortunate and unexpected. It was unfortunate because, in spite of the fact that the editorial staff that managed REC during the last 3 years made all necessary efforts to maintain and increase the level of quality of this publication, the IF in 2010 does not reflect these efforts and could cause disappointment and loss of interest from our readership and authors. It was completely unexpected because it did not take into account the articles released in 2008 and 2009 in the publications on “Current Topics” and “Relevant Problems in Cardiology,” published in 2010. This error was detected at the start of 2011, and the appropriate steps were taken to rectify it, but the request was not accepted in time for the IF to correctly reflect citations of REC. Even so, the percentage of external citations of REC publications has increased. This is excellent news (Figure 2), since this shows the relevance of our articles for authors that publish in other journals, and also places REC in the group of quality journals with an appropriate rate of self-reference. The immediacy index shows the mean speed with which published articles are cited (citations received during 1 year for the articles published that same year). It was 1.305 for REC in 2010, with a mean citation age of 4.2 years. These values place REC in the second quartile of cardiovascular journals. Last year we communicated the extraordinary increase in the field of cardiovascular journals with an IF, and the same has occurred this year. The total number of cardiovascular journals increased from 78 on the IF list in 2008 to 114 in 2010. The increase has been spurred by the decisions by Circulation, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and to a lesser degree European Heart Journal to launch subspecialty journals that work in concert with the central journal. Although each journal has an independent editor, the articles received and evaluated and subsequently rejected by the central journal are then offered to the editor of the subspecialty journal and, if accepted, the authors are consulted to see if they are interested in publishing in a “subsidiary” journal, which shortens publication times and offers quality articles with a high level of citability. These new journals, with only a few years of history, have received very high initial IF values. It will be an important editorial objective to maintain REC within the second quartile of cardiovascular journals, an objective that will require very hard work. We will need the invaluable support and collaboration from all who feel that REC is their journal, citing articles in REC when publishing studies in other journals and sending new articles for publication in REC. The citation of our articles, which have been carefully selected and edited, is the only way to modify our IF value in the direction that we all want and hope for. In order to disseminate this message, the editorial team is sending letters of thanks to all authors that cite REC when publishing in other indexed journals. All of the economic efforts by the executive committee of the Sociedad Española de Cardiología and the work carried out by the editorial staff are not sufficient to improve the IF; now more than ever we need help from all sectors.

Figure 2. Evolution of the number of external citations of Revista Española de Cardiología publication. Values expressed as the number of external citations each year per number of articles published in the previous 2 years.

REVIEWERS

As we said in our first “Editor's page”, ³ reviewers play a key role in the publication of scientific articles and ensure a transparent and independent editing process.

As we established in the previous sections, our objective is to shorten evaluation times, and this was our message to the editorial committee in the invitation letter. For the editorial staff it has been very gratifying to see the enthusiastic response to this challenge to comply with the requested timelines. We believe that it is beneficial to provide feedback on production rates, and therefore in February 2011, to facilitate continued support from our reviewers, we sent each one his or her respective mean review time and the overall average for REC along with a note of thanks. This small report will continue to be sent to the reviewers at the beginning of each year. Additionally, we would like to give special thanks to the reviewers that collaborate with us even though they are not on the editorial committee (Table 1) for their generous efforts. Reviewing an article for publication is an altruistic job that is rewarded with credit hours in proportion to the amount of time dedicated to the task. Additionally, and in keeping with the REC tradition, we have named Elite Reviewers (Table 2) for 2011. As in previous years, this award is based on the quality of reviews, the amount of time spent, and the number of articles reviewed. They received a diploma during the meeting of the Editorial Committee at the national conference (Congreso Nacional). This year, because of the exceptional quality of the evaluations provided, we have expanded the number to 12 elite reviewers, and from this standpoint we wish to thank each of them for the speed and quality of the work completed. We must also recognize the excellent efforts from reviewers in methodology and statistics, whose evaluation from a perspective different than that of cardiologists adds quality to the accepted articles.

Table 1. List of Collaborators.

Harry Acquatella

Agustín Albarrán González-Trevilla

Josep María Alegret

Rafael Aleixandre-Benavent

Carlos Almería Valera

Miguel A. Arias

Pedro Armario

Joaquín Barba Cosials

Antonio José Barros Membrilla

Begoña Benito Villabriga

Antonio Berruezo

Vicente Bertomeu-González

Armando Bethencourt

Rafael Bonfante Cabarcas

José Oriol Bonnín Gubianas

María Bordons

Ramón Bover Freire

Fernando J. Cabrera-Bueno

José Ángel Cabrera-Rodríguez

David Calvo

Victoria Cañadas Godoy

Montserrat Cardona

Manuel Carnero Alcázar

Juan Carlos Castillo Domínguez

Almudena Castro Conde

Mario Cazzaniga Bullón

Alberto Cordero

Juan Cosín-Sales

Eliecer Coto

Regina Dalmau

Tomás Datino Romaniega

Jesús M. de la Hera Galarza

Raquel del Valle Fernández

Victoria Delgado

Alberto Domínguez Rodríguez

Laura Dos Subirá

Carlos Alberto Dumont

Javier Escaned Barbosa

Carlos Escobar Cervantes

Lorenzo Fácila Rubio

Jaime Fernández de Bobadilla Osorio

Covadonga Fernández-Golfín Lobán

Montse Ferrer Forés

José Francisco Forteza Alberti

Rocío García Orta

José Antonio García Robles

Pablo García-Pavía

Olatz Garín Boronat

Joaquín Gascón Brustenga

Juan R. Gimeno Blanes

Josep Girona Comas

José Juan Gómez de Diego

Álvaro González Rocafort

Teresa Gonzàlez-Alujas

Susana González-Enríquez

Juan José González-Ferrer

Nieves Gonzalo López

Ángel Grande Ruiz

Carlos Guijarro

Javier Hortal Iglesias

Pilar Jiménez Quevedo

Javier Jiménez-Candil

Manuel F. Jiménez-Navarro

Rubén Gabriel Leta Petracca

María López-Gil

José López Haldón

María Pilar López-Lereu

José López-Sendón Moreno

Íñigo Lozano Martínez-Luengas

María Luaces Méndez

Emilio Luengo

Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva

Patricia Mahía Casado

María Martín Fernández

José Martínez Ferrer

Dolores Mesa Rubio

Sonia Mirabet Pérez

José Montiel Serrano

Guillermo Moñux Ducajú

Pedro Morillas Blasco

José Mostaza Prieto

Roberto Muñoz Aguilera

Antonio J. Muñoz-García

Iván Javier Núñez Gil

José Olagüe de Ros

Domingo A. Pascual-Figal

Armando Pérez de Prado

Esther Pérez-David

Jesús C. Peteiro Vázquez

José Luis Pomar Moya-Prats

Luis Puente

Luis Rajmil

Vicente Riambau

Montse Rigol Muxart

Miguel A. Rodríguez García

José M. Rubín López

Juan Miguel Ruiz-Nodar

Adriana Saltijeral Cerezo

Violeta Sánchez

Damián Sánchez Quintana

Marcelo Sanmartín-Fernández

Susana Sans Menéndez

Fernando Sarnago Cebada

José Ricardo Serra Grima

Antonio Serra Peñaranda

Lorenzo Silva-Melchor

Marta Sitges Carreño

Jorge Solís

Luis Tercedor Sánchez

Ignacio Terol Esteban

David Vivas

Fernando Worner

Guillermo Zalba

Esther Zorio

Javier Zueco Gil

María de los Ángeles Zulueta

For reasons of editorial planning, this table only includes the names of collaborators that reviewed papers between the 1st of January and the 17th of October 2011.

Table 2. List of Elite Reviewers.

Juan Quiles

Luciano Consuegra

Juan Cosín-Sales

M. Isabel Coma

Juan F. Delgado

Francisco Marín

Julio Núñez

Ramón López-Palop

Xavier Borrás

Esteban López de Sá

Jacobo Silva Guisasola

José M. de la Torre Hernández

PRIZES TO THE BEST ARTICLES

In spite of this difficult economic time, this year we kept the tradition of awarding first and second prizes to the two best articles in REC, accompanied by prizes of 10 000 and 5000 Euros, respectively. First and second prizes were also awarded to the most cited articles in the mid-term (previous 2 years) and long term (previous 5 years), in the amount of 9000 and 5000 Euros, respectively. We also awarded the best articles chosen by each scientific section of the SEC. All prizes were announced during the closing dinner of the Congreso Nacional de las Enfermedades Cardiovasculares in Maspalomas, Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands. Table 3 shows the list of articles and authors that received awards, and Figure 3 the prize details.

Table 3. Award Winning Articles Published in the Revista Española de Cardiología in 2011.

1. SEC awards for studies published in the Revista Española de Cardiología
First prize	Juan R. Gimeno et al. Characteristics of Sudden Death in Inherited Heart Disease. Rev Esp Cardiol. 2010;63:268-76
Second prize	Oliver Husser et al. The Sum of ST-Segment Elevation Is the Best Predictor of Microvascular Obstruction in Patients Treated Successfully by Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention. Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Study. Rev Esp Cardiol. 2010;63:1145-54
2. SEC awards for studies published in the Revista Española de Cardiología with the greatest international impact
Most cited articles (long-term)
First prize	Eduardo Alegría et alPrevalence of Metabolic Syndrome in the Spanish Working Population: MESYAS Registry. Rev Esp Cardiol. 2005;58:797-806
Second prize	Francisco B. Ortega et al. Low Level of Physical Fitness in Spanish Adolescents. Relevance for Future Cardiovascular Health (AVENA Study). Rev Esp Cardiol. 2005;58:898-909
Most cited articles (mid-term)
First prize	Ignacio Ferreira-González et al. MASCARA (Manejo del Síndrome Coronario Agudo. Registro Actualizado) Study. General Findings. Rev Esp Cardiol. 2008;61:803-16
Second prize	Oksana Lushchenkova et al. Secondhand Smoke Exposure in Spanish Adult Non-Smokers Following the Introduction of an Anti-Smoking Law. Rev Esp Cardiol. 2008;61:687-94
3. Prize for the Section on Clinical and Outpatient Cardiology (2 articles)	Manuel Anguita Sánchez et al. Effect of a Training Program for Primary Care Physicians on the Optimization of Beta-Blocker Treatment in Elderly Patients With Heart Failure. Rev Esp Cardiol. 2010;63:677-85
	Ana Flores-Marín et al. Long-Term Predictors of Mortality and Functional Recovery After Aortic Valve Replacement for Severe Aortic Stenosis With Left Ventricular Dysfunction. Rev Esp Cardiol. 2010;63:36-45
4. Prize for the Section on Geriatric Cardiology	Ana Viana-Tejedor et al. Effectiveness of Catheter Ablation of Ventricular Tachycardia in Elderly Patients With Structural Heart Disease. Rev Esp Cardiol. 2010;63:156-60
5. Prize for the Section on Pediatric Cardiology and Congenital Cardiopathies	Damián Sánchez-Quintana et al. Koch's Triangle and the Atrioventricular Node in Ebstein's Anomaly: Implications for Catheter Ablation. Rev Esp Cardiol. 2010;63:660-7
6. Prize for the Section on Ischemic Heart Disease and Coronary Units	Patricia Palau et alEffect of Invasive Treatment on Prognosis in Non-ST-Segment Elevation Acute Coronary Syndrome With or Without Systolic Dysfunction. Rev Esp Cardiol. 2010;63:915-24
7. Prize for the Section on Electrophysiology and Arrhythmias	Juan José Sánchez Muñoz et al. Premature Ventricular Complexes as a Trigger for Ventricular Fibrillation. Rev Esp Cardiol. 2010;63:798-801
8. Prize for the Section on Heart Stimulation	Julio Martí-Almor et al. Novel Predictors of Progression of Atrioventricular Block in Patients With Chronic Bifascicular Block. Rev Esp Cardiol. 2010;63:400-8
9. Prize for the Section on Arterial Hypertension
First prize	Juan José Beunza et al. Aspirin, Non-Aspirin Analgesics and the Risk of Hypertension in the SUN Cohort. Rev Esp Cardiol. 2010;63:286-93
Second prize	Gemma Cuberas-Borrós et al. Normal Myocardial Perfusion SPECT Database for the Spanish Population. Rev Esp Cardiol. 2010;63:934-42
10. GE Healthcare prize to the best publication in echocardiography	Pastora Gallego García de Vinuesa et al. Functional Anatomy of Aortic Regurgitation. Role of Transesophageal Echocardiography in Aortic Valve-Sparing Surgery. Rev Esp Cardiol. 2010;63:536-43
11. Izasa prizes to studies published in Interventional Cardiology
First prize	Pablo Avanzas et al. Percutaneous Implantation of the CoreValve® Self-Expanding Aortic Valve Prosthesis in Patients With Severe Aortic Stenosis: Early Experience in Spain. Rev Esp Cardiol. 2010;63:141-8
Second prize	Ramón López-Palop et al. Usefulness of the Fractional Flow Reserve Derived by Intracoronary Pressure Wire for Evaluating Angiographically Intermediate Lesions in Acute Coronary Syndrome. Rev Esp Cardiol. 2010;63:686-94

Figure 3. 2011 prize details.

SUPPLEMENTS, SPECIAL ISSUES, AND SPECIAL ARTICLES

As we announced last year, the management of the Revista Española de Cardiología Supplements is done through the Elsevier Editorial System for manuscripts (http://ees.elsevier.com/rec/), the same used by REC. As in previous years, supplements were produced by Scientific Sections or industry. This year we published 6, more than the number of special issues. The REC supplements are indexed in SCOPUS and we have continued to request indexing in PubMed. We also published in January the “Current Topics” special issue, which was indexed in PubMed. It was written by the 11 Scientific Sections, summarizing the developments in each subspecialty during the previous year.^{6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17} In fact, the publication compiles all developments until September of the corresponding year, so as to comment on the studies presented at the conference of the European Society of Cardiology. The results from the official registries of the Scientific Sections and working groups of the SEC appeared in November and December special issues. These articles are essential to understanding the current situation of cardiology in Spain, especially regarding the use of different techniques, their results, and the situation in each autonomous community.^{18, 19, 20, 21, 22} In July, another special issue was released: “Relevant Problems in Cardiology,” which compiled the papers of the joint session held by the American Heart Association, the Inter-American Society, and the SEC.^{23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28}.

The summaries from selected studies at the 3 most relevant international conferences−the American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association, and the European Society−are published on the Web site 24h after their presentation. Electronic publication on the blog permits us to immediately provide information to our readers, which is not possible with printed edition. This initiative started this year with the American College of Cardiology conference, and continued with the conferences of the European Society of Cardiology and American Heart Association. The visits recorded to the blog show the interest created by this new method.^{29, 30, 31}.

As in previous years, we are translating the 2011 guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology, 1 of which will be published in December³²; the other 3 will be published soon. By decision of the SEC Executive Committee,³³ each guideline will be accompanied by an article commenting on the strengths and debatable points in each guideline and on how the recommendations can be adapted to our particular field of medicine. Authors are encouraged to cite these articles when citing the corresponding guideline.

Lastly, but no less important, are the educational initiatives taken by REC: the “Update on” section, which focuses on diseases in other organs with repercussions for the cardiovascular system,^{34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45} and the new group of 5 articles under the title of “Focus on” covering advanced statistical issues.^{46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51} As in previous years, the “Update on” section will offer credit-hours for interested readers. In contrast to previous years, starting in 2012 this will be available on the REC Web site.

OTHER INITIATIVES

Conflicts of Interest

As we announced last year, we have adopted the proposal of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors modified by the HEART editors club and finally translated to Spanish. This document is perfectly appropriate for the current ethical requirements and, although it may seem excessive in our field, a global effort has been made to compile all possible interests that should be declared to readers, which is an obligatory step in rigorous scientific environments (eg, United States). The advantage is that, being in electronic format, this can be easily updated and serves for all journals.

National Society of Cardiovascular Journal Editors’ Network

This network unites editors from all European cardiovascular society journals. In the last meeting held at the European Society of Cardiology conference in Paris, a decision was made to share educational material, which HEART will publish under the title of “ALMANAC 2011.” This series of 6 chapters, which update 6 different cardiac syndromes, will be available on the Web site by the end of the year under the tab “NSCJ Editors’ Network.”

Latin-American Editors

In March, the SEC celebrated its third meeting with all editors from Iberoamerican cardiovascular journals (RCVIB). Representatives from 11 different societies attended, discussing topics of common interest, such as the document for declaring conflicts of interest that the REC has translated into Spanish and these journals will adapt to their needs, and the initiative to publish a summary of the best study from each journal on the REC Web site. This information will also be placed in the section of the Web site that specifically corresponds to the RCVIB, where the links for each journal are also located. On the Web page, the SCImago Journal Rank indicator is placed under the IF, which serves as another bibliometric index for both indexed and nonindexed journals. This indicator allows journals in the RCVIB to compare themselves against others, since the majority of them are not indexed.

As was requested in the second meeting, we have facilitated a group of reviewers from 5 different scientific societies (SEC, Argentine Federation of Cardiology, Argentine Society of Cardiology, Mexican Society of Cardiology, and Venezuelan Society of Cardiology) that have agreed to review articles from journals in smaller countries. Several editors have shown their satisfaction with the excellent functioning of this initiative.

Finally, the editor of the Cuban Journal of Cardiology, who has had many difficulties in the publication of the journal of this society, has resumed electronic publications this year and has requested the collaboration of the REC to this end. We decided to put out a joint supplement on cardiovascular prevention, which was compiled by Cuban cardiologists and others appointed by the preventive medicine section of the SEC.

OTHER ACTIVITIES OF THE Revista Española de Cardiología

Casa del Corazón Courses and Sociedad Española de Cardiología Conference Workshops

This year the REC again organized the course “How to write a scientific article: from the author to the reader,” which attempts to offer an integrated view of the research process, from the formulation of an initial hypothesis and methodology to the production of a manuscript and final publication. In this new version, we paid special attention to the practical application of the course content. The warm reception of this focus and the benefit perceived by the attendees led us to put together a similar initiative at the national conference of the SEC: a workshop titled “What you should know before writing a scientific article,” which we hope to repeat in future conferences.

“The best articles in the Revista Española de Cardiología” Session in the Sociedad Española de Cardiología Conference

For the second consecutive year, the REC held a special session at the SEC conference with the authors who were considered to have written the 4 best original articles published in our journal the previous year, along with those proposed by the Sections of the SEC. The authors gave a brief presentation of their articles, which were then commented on by experts in each subject. We believe that this highlights the quality of the studies submitted to the REC and gives us the opportunity to thank our authors for their confidence in the journal.

REDUCTION IN Revista Española de Cardiología PRINTING

As we announced last year, in keeping with the new trends in our readership and the use of digital tools, REC consulted the members of the SEC regarding the journal format they would prefer. A total of 1474 members filled out the survey, 20% of which requested to receive only the electronic edition. The number of printed copies was reduced to 1800 copies and the printed international edition was eliminated, which has been replaced with a version sent to a small group of contacts in the scientific societies with the closest relationships with the journal. Additionally, the simultaneous production of the journal in English and the policy of using electronic links amongst the RCVIB immediately communicate our journal to the entire world.

FUTURE PROJECTS

The most immediate project, which will commence with the January 2012 issue, is the elimination of the “Brief reports” section, which will be replaced with “Scientific letters.” These letters will be short articles of no more than 1000 words, with no abstract, and a limit of 2 elements (figure or table). With this format we will be able to publish more scientific letters, up to 6 in each issue, in comparison to the current maximum of 3 brief reports.

Regarding new technologies, in the coming months we intend on putting even more emphasis on access to journal content. As a major development, REC is participating in a European pilot project for the dissemination of content through programs installed on smart phones, tablets, etc. It is our hope that these applications will become available in the second half of the coming year.

Shortly, we will also have a computer program that will evaluate the originality of manuscripts and possible cases of plagiarism. This is a tool that editors use more and more each day, and assists in detecting cases of bad practice in the form of copyright infringement.

Acknowledgements

The editors would like to thank the effort, dedication, initiative, and patience contributed by Eva M. Cardenal, Iria del Río, and María González, who make the REC possible. It is a privilege to work with them.

Corresponding author: Revista Española de Cardiología. Nuestra Sra. de Guadalupe 5, 28028 Madrid, Spain. [e-mail]