Letter from the Editor

The Baton is Passed

… and a new leg of the relay race has begun. Runner number 5 has taken over after his colleagues Vossschulte, Borst, Stapenhorst, and Klövekorn have given their best until exhaustion. There is one common goal: to provide a scientific journal of the highest standards for cardiovascular and thoracic surgeons. The race is run on German turf, therefore German support is supposed to be the strongest, but there are contributions from around the world. Where does this leave “Number Five”?

In order to keep on the track, he will need help. Cardiovascular and thoracic surgery are constantly developing and highly innovative specialties, therefore continued restructuring of the editorial board seems warranted. The executive board of the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery will function as Associate Editors. Furthermore, feature editors are currently appointed for a period of three years and will care for manuscripts dealing with their specific field of expertise. Temporary assignments guarantee topicality and a fresh breeze every now and then. They are supported by an international advisory panel and our invaluable army of guest reviewers. Surgeons are impatient. A proper peer review process takes its time. Although it remains primarily dependent upon the people who actually do the reviews, it can always be accelerated.

Apart from a streamlined service by the editorial office, new contents will be introduced. Selected papers presented at the annual meeting of the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery shall be highlighted as “Society Papers”. Manuscripts of special interest can be accompanied by invited commentaries by one of the reviewers to stimulate scientific discussion. Handpicked Case Reports and How-To-Do-Its will retain their place because they are of considerable educational value. Depending upon the receipt of articles, volumes may be organized to focus on a special theme. The tradition of invited reviews of pertinence will continue. Your editor will keep you informed with a short introductory letter. On the Blue Pages the society and its working groups can extend the communication with the members. All this may necessitate some changes in the overall format, which are being discussed with the publisher.

This, in brief, is what you can expect to happen over the next couple of months. It will keep your editor busy. The current issue (4/2010) looks more or less like the ones you have read before. This has to do with a considerable backlog of manuscripts which still have to be processed in the conventional way. It is highly likely that from issue 5/2010 onward the planned changes can be introduced and that the redesigned, more theme-oriented configuration will already become discernible to the critical reader.

Scientific publishing is currently experiencing tremendous changes in the virtual world of the internet up to open-access, e-only formats. In surgery the general focus still lies more on establishing safe methods to help our patients rather than pushing out last-minute data concerning a gene mutation. This results in somewhat less of an Impact Factor, but in decidedly higher quality of care. The Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon will continue to bridge both worlds and to be published both in electronic format and in print. Your editor believes that shrewd selection and composition of articles will render a whole volume worth reading rather than one specific paper only, because such a setup provides the necessary perspective for the individual contents. Your feedback on this is eagerly awaited – which turns the attention away from the editor as the provider towards the reader at the receiving end.

The reader of a scientific journal plays an important twofold role. First, it is her or him who chooses a specific reading matter. If interest can be generated, more readers are to be expected. The much debated Impact Factor can be regarded as an indirect measurement of such attractiveness. Second, the scientific mind is also a potential author. It is probably the highest reward for any editor to receive manuscripts by satisfied readers deliberately selecting a particular journal for their submission because they want to be part of it, of its community. You will find the online submission process a very straightforward procedure. It has not changed and can be accessed via “http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tcsurgeon”. Likewise, you as the readers of The Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon are more than welcome to approach your editor with any questions or suggestions you may have. Please use the special e-mail address provided (“[e-mail]”) for your potential input. You can be assured that your requests will be dealt with diligently.

Together we can make it work. There remains one person carrying the weight of the baton, but he will go nowhere without your enthusiastic support. Come on and join the race.

Yours faithfully, Markus K. Heinemann