From the Editor – A New Editorial Board and a New Approach

Abstract

In January 2004, after my first 3 years as Editor-in-Chief of Cardiovascular Drugs and Therapy (CDT), I wrote in the Editor’s page, that these first years had been good for the journal and that I looked forward to the years to come. A second 3-year period has passed—and the question is what have we achieved? Is there still a reason to be content? I believe, there is. We have received a steadily rising number of articles, and with that a steadily increase in critical appreciation of quality and suitability for publication. As a consequence, and in order to stay within the limits of available pages in each issue, rejection rate has increased, However, in parallel, so did our citation index. Another reason to be content regards the speed of the reviewing process. This has considerably shortened compared to the previous 3 years, partly due to few reviewer refusals, a fast return of reviews, and the easiness of the on-line review system with our new Editorial Manager System. The average review time in 2005 was 18 days. Moreover, in the past years, CDT has become available on-line and is often visited with a very satisfying number of full text articles viewed. This is particularly true for the new Online First, where articles become available in PDF format the moment they are accepted, well before publication in the regular paper issue of the journal. That CDT is doing well has many reasons. The input and support of the Editorial Board, in particular that of the Associate and Section Editors, is a very important one, and I am very grateful for their help. Moreover, as mentioned above, I cannot complain about reviewer support. I have been always happily surprised by the positive responses to our request to review and I want to thank again all those who reviewed in the last 3 years. Also, I am much obliged to all who accepted to write editorials. These have undoubtedly contributed much to the standing of CDT. One person deserves to be mentioned by name and that is my excellent Editorial Assistant Noor van Dam, who is really the central and most important person in our Editorial Office, and without whom I would be rather helpless.