Cardiology Journal — Five years later
Wojciech Zaręba

Cardiology Journal; 2011, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 1–2

Cardiology Journal was established by Prof. Grażyna Świątecka from Gdańsk, Poland, in 1994 initially as a journal focused on pacing and electrophysiology under the name “Elektrofizjologia i Stymulacja Serca (Cardiac Pacing and Electrophysiology)” addressing the needs of the Pacing and Electrophysiology Section of the Polish Cardiac Society. The journal was (and still is) published by then newly established publishing house: Via Medica, in Gdańsk, Poland. Soon thereafter in 1999, a raising popularity of the journal among Polish cardiologists triggered a change in the profile and name of the journal to cover all disciplines of cardiology as an official journal of several sections of the Polish Cardiac Society. The journal was named Folia Cardiologica and successfully propagated science and education among Polish cardiologists.

In 2005, Prof. Świątecka retired from the function of Editor-in-Chief of Folia Cardiologica. Since 2006 I had an honor to be invited by the Editorial Board to serve as Editor-in-Chief. It is hard to believe that five years already passed.

From 2006, Folia Cardiologica had new goals:

• to make the journal as an international journal serving cardiologist all over the world by publishing articles in English instead of Polish; at the same time satisfying Polish readers by establishing a Polish version of the journal under the name Folia Cardiologica Excerpta;
• to increase access to the journal by providing open access to the articles on the journal website;
• to establish electronic submission, review, and management of articles;
• to apply for indexing in Medline to further increase visibility of the journal;
• to apply to Thomson Scientific to achieve evaluation of the journal regarding its Impact Factor;
• to increase the quality of scientific and educational content of the journal.

We are glad to provide a progress report regarding these goals.

In the first few months of 2006, we switched to an English version and since then the journal is published bimonthly (6 issues per year) in English providing a broad access to scientific content via the journal’s website. During this transition period Via Medica developed, with our significant help, an electronic web-based system of manuscript submission and management to simplify and speed-up this process. We redesigned the graphical presentation of the journal with a table of contents shown on the front cover as a convenience for the readers. We restructured the content of the journal providing a venue for review articles, how to do papers, images in cardiology, ECG presentations, new drugs and technologies, and history of cardiology articles apart from the usual original papers and case reports.

In 2006, we considered applying for Medline indexing, but we realized that the title Folia Cardiologica has been used in the past by Italian colleagues and appeared in Medline some years before the Polish journal was established. To avoid confusion with this journal, we elected to change and register a new title of the journal by literally translating the title Folia Cardiologica from Latin to English as Cardiology Journal. Cardiology Journal appeared under this title in January 2007. After publishing a few issues of Cardiology Journal, we applied for Medline Indexing which was granted to the journal in 2008, and all articles have been indexed in Medline since that year, also providing full web access to the content of each paper at www.cardiologyjournal.org. In 2009, we obtained approval for evaluating Cardiology Journal regarding an Impact Factor, which will be calculated for the first time in 2012 for the year providing information regarding citation of articles published in 2009 and 2010.

The last five years have been fulfilled by a commitment of many people working in collaboration to make this journal a successful one. Despite the long distance between the editorial office in Rochester, NY, USA, and headquarters of the Via Medica publishing house in Gdańsk, Poland, the collaboration is extremely effective since my wife Grażyna Zaręba, PhD, assumed the role of Managing Editor of the journal (in addition to her own academic career), whereas Ms. Joanna Niezgoda in Gdańsk in Poland serves as a very devoted Publisher Editor maintaining daily contact with us regarding the preparation of each issue. There are many additional people involved in Via Medica in the preparation of the journal under the direction of Dr. Łukasz Stolarczyk and Dr. Janusz Popaszkiewicz and we are thankful to all for their devotion to this project.

We are particularly indebted to numerous colleagues collaborating with the journal as Section Editors, members of the Editorial Board and reviewers, colleagues representing numerous fields of cardiology and a truly international community. All these colleagues have played an active role in increasing the level of the journal and further establishing Cardiology Journal as a popular venue for authors from all over the world. We have experienced a steady increase in the number of articles submitted per year. In 2007, we received 106 articles whereas in 2010 we received 346 articles. Our rejection rate (including original papers and case reports) has increased from 8% in 2007 to 66% in 2010. This situation contributes to a steady increase in the quality of submitted papers.

We receive and publish papers from all over the world and we are grateful to numerous authors who consider our journal for presenting their scientific work. For example, in 2010 Cardiology Journal published all-together 121 articles including: 48 original papers, 24 case reports, 18 review of how-to-do papers, 6 new drugs and technologies papers, 7 images, 6 ECG presentations, 6 historical articles, and 6 editorials.

Our plans are to continue this mission to the world-wide cardiology community providing an open-access forum facilitating an exchange of ideas and promoting education through Cardiology Journal. We welcome submission of papers and collaboration of authors and reviewers to elevate our journal to an even higher level.