During the Congress of Cardiovascular Diseases held in October of this year, we reported to the Board of Directors of the Sociedad Española de Cardiología (SEC), General Assembly, and Editorial Committee on the development of the journal this year, including the initiatives undertaken and results obtained. As we did last year, we want to share this information with our readers in the interest of keeping management transparent and making our editorial policy known.
ARTICLES RECEIVED AND PERCENTAGE ACCEPTANCE
This year, 301 original manuscripts were received as articles, brief communications, or images in cardiology, compared with 205 and 253 received in 2000 and 2001, respectively (Figure 1). This represents an increase of 50% in relation to previous years, which is a good indication of reader acceptance of the Journal and, particularly, the attraction it is exercising on researchers who study cardiovascular disease. This attraction is perceptible in Spain and, especially, outside Spain, as attested to by the 90% increase in the number of manuscripts received from other countries, from 36 in 2000 to 53 in 2001 and 66 in 2002. In addition, this year we received 8 articles written in English, which is a rapid response to the change in editorial policy that we enacted in January.1
Fig. 1. Number of articles received, by type, in the last three years and percentages of acceptance. Brief Comm indicates Brief Communications.
The increasing number of manuscripts received and the limited space available for publication has meant that the acceptance rate for articles has seen a parallel decrease,2 from 67% in 2000 to 54% in 2001 and 43% in 2002 (Figure 1). Broken down by type of article, 26% of the manuscripts received for the section Images in Cardiology, 22% for Brief Communications, and 66% for Original Articles were accepted. These percentages are a consequence of the distribution of the type of articles received, as well as our editorial policy, which places a priority on Original Articles. In order to limit as much as possible having to reject Original Articles of good quality, but not about topics that are a priority for publication, in the Brief Communications section we have also given priority to articles on series of patients.
The large number of manuscripts received is increasing the workload of editors and peer reviewers who, with their criticism and comments, contribute to improving the quality of the published articles. We are especially indebted to those persons who do not form part of the Editorial Committee, but collaborate with the Journal with their excellent evaluations (Table 1). We, the Editors, want to thank them.
PUBLISHED ARTICLES AND PUBLICATION TIMES
The number of pages published yearly has remained at about 1300, or about 250 articles. In addition, four supplements were published, one with the Communications of the National Congress of Barcelona and another for the Combined Cardiovascular Seminar of the American Heart Association, Spanish Society of Cardiology, and Inter-American Society of Cardiology, which was held this year in Anaheim, California (USA) under the direction of Dr. Valentín Fuster. On the other hand, under the heading of Revista Española de Cardiología, Supplements, two monographic issues on ventricular hypertrophy in arterial hypertension and diltiazem in cardiovascular protection were published.
The publication times have been similar to those of prestigious journals like The Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Consequently, the initial evaluation time expressed as a median (25%-75% percentile) has been 28 days (20, 36). The decision to reject an article was taken within a mean time of 3.2 months, whereas, for published articles, the reception-acceptance time was 5.1 months and the acceptance-publication time was 5.7 months. Our goal for next year is to reduce these times by 10%.
ELECTRONIC INTERNET EDITION
In recent months we have improved the way in which the journal´s web browser presents the results of searches, which now conforms with the format of Index Medicus. Consultations of the electronic version of the Journal by Internet3 continue to increase, especially in Latin American countries. Currently, we receive 22 000 visits a month, with a total of 120 000 pages consulted. Sixty-five percent of consultations come from other countries, especially Argentina, the US, Mexico, and Chile.
The most important initiative of the Journal this year was the inauguration of its English Internet edition.1 This edition consists of a full-text version of the Journal in HTML and PDF formats, and has required a major effort at many levels by the SEC. This pioneering initiative for medical journals in Spain vastly expands the potential dissemination of our publication to non-Spanish speaking countries and marks a turning point in the history of the Journal. This important initiative was supported by a FIS Aid for Special Actions of the Carlos III Health Institute. The number of hits on the English web edition of the Journal is increasing progressively, and it is noteworthy that 50% of them come from PubMed.
AWARDS
With the aim of stimulating the publication of high-quality original articles, we have continued to grant the SEC Awards to the best original articles published in the Journal and to the articles that have had the greatest intermediate- and long-term international impact. Likewise, awards have been granted by the Section of Pediatric Cardiology and Congenital Heart Diseases, the Section of Hemodynamics and Interventional Cardiology, and the Working Group on Nuclear Cardiology (Table 2).
IMPACT FACTOR
The impact factor of the Journal for 2001 has remained at 0.70. This means that, on the average, three out of four articles published in the journal in 1999 and 2000 were cited this year. In Ibero-American medical journals, we passed from sixth4 to fourth place, while conserving second place among medical journals in Spanish, and heading the list of journals dedicated to cardiovascular medicine (Table 3).
OTHER PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES
In order to continue promoting the dissemination of the Journal outside the field of cardiology, this year information on our publication was offered in five Spanish journals dedicated to family medicine, internal medicine, intensive care, atherosclerosis, and arterial hypertension. From an international viewpoint, the Journal has continued its promotional efforts with the activities that the SEC maintains at the congresses of the American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, and European Society of Cardiology.
Finally, the complete edition of the Journal has been included in the database of scientific journals of PubMed, where it can be consulted directly (http: //www.ncbi.nlm.nhi.gov/entrez/query.fcbi?db=journals). This will also contribute in an important way to the international dissemination of its content.
The work of the Journal in 2002 has been marked essentially by the full-text English Internet edition, at the same time that the value of initiatives undertaken in earlier years has been confirmed. The good response from authors of scientific articles and journal readers not only confirms the improvement in its quality and the interest that it is attracting, but also its progressive and definitive internationalization.