Cardiovascular Research: new challenges and new horizons

I am honoured and delighted to be taking over the helm of Cardiovascular Research, as the Editor-in-Chief, from Professor Karin Sipido. It is a huge honour, as Cardiovascular Research, brought to its excellence by previous Editors-in-Chief, is one of the strongest journals in basic and translational cardiovascular sciences worldwide. It is also one of the European Society of Cardiology’s (ESC) most important assets, supporting the overall mission of the Society. It will be exciting to lead the journal into a new phase of its growth, after 50 years of service to the cardiovascular community. The journal was initially intended by the late founder, Professor John P. Shillingford, to group together basic laboratory work distinct from the clinically based journals.1 Of course, in the age of translational research and the concept of ‘bench to bedside’ science, I foresee the future of Cardiovascular Research as embarking onto an interface between basic science and its potential clinical applications. Professor Karin Sipido and all the previous Editors-in-Chief have, since 1967, developed the Journal to its current high standing and position. This is reflected by its international recognition, impact in cardiovascular science as well as stable impact factor at the level of 5.878 in 2016. While the journal was started in Britain, from the very beginning it has been international, and this has taken a new turn when it joined the ESC family in 1995. The success of the journal is built upon its authors submitting their best research. Cardiovascular Research enjoys a loyal community of authors, referees and readers,2 and we hope to maintain the support of the existing Cardiovascular Research community, whilst bringing into the fold an additional clinical/translational audience and internationalising the authorship and editorial spectrum. The new Editorial Team will work hard to reach out to authors, facilitate the process of submission and to provide very quick decisions on manuscripts. The main priority for Cardiovascular Research for the next 5 years is to nurture its growth and impact in the field, through maintaining the very high quality of manuscripts published. We will continue efforts to further increase readership.3 We plan to embark on areas at the interface of cardiovascular medicine and pharmacology, epidemiology, genetics, immunology, and even engineering. It will be essential to widen the scope of the areas of research published by Cardiovascular Research to stimulate submissions of currently under-represented areas, such as neural regulation of cardiovascular function, cardiovascular immunology and immunometabolism, stroke, pulmonary hypertension, cardio-oncology as well as cardiovascular aspects of obesity, and metabolic syndrome. We will also aim to pioneer previously uncovered aspects of novel technologies in cardiovascular diagnostics, imaging, and therapeutics. These areas create particularly strong opportunities for further development of readership in Europe and intercontinentally. We hope to encourage these areas to see Cardiovascular Research as the new home for their best studies. While embarking on these new areas we hope to maintain high quality in balanced submissions in cardiac and vascular biology, which have ensured the success of the journal over many years. Our journal submissions and papers published originate mainly from Europe. Whilst this is very valuable, we would like to encourage submissions from the US, Australia, and Asia through appointing international Deputy and Associate Editors from these regions and undertaking an intensive effort, to invite the best manuscripts outside of Europe. We will also focus on increasing co-operation with other journals in the ESC journal family, regarding basic/translational research. Such interactions may be particularly valuable and lead to further development of all journals of the ESC. We are entering very exciting times in relation to scientific publishing and sharing of research data.4 We will work hard to increase the social media presence of Cardiovascular Research, as a means of engaging the scientists of the future, the public and civil society. Our key aim will be to develop new means of disseminating novel findings published by Cardiovascular Research to the wider community. The journal already very actively works with the Scientists of Tomorrow within the ESC, and we will aim to increase this interaction, with benefits for both the journal and promoting cardiovascular research among young scientists in Europe and beyond. Cardiovascular Research has developed a unique feature called Onlife in April 2017 (https://academic.oup.com/cardiovascres/pages/cvr_onlife_latest).5 We hope to develop it further as a means of communication with our readers and to encourage them to be actively involved in the journal. Such a format opens endless opportunities including rapid dissemination of results and post-publication review/moderated scientific discussion. If this works well, Onlife could develop into an app for mobile platforms serving as a hub for basic and translational research in cardiology. In order to widen the scope on translational medicine, we will develop new features bringing key clinical findings to basic scientists and propagating novel basic science discoveries among clinical researchers, thus facilitating rapid translation of basic science in cardiovascular medicine. The new features to attract clinical/translational/pharma audiences will include translational implications of clinical trials, novel drug target reviews or grand rounds from the major centres of cardiovascular research in Europe and Worldwide. We will be focused on helping the ESC in promoting basic and translational sciences and are looking forward to cooperating with the ESC leadership. We will work with organisers of the ESC Annual Congress and Frontiers in Cardiovascular Biology to include Special Basic Cardiovascular Research Sessions, where authors of the best and most recognised recent papers would be invited to present their research. We will further build on the success of virtual issues linked to these conferences.6 This is important, as these Congresses are already considered as the most relevant exchange platforms for basic and translational cardiovascular research. Finally, as cardiovascular science now requires a forum for rapid publication of high quality novel findings, we will work to create a fast track for basic and translational science papers. Whilst the stringency of review will be very high, emphasis on timeline and oversight by Deputy Editors will facilitate rapid dissemination of key findings, which is becoming so important in science nowadays. To further develop Cardiovascular Research as a global journal run by an international community of editors, reviewers, and authors, we will hope to achieve increased readership and recognition worldwide. In turn, raising impact in the field, while maintaining the high quality and position of the journal established throughout the years through the hard work and vision of my predecessors. On behalf of all of the new Cardiovascular Research team, I would like to take this opportunity and thank Professor Karin Sipido, for devoting the past 5 years to the journal, her huge involvement and achievements. We hope that she will continue to support us with her editorial experience and scientific wisdom. I am committed to continue this important mission to steer the journal to serve the common interests of the worldwide cardiovascular community to meet the challenges ahead. Conflict of interest: none declared. The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those of the European Society of Cardiology.