High impact Cardiovascular Research: beyond the heart and vessels

Two years at the helm of Cardiovascular Research has truly sailed by for the current Editorial team as we end 2019 with a review of the Journal’s performance and its impact on the scientific community. The commitment to regularly review the published content of the Journal was set out in the Deputy Editors’ Statement1 and is a continuation of the important work carried out by the previous Editorial Office.2 Such analysis ensures that Cardiovascular Research publications remain relevant and align well with the overall strategic goals of the Journal. In a similar structure to our review in 2018,3 hereby, we present a brief analysis of the Journal’s current impact factor (IF) and an overview of hot topics that attracted attention in 2017 and 2018. This was a landmark year in terms of IF for the Journal as it surpassed seven for the first time in its history. The IF reached 7.014; a 10.3% increase upon 2017. Whilst the IF is not without its criticisms, it remains a key metric for many researchers when considering where to publish their work. Continuing to drive the upward trend in IF of Cardiovascular Research will ensure that we receive the best quality basic and translational science for the benefit of our readers and the scientific community. In the Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems ranking, the Journal rose four places to 12th. The IF measures the number of citations in each year (i.e. 2018) to items published in the last 2 years (i.e. 2017 and 2016). Therefore, it is with our gratitude, we acknowledge the previous editorial team led by Professor Karin Sipido in their huge contribution towards this success. The 2018 immediacy index increased further to 2.874 showing that manuscripts published in the Journal received a strong level of attention in the immediate term. The Journal remained second overall in terms of total numbers of citations in 2018 within the ESC Journals family emphasizing the enduring interest of Cardiovascular Research articles (Table 1). Congratulations to our ESC Journals family member European Heart Journal - Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy on receiving its first IF in 2018! Total number of citations in 2018 to ESC Journals family Data correct at point of extraction from Web of Science on the 19 September 2019. Total number of citations in 2018 to ESC Journals family Data correct at point of extraction from Web of Science on the 19 September 2019. The editorial team wishes to thank our authors for choosing to submit their best work to the Journal. In addition, thank you to our peer reviewers, editorial board members, and editors for their time and efforts in ensuring the high quality and scientific rigour of manuscripts. Without the dedication of a large community of people, it would be impossible to drive the success of the Journal.4 In the period of 2017–18, Cardiovascular Research published 286 articles in total; 225 (79%) were original articles and 62 (21%) were reviews. This is a similar proportion to the previous period in 2016–17.3 The strength of the Journal remains in the high-quality original research that the Journal is known for and the Editors are committed to maintaining this publication balance in favour of original work. Articles from 2017 to 2018 have performed strongly in terms of impact, attracting 3100 citations to date (data correct at point of extraction from Web of Science on the 20 September 2019). Over 20% of these articles attracted 15 or more citations. Encouragingly, 60.9% of the top 100 cited manuscripts were original articles, underlining the strong reputation of Cardiovascular Research as the home to publish high impact scientific discoveries. The Journal has periodically reviewed data on the relationship between the number of citations and whether or not an article is selected as Editors’ Choice. Since 2014, Editors’ Choice articles have consistently had more citations on average than non-Editors’ Choice articles. Analysis of the top 100 cited items in 2017–18 period supports this data, with Editors’ Choice articles receiving 22.2 ± 0.2 citations per article and non-Editors’ Choice articles receiving 15.6 ± 0.1. We undertook keyword analysis of the top 100 cited articles in the period of 2017–18 with the aim of identifying hot topics that attracted the attention of the scientific community.Figure 1 shows a summary of the findings of this keyword analysis. Within the top 100 cited articles, the term cardiac appeared 20% more frequently than vascular. Cardiovascular disease comorbidities such as obesity and diabetic were notably present with 7 and 5 counts, respectively. In keeping with the Journal’s motto, scientific discovery drives clinical delivery it was comforting to see disease, mechanism, and human also appear among the most commonly used keywords. Word cloud summarizing keyword analysis of the top 100 cited articles in Cardiovascular Research between 2017 and 2018. Word cloud generated using https://wordart.com/. Data correct at point of extraction from Web of Science on 19 September 2019. Cardiac biology is an umbrella term for a number of specialities. Original contributions that employed induced pluripotent stem cells to investigate the pathological mechanisms of cardiac arrhythmias were particularly well-cited.5–8 Two manuscripts using computer modelling to study basic cardiac electrophysiology complimented these more clinically driven articles.9,10 Papers featured on cardioprotection mostly focussed on the therapeutic potential of extracellular vesicles,11–13 including a seminal ESC Position Paper on the subject.14 Areas of traditional strength for the Journal such as myocardial infarction and ischemia/reperfusion injury15–22 and heart failure23–28 were well-represented in the top-cited list. Several commissioned articles on various mechanisms underlying the development of cardiomyopathy attracted attention including inflammation,29 genetics,30,31 and metabolic disturbances.32,33 Two original articles focussed on mechanisms of valvular disease also featured in the top-cited list.34,35 The articles from the Spotlight Issue on the right ventricle continued to be very popular36–42; original articles also explored targeting right ventricular dysfunction in pulmonary arterial hypertension.43,44 Finally, articles that explored women’s cardiac health were also well received and the Editors predict this field will grow in popularity.45–47 Unsurprisingly, the excellent Spotlight Issue on vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) features heavily in the top-cited manuscripts focussing on vascular biology.48–55 A broad spectrum of vascular pathology was represented in the top-cited original articles. Unlike in last year’s report where atherosclerosis dominated this category, those exploring the vascular complications of hypertension56–62 matched the number of papers focussed on atherosclerosis.63–68 The majority of these papers were focussed predominantly on immune cell-mediated mechanisms and inflammation. Notably, younger disciplines of vascular research were well-represented within the top-cited items including coronary microvascular dysfunction,69–71 the cerebral vasculature,72 and aortic dissection.73,74 Manuscripts concerned with non-coding RNAs formed 14% of the top 100 cited articles in 2017–18. Reviews covering the role of non-coding RNAs featured in the Spotlight Issue on VSMCs75 and adipose tissue.76 Non-coding RNAs were shown to be involved in a spectrum of cardiac diseases.77–79 In addition, a number of studies explored the role of lesser-known family members of the non-coding RNA family, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs),80–82 and circular RNAs,83 in the heart. With respect to vascular biology, microRNAs were shown to have novel roles in the rejection of vascular grafts following coronary artery bypass grafting,84,85 mediating inflammation in the atherosclerotic plaque,68 and in maturation of VSMCs.86 It is a sign of the increasingly interdisciplinary field of cardiology that just under 10% of the top-cited items were concerned with diabetes. There are two main arms of interest for cardiovascular researchers. The first are the cardiovascular complications associated with diabetes such as diabetic cardiomyopathy,87–89 heart failure,90,91 and vascular dysfunction.92,93 The second is the repurposing of dapagliflozin and other oral hypoglycaemic agents for the treatment for heart failure, which has received huge attention this year following the positive results of the DAPA-HF trial.94 The study of the underlying mechanisms of these drugs in cardiac disease will be a hugely important area in the coming years and current knowledge has been covered in two excellent articles in Cardiovascular Research.95,96 A recent Spotlight Issue of the Journal explored the role of the adipose tissue in cardiovascular disease. Articles from this Issue explored fat in the pathological setting such as in obesity97–100 but also in maintaining normal physiology.101,102 Original manuscripts that featured within the top-cited articles explored the close relationship between adipose tissue and the heart103 and vessels,104,105 as well as exploring the cross-generational implications of obesity in pregnancy.106 The Editors express their sincere gratitude to our authors and the Cardiovascular Research editorial team for their dedication and commitment to building the impact of the Journal. Our reviewers deserve particular gratitude for providing not only timely but very detailed and professional comments leading to improvements in the papers published. The top-cited papers presented here are representative of the broad spectrum of cardiovascular science published by the Journal. The Editors remain dedicated to expanding the scope and variety of disciplines that are covered to remain relevant in a rapidly developing and increasingly inter-disciplinary field. Conflict of interest: none declared. Biography: Dr Heather Y. Small is Senior Managing Editor of Cardiovascular Research, based in the Journal’s Editorial Office within the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences at the University of Glasgow. Notable recognitions include the Women Transforming Leadership grant awarded by the European Society of Cardiology and Top Basic Science Paper awarded by the American Heart Association. Heather has worked in academia studying vascular biology with a focus on women’s health and in industry as a medical writer. Biography: Professor Tomasz J. Guzik is the current Editor-in-Chief of Cardiovascular Research. He is the Regius Professor of Physiology and Cardiovascular Pathobiology and an Honorary Consultant Physician in Cardiology at the University of Glasgow. He also serves as a Professor of Medicine at Jagiellonian University Collegium Medicum in Krakow, Poland. Notable recognitions include the honorary Bernard and Joan Marshall Prize in Research Excellence from the BSCR and the prestigious Corcoran Award Lecture at the American Heart Association. He is a recipient of European Research Council Grant. Professor Guzik’ research focusses on vascular biology, hypertension, and clinical immunology.