A challenging assignment

EDITORIAL

A challenging assignment

Fábio Vilas-Boas

Salvador, BA - Brazil

^{Mailing Address}

When I accepted the position of Editor-in-Chief for the Arquivos Brasileiros de Cardiologia (Brazilian Cardiology Archives) I knew that it would be a challenging assignment. Our objectives were clearly defined, within a much larger project, and involve various activities with a common purpose: to strengthen the impact factor of the Archives.

For those who are unaware of what this signifies, the impact factor is a ratio between the number of times the Archives are cited and the number of articles published in the journal every year. The higher the impact factor, the greater our chances to receive better publications and become part of the list of elite international medical journals as classified by ISI (Thomson Scientific).

After all, why would a regular reader, that is not a researcher, be concerned with this? For various reasons. The process of increasing the impact involves not only an improvement in the quality of articles published but also an improvement in the internal structure of the journal. The various activities required to attain this objective will result in gradual transformations in the journal that will be noticed by the reader. This process was initiated by the last two management teams, and our task will be to continue in this direction. With this in mind, our initiatives included an invitation to the future Archives Editor to participate in this project, as well as the reorganization of the area editors, and also of the editorial and revision boards.

Other initiatives have been undertaken in the international scene to expand the scope of the Archives. However, these recommendations have not been followed by us, the Brazilians. It is essential for Brazilian authors who publish in international journals to become aware of the importance of Archive citations. Citations for articles written by other Brazilian colleagues are a gesture of respect that increases the value of the original article and contributes to the attainment of international recognition for the Cardiology field in Brazil. The international community interprets these citations as evidence of the fact that research is being conducted in our country, and this benefits everyone!

Our plans also include the creation of priority or "fast track" articles. All authors with highly relevant articles will receive a guarantee of publication within two months, as well as on-line publication before printing. Anyone who has won an award at a SBC conference or from their respective departments and/or study groups will qualify for the publication of a priority article. We are striving to reduce the timeframe between submission and publication, but the main delay is still the author’s response time in regard to text revisions requested by the copy editor. We will create an on-line follow-up system for the articles where the author can track the revision process and question the progress.

The annual award for the best article published will be presented as usual at the traditional awards dinner held at the end of each year that is attended by the lead researchers and Service Managers who publish the greatest number of articles in the Archives during the year.

In closing, on behalf of the journal’s publishing staff, I invite you to continue reading the Archives and more importantly, to continue sending your articles for publication. Please do not hesitate to forward any complaints or suggestions to my personal address.

Sincerely,

Fábio Vilas-Boas

Editor in Chief

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  30 Mar 2006
• Date of issue
  Mar 2006