• „ FROM THE EDITOR

Kardiologia Polska at the end of 2021: The pandemic and beyond

Anetta Undas1, 2

1Institute of Cardiology, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland

2John Paul II Hospital, Kraków, Poland

The December 2021 issue of the Kardiol Polska (Kardiol Pol, Polish Heart Journal) marks four years since I was appointed as Editor-in-Chief of this flagship journal of the Polish Cardiac Society. As promised (and predicted) in my inaugural Editor’s note in January 2018, our journal achieved the Impact Factor above 2.5, and the current value of 3.108 is impressive, making our journal the leader among Polish cardiovascular periodicals. The journal has become a respected and trusted forum for less and highly experienced researchers exploring cardiovascular diseases mainly from Polish centers; of note, approximately 30% of papers published in 2021 came from outside major academic cities. The success of the Educational Issues, started in 2019 and maintained in the present year as a means for dissemination of practical knowledge in Polish supporting everyday practice of cardiologists, general practitioners, and many other physicians, has brought heightened visibility to the Kardiol Pol. Of note, until now the Kardiol Pol is available without cost barriers to publication or dissemination of its content.

From a local perspective, it should be highlighted that as announced on December 1, 2021, the Kardiol Pol received 100 points (an increase from 70 points) on the latest ranking of scientific journals issued by the Ministry of Education and Science, which is of importance in the ongoing evaluation of universities and research institutes in Poland.

The year 2021 was another year of COVID-19. At the time of writing of this article, over 3.8 million Poles are confirmed infected with SARS-CoV-2 and more than 90 000 have died. COVID-19 has not only dramatically changed the way we live, but it has also positively impacted submission rates, a worldwide phenomenon across most research fields. During COVID-19, in 2020 and to a smaller extent in 2021, submission rates were 20%–30% higher each month compared to the year 2019, in part due to a substantial number of manuscripts reporting widespread consequences of the pandemic such as a marked decrease in STEMI or invasive cardiac procedures largely affecting noninfected patients in Poland. A total of 44 COVID-19 papers appeared in our journal last year and they covered a broad spectrum of topics from multiauthored expert opinions to intriguing clinical vignettes on rare cardiac complications of vaccination against COVID-19.

With the last May issue, the editors were pleased to welcome Via Medica as a new publisher of the Kardiol Pol. To facilitate a smooth transition from Medycyna Praktyczna, we continued to use the Editorial Manager online submission and peer-review system, known from several prestigious medical journals. New technological solutions on the website, competent editorial office, activity on social media, efficient marketing, all are needed to ensure the good level of service we wish to provide authors, reviewers, and our readership. An important change is related to the altered calculation algorithm for the Impact Factor. The publisher has declared that in 2022 our journal will move to a continuous publication model in which articles are electronically published on the Web of Science as soon as corrected proofs are authorized, which can increase the number of citations. Rapid professional linguistic corrections will be a huge challenge for the editorial office.

Against all odds, I do trust that our journal will continue to flourish in 2022. We have got a plan for going forward. I believe in the Journal’s mission and potential, and I am committed to doing my best to assist the Journal in building on its core values: fairness, objectivity, the elimination of scientific misconduct, and, in our daily work 7 days a week, selection of articles presenting novel, unexpected findings, opening new possibilities, only if supported by sound methodology. We hope to increase the number of dedicated and timely expert reviewers, in particular among young cardiologists, who help us in everyday decision-making, by an action supported by the Polish Cardiac Society.

At the end of 2021, I would like to thank all associate editors, referees, authors, readers, editorial staff, and publishers, for their contributions to the Journal over the last tough year. Finally to all former, current, and future authors who consider submitting their research to the Kardiol Pol, we eagerly look forward to seeing your research on our pages in 2022.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, with hope in the power of science to combat not only the pandemic but also cardiovascular diseases.

Article information

Conflict of interest: None declared.

Open access: This article is available in open access under Creative Common Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license, allowing to download articles and share them with others as long as they credit the authors and the publisher, but without permission to change them in any way or use them commercially. For commercial use, please contact the journal office at kardiologiapolska@ptkardio.pl.

How to cite: Undas A. Kardiologia Polska at the end of 2021: The pandemic and beyond. Kardiol Pol. 2021; 79(12): 1299–1300, doi: 10.33963/KP.a2021.0181.