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(Circulation. 1995;91:244.)
© 1995 American Heart Association, Inc.

Articles

Education of an Editor

Fulfillment of Promises

James T. Willerson, MD

	Introduction

Top Introduction

 
The biggest problem of making internal maps of reality is not that we have to start from scratch, but that if our maps are to be accurate, we have to continually revise them.

M. Scott Peck, MD, 1993

In July 1993, we promised that Circulation would be increasingly interactive with its readership through a balanced selection of manuscripts reflecting the best of the clinical and basic research work that is submitted. We stated that we wished to publish Circulation twice a month in the near future; to review brief communications and regular manuscripts and communicate our decisions to authors within 2 and 4 weeks, respectively; and to provide a Cardiovascular News section, a monthly Clinicopathological Conference, a Cardiovascular Images section, and one to three editorials focusing on specific contributions in each issue. We committed ourselves to more timely publication of the brief communications and regular articles.

We are pleased to introduce twice-monthly publication of Circulation starting with this month, January 1995. Some question the value of such an effort, but we expect to be able to publish excellent manuscripts more rapidly in a slimmed-down version of Circulation and to compete even more effectively for the best clinical and basic research work as it applies to human disease, including the major clinical trials. Ultimately, I hope for even more frequent publication of Circulation as I believe that worldwide cardiovascular medicine deserves a weekly publication, and publishing the journal every 2 weeks is a step in that direction.

We have not yet kept some of the other commitments made in an editorial in July 1993 (Willerson JT. Circulation: in the next 5 years. Circulation. 1993;888:1-3). After 1 year of publishing Circulation from the Texas Medical Center in Houston, we have been communicating decisions for brief communications within 2.5 weeks and for all manuscripts within 5.7 weeks. It still requires a longer period than is desirable to publish manuscripts in Circulation. We hope to do better, but we need the readership's support.

There are inevitable delays in review times if reviewers refuse to review a manuscript or if they do not return manuscripts to our office within the 2 to 3 weeks allotted for the review. There are also unavoidable delays if the review returned is not a useful one. On occasion, a reviewer has never returned a manuscript. Available reviewers committed to providing useful and timely reviews are an essential part of any journal's ability to respond well and promptly to its potential authors and to making a first-class journal available to its readership every 2 weeks.

The Cardiovascular News section, Cardiovascular Images, Clinicopathological Conferences, and our commitment to publish the best clinical work and basic science research related to human disease that is submitted to us provide a balance of material and, we hope, something for everyone interested in cardiovascular medicine.

We are very grateful for the fine efforts of many reviewers who have made the publication of excellent cardiovascular work a pleasure. We appreciate the opportunity to serve as stewards for Circulation and to share a commitment to help make it the journal of cardiovascular medicine that its readership deserves.

Please join us in celebrating the opportunity to publish interesting cardiovascular medicine more frequently, more rapidly, and in a format that is easy to read and use and in extending to the American Heart Association our most sincere gratitude. When the opportunity arises to serve Circulation as a reviewer, please accept it and provide a timely and useful review. With our readership's help, we shall continue to devote ourselves to making Circulation the best of its kind.

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				J. T. Willerson Circulation: New Opportunities : When all is considered, what matters most is opportunity Circulation, January 13, 1998; 97(1): 3 - 3. [Full Text] [PDF]

This Article Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Willerson, J. T. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Willerson, J. T.