The 2012 meeting of the editorial board of The American Journal of Cardiology ( AJC ) was held on March 25, 2012, in Chicago, Illinois, at the time of the Annual Scientific Sessions of the American College of Cardiology. The meeting’s purpose was to review the AJC ‘s publication results for 2011, to recognize in particular those AJC board members who had reviewed the most manuscripts in 2011, and to receive criticisms and suggestions from board members on how to improve the journal. The meeting went as follows:
- 1
The publisher of the AJC , Jane Grochowski, presented information on how the AJC stands compared with other cardiology journals.
- 2
Introduction of new editorial board members ( Table 1 ).
Table 1
New board members 2011
Eloisa Arbustini
Cristina Basso
Johnson Francis
Joseph A. Hill
Bradley A. Maron
Peter A. McCullough
Frank Pelosi
- 3
AJC board members reviewing the most manuscripts in 2011 ( Table 2 ): Jane Grochowski provided plaques to each of these 9 top reviewers who during 2011 reviewed 8 or 9 manuscripts.
Table 2
Top AJC board reviewers in 2011
Monty M. Bodenheimer (9)
Steven P. Glasser (9)
Gregory Y.H. Lip (9)
Eugene R. Passamani (9)
David D. Waters (8)
Martin A. Alpert (8)
Eric R. Bates (8)
Mun K. Hong (8)
Charles Maynard (8)
- 4
Numbers of manuscripts submitted, withdrawn, accepted, and declined in 2011 : A total of 2,965 manuscripts were received in 2011; 14 were withdrawn by the authors, 702 (24%) were accepted, and 2,249 (76%) were declined. Of the 982 manuscripts submitted from the USA in 2011, 356 (35%) were accepted; of the 1,969 manuscripts submitted from non-USA countries, 346 (18%) were accepted.
- 5
Numbers of editorial pages, types and topics of reports published in the AJC in 2011 ( Table 3 ): Of the 3,820 editorial pages published, 3,637 (95%) were used for articles and an additional 32, for Readers’ Comments, such that 97% of the editorial pages published in 2011 were used for publication of manuscripts. Of the 612 reports published, 555 (91%) involved multiple patients and 11 (2%), single patients. Eighteen reviews, 9 editorials, 7 Editor’s Roundtables, and 5 From-the-Editor columns were published in 2011. The topics of the articles published in 2011 are also listed in Table 3 .
Table 3
Number of editorial pages and types and topics of articles in The American Journal of Cardiology (regular issues) in 2011
Volumes 107 and 108
January to December 2011
Editorial pages—total
3,820
Articles
3,637 (95%)
Readers’ Comments (number) [replies]
62 (60) [10] (2%)
Staff and editorial board
48 (1%)
Table of contents
72 (2%)
Instructions to authors
1
Types of Articles
612
Multipatient studies
555 (91%)
Case reports
11 (2%)
Reviews
18 (3%)
Editorials
9 (1%)
Editor’s Roundtables
7 (1%)
Historical
7 (1%)
Nonpatient studies
0
From-the-Editor columns
5 (1%)
Topics of articles
612
Coronary artery disease
241 (39%)
Preventive cardiology
44 (7%)
Arrhythmias and conduction disturbances
43 (7%)
Heart failure
66 (11%)
Valvular heart disease
50 (8%)
Cardiomyopathy
29 (5%)
Congenital heart disease
41 (7%)
Methods
9 (1%)
Systemic hypertension
13 (2%)
Historical studies
6 (1%)
Miscellaneous
69 (11%)
Interviews
1
- 6
Numbers of manuscripts submitted and published in AJC 1983 through 2011 ( Table 4 ): In 1983, the first full year of the present editorship, 1,234 manuscripts were submitted and 643 were accepted. In 2011, 2,951 were submitted and 702 were accepted. During these 29 full years of the present editorship a total of 60,966 manuscripts were submitted and 20,171 (33%) were accepted. The acceptance rate continues to drop despite the publisher’s providing more editorial pages and the manuscript length continues to decline.
