© 2001 American Heart Association, Inc.
Editorial |
A Progress Report
This issue marks the end of the second year of our editorship, which began in March of 1999. We wish to summarize some changes in the Journal and to thank several groups of people for their help. We will summarize changes in relation to several goals of the Editors: to publish high-quality articles, provide timely review and publication, and publish articles that are of interest to our readers. We will then describe the effects on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology (ATVB) of the electronic revolution in medical publishing.
Publication of High-Quality Articles
Selection of manuscripts for publication depends in part on scientific validity of findings, as perceived by reviewers, the Editorial Board, and the Editors. Also of great importance is our perception of the likely impact of articles: will the study influence the area of research?
Evaluation of quality of articles in a Journal is
exceedingly difficult. One approach is calculation of "impact
factor." The latest available data (for 1999) indicate that the
impact of the articles in ATVB increased almost 40% during 1999
(Figure 1
). Compared with some other journals that publish
articles related to atherosclerosis and lipoproteins,
vascular biology, and thrombosis
(Figure 1), the Journal is doing very well. Some other
journals in this area of research, however, have a higher impact factor
(Figure 2), and ATVB has not yet achieved that level.
Nevertheless, the recent 40% increase in impact factor is
remarkable.
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