THe European Journal of Heart Failure Now and in the Years to Come: A Salutation from the Incoming Editor-in-Chief.

It is with the greatest respect that I have accepted the position as Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Heart Failure (EJHF) starting on 1 January 2015. Professor Dirk van Veldhuisen, as well as Prof. Karl Swedberg, 5 years before, opened their editorial with exactly the same words when they accepted this role.1 Now, it is my turn, and I am honoured to use the same words as those of my predecessors. Together with the founder Editor of the journal, Prof. John Cleland (previously in Hull, now in London), they have made the EJHF the most important journal in heart failure and one of the most important cardiology journals overall. Such an outstanding result is, by itself, a reason to keep on the track drawn by my predecessors. However, more than that, there is the value of what they have done, actively contributing to the progress in the knowledge of heart failure and, in general, to the advance of science. Their integrity, brightness, and expertise are an example for us all and I feel the burden of their role and their example. Thanks to the skills and far-reaching perspectives of its previous Editors, as well as to the essential support of the Heart Failure Association (HFA) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), the EJHF has now reached an extremely favourable position among scientific journals. Despite all its limits,2, 3 the impact factor (IF) remains the main parameter to rank the value of a journal. With an impact factor of 6.577, the EJHF is now the first among the journals devoted to heart failure and 10th in the ranking of 128 cardiology journals, as calculated by the Thomson Reuters Journal of Citations Reports. As such, its position is very close to the three main cardiology journals, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Circulation, and the European Heart Journal, all close to each other with an IF of 15.343, 14.948 and 14.723, respectively. Beyond this, there are just Circulation research, Nature Reviews in Cardiology, two interventional cardiology, and two cardiovascular imaging journals between the European Heart Journal and EJHF, and this makes the EJHF the ideal journal for the transfer of heart failure articles rejected by ‘our mother journal’, the European Heart Journal. The new journal ESC – Heart failure, the open access journal of the HFA of ESC, to which the articles rejected by EJHF can be transferred upon request by the authors, is going to further the opportunity for publication offered by HFA. How has the outstanding position of EJHF been achieved? It has come from the skills, intellect, and, last but not least, hard work, of its former Editors with, in these last 5 years, the fundamental work by Dirk van Veldhuisen and its stellar group of Deputy Editors, Adriaan Voors, and Wiek van Gilst, and Associate Editors based at the University of Groningen. They have wisely chosen only the best articles submitted and have been tough enough to reject most, around 80%, of the articles submitted in these last years. The outstanding work of Gillie Porter, Managing Editor of the journal since its early days in Hull, is also to be praised. In addition to this, the contribution of the HFA of ESC has been essential. As EJHF is official journal of this association, it has the privilege to be the natural tool to convey its work and ideas. The major example of this is represented by the ESC guidelines on heart failure. The 2012 version4 has rapidly reached a number of citations larger than 500 in 2 years, making these guidelines the major cause of the rising impact factor of the journal. The role of HFA for the success of the journal will also remain prominent in the coming years with the publication of position statements, or more specific guidelines, before the next guidelines on heart failure will be published in 2016. I strongly believe that the close relation of the EJHF with HFA and its former, present, and next presidents professors Stefan Anker, Gerasimos Filippatos, and Frank Ruschitzka will remain a major reason for the success of this journal. The charisma of the HFA leaders, the success, and participation, in the HFA and the ESC congresses have made the journal attractive and an ideal tool to convey new ideas and statements from all over the world. Heart failure is more and more clearly a worldwide problem with an increasing awareness of its importance not only in Europe, America, and Australia but also in Africa and Asia.4-7 Better health can only be achieved if boundaries are broken in respect of research and exchange of thoughts. Other future developments of the journal are outlined in Table 1. An essential component of the work of Editor-in-Chief and the Associate Editors is surely that of article selection. As outlined in the recent farewell article by Dirk van Veldhuisen,8 the EJHF is now receiving more than 1000 articles each year. However, it can publish no more than 12–15 research or review articles in each issue, with a rejection rate now higher than 80%. With such numbers, the selection process has become a somewhat painful process with the need to dissatisfy the vast majority of the authors submitting to the journal. The guidelines for article selection are traced by what is outlined above. The journal wishes to maintain, if not improve, its vocation to show the most important examples of heart failure research among the contributions received from all over the world. At the same time, we wish the journal to maintain its high ranking, a task that will be much more difficult in the coming years when the support from the 2012 heart failure guidelines will be missed and the rejection rate is also going to remain high. I will try my best to satisfy authors and encourage them to submit to our journal. For example, I will adopt more and more the straight rejection process whereby an article is rejected without reviews upon a decision taken with the Consulting Editors and/or the Associate Editors. This process bereaves the authors of peer reviews but has the advantage of providing a quick response for an article with no chance of being accepted, even after a long review process. Another reason of fulfilment from my role of Editor-in-Chief is the possibility to share my work with the best heart failure experts in the world. I have realized already that the community of the people devoted to heart failure research comprises some of the brightest and, in general, most pleasant people that you may happen to meet in your life, and this has been a major reason for my commitment to this sub-specialty. Dirk van Veldhuisen had an excellent group of major experts in their field, all based at the Groningen University Medical Centre. This has given them the possibility of weekly face to face meetings and possibly almost daily discussions of the articles submitted. This will not be done in my case. I am asking for help from potential Associate Editors in Italy and from all over the world. I have received only enthusiasm from the people I have asked and they are listed in these issues of the journal. Having a worldwide representation is important for me and new proposals will always be welcome. I am now having weekly teleconferences with all the Associate Editors who can join and extensively discuss articles also by e-mail or telephone calls. These have easily become the best moments of my work when I can share insights into new research with some of the best people I always thought I would have loved to work with. In addition, Dirk van Veldhuisen, as well as the two previous Editors-in-Chief, have remained as Senior Consulting Editor and the two former Deputy Editors of the journal, Adriaan Voors and Wiek van Gilst, have been retained as Consulting Editors. This guarantees continuity and, hopefully, maintenance of the excellent scores of the journal. Their role has been essential in these last weeks helping me to tune into the needs of the journal and take difficult decisions when needed. Their input has been invaluable. Last but not least, the major question. How can I handle more than 1000 articles each year, never miss one of them, and give responses in due time? The importance of the Managing Editor is invaluable. Gillie Porter has managed all the articles submitted to the journal, from the first one back in 1999, to the last one that you have just submitted today. How can we survive without her? At the last Editorial Board meeting in June 2014, we asked Gillie if she wished to stay and work with us for a few more years. We understood her wish to retire to a quieter life but we felt the journal could not go on without her input. It has been impressive to realize her extreme commitment to the journal with her agreeing to accept the role of Senior Managing Editor and to work with us in training another person, Federica Dalé, who is now taking on the tasks of Managing Editor. In conclusion, becoming Editor-in-Chief of a journal such as EJHF is a major task but I am honoured and, to an even greater extent, enthusiastic about taking it on. Despite its difficulty, it is impressive to discover how many people are deeply committed to the journal and I am sure that my task will be less difficult with their help. We are living in an exciting time and I warmly thank the HFA board of ESC for entrusting me with the role.

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