INTRODUCTION
For several years, we have been summarizing the highlights of the activity and dissemination of Revista Española de Cardiología in this now classic "Editor's Page" of the month of December.1-4 We also discuss certain bibliometric aspects of interest and comment on innovations and proposals related to editorial policy. The idea is to share with our readers, authors and reviewers the work that we have been carrying out in the journal throughout the year with our readers, authors and reviewers. The contents that we present here were analyzed in greater depth at the annual meeting of the Editorial Committee of Revista Española de Cardiología, during the Congress of Cardiovascular Diseases held last October in Málaga. At that congress, the most important data were also reported to the Plenary Session of the Board of Directors and to the General Assembly of the Spanish Society of Cardiology (SEC).
SCIENTIFIC IMPACT
This past year, we obtained a notable impact factor (1.769) and, thus, have maintained last year's marked increase in this popular bibliometric indicator5,6 (Figure 1). Revista Española de Cardiología continues to be a referent as the Spanish-language medical journal with the highest impact factor, a circumstance that consolidates our leadership with respect to other medical journals published in Spanish in terms of this well-known indicator. Thus, this year, we are ranked 31st in the exclusive club of the 71 cardiovascular journals assessed and indexed by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). (In 2001, we were ranked 50th among 65 journals.) Throughout in 2005, Revista Española de Cardiología received a total of 368 citations referring to recent articles (2003 and 2004). The trend in the number of external citations is highly favorable: whereas, in 2000, 24% of the impact factor was due to external citations, at the present currently, these citations represent 37% of our impact factor. Although the number of recent citations received from other journals is gradually increasing, this year, we have received fewer self-citations (citations from the journal itself). For this reason, we wish to stress once again the importance of citing articles recently published in Revista Española de Cardiología in future research articles, whether printed in our journal or in other international publications, provided that it is considered appropriate and of clear scientific interest. In this way, not only do we collaborate collectively to promote the dissemination of the best studies in cardiovascular research performed in Spain, but we will also maintain our excellent bibliometric ranking, a circumstance that will allow us to aspire to attracting more and better scientific reports to our pages.4-6
Figure 1. Time trend in the impact factor of Revista Española de Cardiología.
In 2005, a total of 993 citations (of previous articles from any year) were received by our journal in 2005, a number similar to that of the preceding year, a fact that confirms the general interest awakened by the contents of the publication. The immediacy index, that is, the citations received during the year 2005 referring to articles published that same year, was 0.63, ranking our journal in a highly interesting 11th place among the 71 cardiovascular journals evaluated by the ISI.5
ARTICLES RECEIVED
The number of original manuscripts submitted increased in 2006, a circumstance that, once again, confirms the appeal of our journal to researchers in the cardiovascular field (Figure 2). Owing to an editorial change with respect to brief reports, which we will comment on below, we have received fewer articles of this type, as well as fewer images in cardiology (we publish only 12 images each year), while the number of letters to the editor has doubled. We have also received a considerable number of manuscripts from other countries (50 articles), especially from Latin America (mainly from Mexico, Argentina, and Ecuador).
Figure 2. Time trend in the number of original articles received. *Data for 2006 include the estimate for the last three months of the year.
EVALUATION, DECISION, PUBLICATION
In our editorial office, we have assessed a total of 429 first reviews carried out directly by members of the Editorial Board or our collaborators. In addition, we have reviewed 171 first evaluations by our experts in methodology and statistics. The turnaround times for this first round of reviews was 19 days (median). A greater effort to improve these times (which should be less than two weeks) is necessary in order to expedite the processing of manuscripts; moreover, a considerable number of articles require a second review. We should stress the importance of these evaluations as an invaluable aid in the decision-making process with regard to the acceptance or rejection of a given manuscript. Table 1 lists all the collaborators who, disinterestedly, have reviewed manuscripts for the journal throughout 2006. We wish to express our most sincere appreciation to all of them. On a general basis, we can say that the recommendations of our reviewers are increasingly critical. This is resulting, at least in part, in a gradual reduction in the proportion of acceptances (this year, the rate of acceptance was 45% for original articles, 31% for brief reports, and 17% for images in cardiology).
The final mean time from reception to publication was 10 months (6.9 months to final acceptance and an additional 3.1 months to publication, for a total time of 10.3 months). Obviously, we should continue to work to reduce these intervals. As a reference for comparison, we have estimated the mean times to publication in other prestigious cardiovascular journals, analyzing the articles printed in the first issue of each month for the first six months of 2006. In this assessment, evidently approximate, the mean times were 7.2 months for Circulation, 9.5 months for the European Heart Journal and 9.6 months for the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. We should keep in mind that these journals have an electronic manuscript processing system, which enables them to expedite the editorial process, and which we have yet to implement.
AWARDS FOR PUBLISHED ARTICLES
With the collaboration of the different scientific sections, the Executive Committee and the entire SEC, the number of awards and their size (67 400 ε in all) increased with respect to preceding years (Figure 3). Undoubtedly, these awards presented during the Congress of Cardiovascular Diseases are a stimulus and well-deserved recognition for the best works published in Revista Española de Cardiología (Table 2).
Figure 3. Time trend in the prizes awarded for the best articles published in Revista Española de Cardiología.
REVISTA ESPAÑOLA DE CARDIOLOGÍA SUPPLEMENTS
In 206, for first time, the complete text (PDF format) of all the issues of Revista Española de Cardiología Suplementos is available in a new electronic edition, which is of open access and free of charge, on the journal website. Revista Española de Cardiología Suplementos is clearly on the rise, in terms of both the number of supplements (8 in 2006 vs 2 in 2000) and the total number of articles published (55 in 2006 vs 7 in 2000). Moreover, three extra issues have been printed (abstracts of the annual congress, Joint Cardiovascular Seminar and Current Issues in Cardiology).
DISSEMINATION
The dissemination of our journal goes hand-in-hand, principally, with its two electronic versions (Spanish and English). This year, there was a notable increase in the number of visits to both of these editions on our website (www.revespcardiol.org) (Figure 4). In addition, over the year, a total of 22 450 complete articles have been downloaded in English, in PDF format, a number that doubles that recorded in 2005.
Figure 4. Time trend in visits to our website in Spanish (A) and English (B).
Since 2006, Doyma, our publisher, belongs to the prestigious international publishing group, Elsevier. We are sure that this change will enhance the dissemination of our content and the quality of the publication. As a first step, this year, we have been able to make our complete edition in English (available since 2002) accessible via the ScienceDirect database (the largest database of full-text articles in the world) (www.sciencedirect.com). Revista Española de Cardiología is the first publication in Spain to be included in this important database. This measure will undoubtedly increase the visibility of our journal to potential readers and researchers all over the world. Moreover, we are also going to provide a new bibliometric tool, the Scopus database (the largest current database for abstracts and references from the scientific literature) (www.scopus.com).
INNOVATIONS AND EDITORIAL POLICY
The major innovations introduced during 2006 can be summarized in the following points:
1. Since the beginning of the year, both the electronic version and the print edition of Revista Española de Cardiología are published in full color. The aim of this new presentation, at no cost for our authors, is to make our content clearer and more attractive.
2. This year, we have changed the format for Brief Reports. These articles are no longer used to present case reports, but are reserved for series of patients (a minimum of three). Case reports should be presented as Letters to the Editor. We hope that the new design in the presentation of these two sections, as well as the quality obtained in the reproduction of the figures, will please our readers.
3. During this year, we have consolidated our team of medical translators and have reorganized the process of edition in English. In order to expedite the posting of our electronic edition in English, we have decided to publish the translated PDF versions immediately and replace them after receiving the comments of the authors and the meticulous supervision of the copy editors. With this innovation, we hope to reduce (by at least one month) the excessive delay that we had been accumulating with respect to the print edition, while preserving the quality of this edition. For the short term, we should be pragmatic and merely attempt to provide access to the English version within a period of 45 days after the publication of the print edition in Spanish.
4. Our editorial team has also changed this year, and we are pleased to have incorporated into the group a new "Supplement Editor" to direct and reorganize the increasing editorial work generated by this area of the journal. We hope to be able to present our editorial policy in this respect soon.
5. As we mentioned above, the accessibility of our content in the electronic editions has been improved (Revista Española de Cardiología Suplementos and the ScienceDirect database).
6. We have collaborated with the "Women at Heart" initiative of the European Society of Cardiology to disseminate our 2006 update "Cardiovascular Disease in Women" by incorporating these articles into their website and through a mini-CD that was presented at the World Congress of Cardiology held in Barcelona, Spain.
7. We have recently adapted our instructions for authors7 to meet the requirements of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.7-10
8. In this December issue, we publish for the first time in our journal, two articles exclusively in electronic format (e-papers). These papers receive the same bibliometric considerations as a conventional article and are accessible via PubMed. In this way, we propose to continue to publish certain highly interesting but exceptionally long documents (Clinical Practice Guidelines)11 that, otherwise, would notably compromise our editorial resources.
9. This year, we have worked to reorganize our editorial office and adapt it to a system of electronic manuscript processing. Over the past six months, a series of tests have been carried out with original articles that have been assessed using this system by members of our Editorial Committee. This change will also require an additional effort on the part of our authors and reviewers. The implementation of this powerful editorial tool will undoubtedly be our great challenge for 2007.
10. Finally, the editors have participated in different specialized international editorial forums (HEART group). Moreover, in 2007, we will form part of the nucleus of the new European "Editors' Club," the aim of which is to represent the editorial concerns of all the national cardiovascular journals within the framework of the European Society of Cardiology.
Correspondence: Revista Española de Cardiología.
Sociedad Española de Cardiología.
Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, 5-7.
28028 Madrid. España.
E-mail: rec@revespcardiol.org