The Scandinavian Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery was founded in 1967 by the late Professor Viking Olof Björk in Stockholm, and it was a surgical journal during his 20 years as chief editor. Recognizing the complimentary relationship between cardiovascular surgery and cardiology, the journal’s name was changed to Scandinavian Cardiovascular Journal in 1997, and there was one editor for each of the two main fields, surgery and cardiology. The late Professor Axel Henze was succeeded by Professor Rolf Ekroth for surgery, and the late Professor Torsten Toftegaard Nielsen was followed by me for cardiology. Realizing that there are no longer any distinct borders between surgery and cardiology, and that our field of interest also includes basic science, genetics, epidemiology, rehabilitation medicine, health economy, and more, we are now organized with one chief editor and a broad panel of associate editors.
Originally the Journal was the journal for the members of the Swedish Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, and it was owned by the Society. In 2004 the ownership of the Journal was transferred to Taylor & Francis. Still the relations to the Nordic societies for cardiovascular surgery and cardiology are good, and this anniversary issue is presented to all members of our societies.
Over the years we have printed about 2800 scientific papers. A large number of reviewers have assessed the manuscripts and given their advice; 650 different reviewers have contributed since the year 1999. This is really a great “dugnad” (In 2004 the word “dugnad” was elected the Norwegian national word, meaning common voluntary work, usually unpaid – parallels are Finnish “talkoot” and English “barn raising”). Although the journal receives manuscripts from all the world, the great majority of published articles have some relations to the Nordic medical community. The evaluation of the scientific quality of a manuscript is, of course, independent of its country of origin, but manuscripts that are interesting to a Nordic audience of readers, have priority for publication.
What is the rationale for a Nordic cardiovascular journal?
The Nordic countries together have a population of about 26 million inhabitants. The climate, the culture, the economy and the organization of health care are fairly similar, and language barriers are generally overcome. The populations are fairly stable, high-quality health registries have been established, and several research networks cross the borders. In the international community, research of Nordic origin is generally regarded as trustworthy, and when we unite our efforts, we can perform large clinical studies that have major clinical and scientific impact. We humbly regard our dugnad with this journal as a factor that increases motivation for cooperation across the borders.
High-impact journals publish outstanding studies that may change clinical practice and scientific thinking; work that should reach a broad readers group. There are, however, many studies that do not obtain that high level of interest, but deserve publication as well. Hence, there should be an arena for (important) confirmatory reports, for so-called “negative studies”, small-scale hypothesis generating reports and occasional studies of mainly regional interest. In this segment of the publishing “market”, the Scandinavian Cardiovascular Journal has thrived for 50 years, and we believe the future of the Journal will be bright.
The present anniversary issue contains invited review papers [Citation1–11] from leading cardiovascular researchers from all the Nordic countries. The themes are selected to be of interest to researchers as well as for clinicians, and we hope the issue can motivate for submitting manuscripts to the Journal as well as contribute to its quality by serving as a reviewer when requested.
Enjoy your reading!
References
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- Arnar DO, Andersen K, Thorgeirsson G. Genetics of cardiovascular diseases: lessons learned from a decade of genomics research in Iceland. Scand Cardiovasc J. 2016;50:260–265.
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- Anttila V, Haapanen H, Yannopoulos F, et al. Review of remote ischemic preconditioning: from laboratory studies to clinical trials. Scand Cardiovasc J. 2016;50:355–361.
- Nielsen SL, Current status of transcatheter mitral valve repair therapies - From surgical concepts towards future directions. Scand Cardiovasc J. 2016;50:367–376.