Dear colleagues,
For the present editorial we have a very busy agenda, and what better way than listing it here below in bullets points... What? Another style? More clarity? Easier to read? That is the point, because after six years of publication EuroIntervention is launching a new style!
– Re-design
– Current contents
– EuroPCR/EAPCI textbook
– New electronic media
– Impact Factor
– Continued collaborations
Re-design
In my last editorial I told you we would be bringing you a surprise this month, and here it is. Paul Cummins and myself, as well as the whole EuroIntervention team, have been involved in the exciting process of bringing a face-lift to our journal as it enters its 7th year of publication. Assisted by the professional art director Siobhan Royer, who has worked as an art director for Hearst Publishing New York, I do not want to influence you in advance on the result (which we ourselves find invigorating)... we will let you judge, and are interested in your reactions.
Current contents
EuroIntervention is certainly multiple this month, not just in the diversity of the points in this editorial, or in the nature of the articles in this current issue, but also in the other publications –besides the regular edition– that we are bringing you this month. In May edition of EuroIntervention we have three articles focusing on valves coinciding with the joint session we are organising with Thomas Lüscher, Editor-in-Chief of the European Heart Journal. This common EuroIntervention/European Heart Journal session will be dedicated to the best papers on valves published in both journals.
This month as well we have an interesting supplement which takes an in-depth look at local drug delivery, specifically drug-coated balloons. This supplement comes out of a symposium on this topic that took place in Berlin recently, and is guest edited by the two leading names in the use of this approach, who also led the Berlin meeting, Franz Kleber and Bruno Scheller. It is certainly the most contemporary and complete compendium of information on this field, and provides both information of the use of the technique themselves, as well as posing provocative questions on the state of research and development in our speciality in general.
Finally, somehow, while preparing all these changes, the current edition as well as the supplement, the EuroIntervention team succeeded in finding the time to produce the Abstracts book that this year, once again will cover not only EuroPCR, but AsiaPCR as well. We are proud to announce that submissions of these abstracts were again up by 16% when compared to 2010, an impressive 43% increase compared to 2009.
EuroPCR/EAPCI textbook
I could not resist keeping you abreast of the progress being made each week on the EuroPCR / EAPCI textbook. Let us face the truth, we are behind schedule. Still, we are also very close to finishing the book, since 84 of the 88 chapters are now completed. However, the responsibility in doing such a textbook is enormous, and our challenge to achieve the highest levels of academic excellence is so omnipresent that the process of review and reflection, revision and correction demands that we give ourselves more time. If this is to be a true European reference work as well, it is clear –and has been so from the start– that we have to have the feedback of many different individuals and groups. The process is long and exacting, but the results will be, we believe, worth the wait. Our chief editors and associate editors, the EAPCI guidelines committee as well as the national education committees will thus all have their role in reviewing this project and the time to do it; Jean Marco and Eric Eeckhout will be announcing at EuroPCR 2011 the exact date of publication.
New electronic media
I have a confession to make to you.
I used to be fax fan and I became addicted to my fax machine. That addiction led me to harder stuff, and I became a “crackberry”… Iam sure I am not alone. And now, I cannot hide it from you, I am an iPad junkie. I have to confess that the more I read EuroIntervention on my iPad, the more I find it a delight, and everyday I am more impressed by the high definition and quality of the illustrations on these electronic devices. It is clear to me that we will be seeing greater and greater interactivity and content on these devices in the future, and their impact on the way we work and read will continue to be recognised, their increased use by EuroIntervention will bring us, as well, into the most talked about cutting edge forum for modern publishing today.
Impact factor
Whilst waiting for the appraisal of the journal and its positioning in the ISI Impact factor, and taking into account the tremendous impact of the iPad itself on my own daily activities, I realised while looking at the traffic on the EuroIntervention website, that it is becoming increasingly clear the sheer level of scientific communications that is consumed online. The printed word is losing ground as our world and speciality changes at increasing speeds, and if we look at the role citations have played in scientific assessment, it is very apparent that citations originated when most publications were printed and consumed via print. This is especially true when you consider that the impact factor itself was created by Eugene Garfield in 1955.
As a former student of philosophy, I was wondering if the role of this Impact Factors is the whole story today, or whether we should reflect on another manner to judge our publications. Perhaps we should also consider other “appraisal” mechanisms, i.e., usage data (downloads, hits online, even Facebook and Twitter presence). Itherefore asked two members of my editorial team to investigate these different aspects of “presence” in clinical and scientific research, and have asked for another two years to consider what our true Impact Factor will be. In asking for this additional two years there is something else to consider: we are seeing our impact factor after we have moved to 12 issues a year. We do not want to appear as some other journals, who begin with a high impact factor and then see it diminish in the second or third year because they have gone to a greater frequency of publication. By waiting two years, we will have the advantage of seeing an impact factor that clearly reflects this denominator of 12. And by waiting two years, we will also see the fruit of our investigation into the true value of communications in our increasingly “virtual” world.
Continued collaborations
Sorry for the unusual style of this very busy editorial, but I have to finish by telling you that we are furthering consolidating our friendship with Spencer King III and JACC Interventions, the best proof of which is our on-going conversation at EuroPCR with our special joint session with JACC Interventions. This linked with our other joint session with the European Heart Journal (discussed above) offers you the very best, internationally and locally, of what is happening today in interventional medicine.
In conclusion, while we have spoken of many diverse topics, Ibelieve you will see in each of them individually a way that you can find useful for yourselves, a way that you can get involved and we look forward to you joining us.
