Scandinavian Cardiovascular Journal is officially the “Journal of the Swedish Heart Association, the Swedish Association for Thoracic Surgery and the Norwegian Cardiothoracic Surgery Society”. This anchoring is historical as the journal was founded through the efforts of the late Viking Olov Bjørk, and the journal has subsequently made a slow expansion to become “house journal” of the above mentioned societies. However, in spirit and practice, SCJ aims at being truly Scandinavian (or Nordic, if you prefer). In this context we will like to mention that our surgical editor is Swedish, the cardiological Editor is Norwegian, and we have important members of the Editorial Board from Iceland, Denmark and Finland. The broad panel of mainly Nordic reviewers in general produces excellent evaluations, and this network of experts is a prerequisite for the quality of the journal.
Our Scandinavian profile is reflected by the statistics. In 2008, we received all together 268 papers and had an acceptance rate of 28%. Thirty five percent of submitted papers were Scandinavian, and they made up 76% of the papers finally published. It is timely to state that our aim is to continue to serve the Scandinavian cardiovascular societies.
At this point in time, however, the Editorial Board wants to give you all a challenge; make the journal your priority! A host of statistics and research confirm that Scandinavian health care in general, and cardiovascular medicine, in particular, constitute the highest quality. No need for the face of our research and quality assessment-papers i.e. the Scandinavian Cardiovascular Journal, to be any less!
The principal aim of the Scandinavian Cardiovascular Journal is “to promote cardiovascular research that crosses the borders between disciplines. The journal is a forum for the entire field of cardiovascular research, basic and clinical”. And we might add: “to promote high quality science and reports from all fields of cardiovascular medicine with a special emphasis on Scandinavian research, clinical practice and health care policy”. We certainly welcome contributions from around the world, but the Scandinavian societies are our main obligations.
To obtains these aims, we will try to renew the journal somewhat by bringing you focused papers on various aspects of our fields. Therefore, we will establish three new categories of papers; traditional reviews, opinionate statements and informative comments on particular matters. A “review” will hopefully be a high quality up-to-date paper. There will (at best) be only a few per year, but we will try to make them as comprehensive and interesting as possible through an extensive review process. This category of papers will be open to your initiatives as well as by request to some of you from the Editorial Office.
“In my opinion” will be just that; a “freedom of speech” forum where opinions can be expressed, as long as they pass the editorial filter for assessment of interest and ethical conduct.
Finally, in “Addressing the matter” we hope to bring you information on matters of policy, therapeutics, regulations, demographical trends, etc. that concern our professions.
As for now, the Editorial Board has appointed Truls Myrmel to handle the matters of the new category papers. Comments and concerns are welcome and should be posted at [email protected]