von Segesser, Ludwig K.

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EditorialImpact Factor 2.106 reached by the European Journal ofCardio-thoracic Surgery on its 20th anniversary in 2007www.elsevier.com/locate/ejctsEuropean Journal of Cardio-thoracic Surgery 33 (2008) 141—142Fig. 2. Impact Factors achieved by the European Journal of Cardio-thoracicSurgery for the work published in 1994 to 2006.The European Journal of Cardio-thoracic Surgery (EJCTS)is a story of success, and all readers, authors, reviewers,editors, publishers, and their respective collaborators,deserve recognition for their outstanding contributions. Asa matter of fact, the European Journal of Cardio-thoracicSurgery was founded by the European Association for Cardio-thoracic Surgery in 1987. Professor Hans Borst acted asfounding editor, at that time in Hannover, and ProfessorMarko Turina in Zurich succeeded him in 1993, whereas thecurrent editor was appointed in the year 2000.There are various ways to measure the performance of ascientific journal. The number of submissions (Fig. 1) tellssomething about the popularity of a specific journal for theauthors, which in turn depends on various factors like thespeed of assessment (72 days in 2007). Typically, the firstoriginal article published in EJCTS in 2005 [1] was submitted 6months earlier, whereas the corresponding time periods were10 months in 2006 [2], and 3 months in 2007 [3] with only 1month for on-line availability, a major improvement ofeditorial handling time, including all revisions and reassess-ments, as well as publishing time.Other factors to assess the performance of a scientificjournal include the print run (now >5500), the geographicaldistribution, and, of course, the potential impact on thescientific community. The Impact Factor, which for a givenyear is defined as the number of citations during the twoprevious years divided by the number of papers publishedFig. 1. Number of submissions to the European Journal of Cardio-thoracicSurgery from 1988 to 2006.1010-7940/$ — see front matter # 2007 European Association for Cardio-Thoracicdoi:10.1016/j.ejcts.2007.12.008during that same period, is widely used for this purpose. TheImpact Factors reached by the European Journal of Cardio-thoracic Surgery over the last 20 years are depicted in Fig. 2,and the recent increase to 2.106 is certainly a major stepforward.Although, a quality driven selection process of the papersto be published, and therefore an increasing rate ofmanuscript rejection (Fig. 3) are recognized as drivers forFig. 3. Rate of acceptance for the European Journal of Cardio-thoracic Surgeryfrom 1994 to 2007.Surgery. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Editorial / European Journal of Cardio-thoracic Surgery 33 (2008) 141—142142an increasing Impact Factor, it has to be mentioned here thatthe Impact Factor is not necessarily a measure of quality. As amatter of fact the Impact Factor is also positively influencedby repeated citation of a publication which is given as anexample for poor methodology. Likewise, papers linked tosome sort of scandal may receive disproportionate attention/citation. Of course there are other means than paper to makesomething known, and the publications in the EuropeanJournal of Cardio-thoracic Surgery are in fact available on theweb at www.ejcts.org several weeks before the printededition is shipped [3].An even faster channel with immediate publication on theInternet at acceptance and consecutive print has beenlaunched by the European Association for Cardio-thoracicSurgery in 2002: Interactive Cardio-Vascular and ThoracicSurgery (ICVTS: 4) which can be found at www.icvts.org. Withits virtual conferencing concept, the publications on ICVTSare open for discussion on the Internet for at least 28 daysprior to their transfer together with the correspondingcomments to the archive section and print [5]. In June 2007,Interactive Cardio-Vascular and Thoracic Surgery was alsoincluded in PubMed and MedLine [6]. This listing includes theback content and therefore all previous ICVTS publicationscan be found through PubMed searches.Although publishing on paper has a proven track record,there is increasing evidence that publishing on paper is nolonger a necessity for success and the work by GregoryPerelman from St. Petersburg may illustrate this [7]. In theyear 2002, the Poincare´ conjecture, an unsolved problem intopology, also called rubber sheet geometry, was named forthe 1 million dollar Millennium prize, and in November 2002Gregory Perelman made the first of three web-publicationsproviding the solutions to the Poincare´ conjecture. By theyear 2006, the mathematical community had caught up, andthe International Mathematical Union announced its inten-tion to award the Fields Medal, the equivalent of a NobelPrize for mathematics, to Gregory Perelman for his worksolving the Poincare´ conjecture. In August 2006 GregoryPerelmen declined the Fields Medal and in December 2006his work made the cover of Science [7] with the title:Breakthrough of the year — the Pointcare´ conjecture solved!Obviously, the world is changing, even if the ultimaterecognition comes in print . . .For issues that are not printed yet, go to www.ejcts.organd www.icvts.org!References[1] Junemann-Ramirez M, Awan MY, Khan ZM, Rahamim JS. Anastomoticleakage post-esophagectomy for esophageal carcinoma: retrospectiveanalysis of predictive factors, management and influence on long-termsurvival in a high volume centre. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 2005;27:3—7.[2] Krasopoulos G, Dusmet M, Ladas G, Goldstraw P. Nuss procedure improvesthe quality of life in young male adults with pectus excavatum deformity.Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 2006;29:1—5.[3] Walter T, Falk W, Borger MA, Dewey T, Wimmer-Greinecker G, Schuler G,Mack M, Mohr FW. Minimally invasive transapical beating heart aorticvalve implantation — proof of concept. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 2007;31:9—15.[4] von Segesser LK. ‘Surgical technique vs technology for surgery’: a plea foran open mind towards new technology. Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg2002;1:1—3.[5] Jalal A. An objective method for grading of distal disease in the graftedcoronary arteries. Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg 2007;6:451—5.[6] von Segesser LK. Interactive Cardio Vascular and Thoracic Surgery (ICVTS)has been selected to be indexed and included in MEDLINE/PubMed.Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg 2007;6:579.[7] Mackenzie D. The Poincare´ conjecture — proved. Science 2006;314:1848—9.Ludwig K. von Segesser*Department of Cardio-Vascular Surgery,Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois,Rue du Bugnon 46, CH-1011 Lausanne, Switzerland*Corresponding author. Tel.: +41 21 314 22 79;fax: +41 21 314 22 78E-mail address: ludwig.von-segesser@chuv.hospvd.chhttp://www.cardiovasc.net/

Impact Factor 2.106 reached by the European Journal of Cardio-thoracic Surgery on its 20th anniversary in 2007

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