- Email: [email protected]
JASE 2008 – A Report Card
EDITOR’S PAGE
JASE 2008 – A Report Card Alan S. Pearlman, MD, FASE, Seattle, Washington As I write this Editor’s Page, the leaves are falling with a vengeance, and holiday season is coming. As the year comes to a close, it seems fitting to pause, take inventory, give thanks for what the past year has brought, and look toward the coming New Year. One year ago, during my transition from Deputy Editor of the Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography (JASE) to my current role as Editor-inChief, I first arranged an issue of the Journal. A lot has happened since that time. In January 2008, the first issue of JASE was published under the editorial direction of someone other than legendary Founding Editor Dr. Harvey Feigenbaum. This issue gave clear evidence of change – a new cover design, new associate editors, a new journal office, a new table of contents format, and a new interior layout. The new cover design included the acronym “JASE”, which most readers use to describe the Journal. JASE focuses on cardiac imaging techniques and applications, so the cover was redesigned to feature an appealing image from a paper therein, and a short list of articles “In This Issue”; these visual clues were intended to excite reader interest and curiosity, and to encourage them to look inside! Fittingly, the cover for the first issue of 2008 included a photograph of Dr. Feigenbaum, since the Journal would not exist without his energy and vision. In addition to Drs. Bijoy Khandheria and Julius Gardin (PastPresidents of the ASE and staunch supporters of the Journal), our expanded group of Associate Editors now includes Drs. Jeff Stevenson (an expert in echocardiography in congenital heart disease) and Victor Mor-Avi (an expert imaging scientist). Alan Waggoner (a unique sonographer-investigator who has served the Journal with distinction as Section Editor for Sonographer communications) was deservingly promoted to Associate Editor. I selected the Associate Editors for their specific areas of expertise, their dedication to ASE, and their collegiality. I wanted to be able to take advantage of their input and advice when considering the merits and shortcomings of manuscripts under consideration by the Journal. Over the past year, the editorial group has convened on a weekly basis and discussed individual papers as well as the comments of peer reviewers selected for their expertise in the topic of, and the techniques employed in, each submission. Editorial decisions are not always easy, and we do not have room to publish all of the good articles we receive, but I do sleep better knowing that – regardless of outcome – each paper is given careful and thoughtful consideration by the editorial group. The expanded group of expert editorial consultants who are part of our Editorial Board have been selected from among our best reviewers, because of their dependability, commitment to the Journal, and peer reviewer skills. I recall a former editor of another journal emphasizing that one of the most important tasks of an editor is to provide constructive, courteous and timely feedback to prospective
From the Division of Cardiology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington. Reprint requests: Alan S. Pearlman, MD, FASE, Division of Cardiology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Box 356422, Seattle, Washington 98195. (E-mail: [email protected]). 0894-7317/$34.00 doi:10.1016/j.echo.2008.10.019
authors. Therefore, I particularly value those reviewers who view the peer review process as one of quality improvement. The reviewer’s role is to identify shortcomings and to help authors make improvements in the next revision of their work. As Editor, much of my time is consumed by writing decision letters to prospective authors, occasionally requiring light editing of reviewers’ comments when they are confusing in content or inappropriate in tone, and usually including a short list of recommendations that reflects discussion during editorial group meetings. My goal is to provide feedback that is helpful to authors, and even if the paper under consideration ultimately is not competitive enough to be accepted, I want our suggestions to help the authors to do an even better job on their next paper. Relocating JASE Editorial Offices to ASE headquarters (now in Morrisville, NC) was another important change. Working from Seattle with staff based in North Carolina initially appeared to be a logistical challenge, but I was convinced that a closer linkage between JASE office activities and ASE staff would be valuable. I particularly wanted to expand JASE’s role in offering Continuing Medical Education (CME) opportunities to our readers. In order to maintain competence and to keep up with our ever-evolving field, practitioners must constantly have opportunities to review high quality learning materials and to re-educate themselves. A number of surveys in recent years have confirmed that the opportunity to earn relevant CME credits by reviewing appropriate articles in the Journal was of high interest not only to current members, but also to prospective members. It seemed to me that the Journal’s ability to increase CME content would be facilitated by closer liaison between the JASE office and other ASE staff responsible for society activities as an accredited educational organization. I was also motivated by the knowledge that, under the leadership of chief executive officer Robin Wiegerink, ASE staff always have been extraordinarily dependable, dedicated, and a pleasure to work with. Nicole Egan, Chelsea Flowers, and Cathy Kerr have done a superb job in supporting JASE office functions, and in their interactions with other ASE staff on such activities as CME, annual scientific 1389
1390
Pearlman
sessions abstracts and program, ASE standards and guidelines documents, posters summarizing key guideline recommendations, society newsletters, and other ASE initiatives. In order to carry out my work as Editor on an Eastern Time zone schedule, I have had to rearrange my other activities, but the benefits have been well worth it. In reorganizing the JASE table of contents, I have tried to group articles by clinical topic as well as by echocardiographic technique; sometimes one approach is more suited to the content of that issue than the other. Most readers of JASE are busy professionals, and do not have time to sit down and read an entire issue from cover to cover. I wanted to give busy readers some help in navigating the table of contents, thinking for example, that a sonographer wanting to learn more about new methods for evaluating left ventricular function using tissue Doppler and feature tracking might want to locate and read such papers, while a busy clinical pediatric cardiologist might be more interested in papers focusing on congenital heart disease. In each table of contents, we have tried to use subheadings in order to help orient the reader. Papers do not always fall into neat or unambiguous categories, but I have tried to make the table of contents format reader-friendly. The new interior layout of the Journal uses of a new font that most readers find “cleaner” in appearance and easier to read than the old one, as well as wider margins and more efficient spacing of tables and figures. These changes have allowed us to fit at least 10% more content on each page of the journal, allowing us to publish “more good stuff” in roughly the same number of pages. In addition to Original Investigations, we have made room for other important initiatives. We have solicited and published a number of “editorial comments” from experts in the field in order to provide more background and context for important new observations. We have also included occasional review articles summarizing topics of high interest to readers, and have used these to provide the opportunity to earn CME credits. Over the course of 2008, JASE readers have had the opportunity to earn up to 4 CME credit hours for studying papers published in the Journal. We had hoped to include CME for several other papers, but for logistic reasons were not able to do so. In addition, we had planned a supplement containing sonographerdriven articles describing how to optimize the echocardiographic assessment of several conditions of high interest – and each of these papers were to have been accompanied by CME opportunities. We will fulfill this promise in 2009. Our intent is to offer readers the chance to earn at least 10 hours of CME credit annually. While we are not there yet, we will introduce several new initiatives in 2009 in order to reach our goal. Another exciting advance has been our ability to include, in our online platform, dynamic video clips that accompany static illustrations and allow readers to visualize important findings as moving pictures, just as echocardiographers and sonographers see them on a daily basis. We were able to add this feature, which clearly makes
Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography December 2008
JASE more of a “dynamic” learning experience, at no cost to authors. Readers with ready access to the Internet can not only read about novel imaging approaches and observations, but also view those findings in a real-time format. In the future, we will take advantage of new opportunities as advances in digital imaging technologies allow us to do so. ASE standards and guidelines documents are among the most popular and influential papers that JASE publishes. During 2008, we published three such documents. I am pleased to announce that we will publish at least 3 authoritative documents on topics of high interest to readers early in 2009, and over the course of the year we will probably publish others. We have also invited a number of state-of-the-art review articles focusing on topics of importance to readers, and anticipate publishing these in the coming year. These guidelines and review articles will provide additional CME opportunities for readers. We have plans for some other initiatives in 2009, and I urge readers to “stay tuned”. Ultimately, others will decide how well the Journal has performed in 2008. The popularity of articles we have published will influence the Journal’s impact factor, but results for articles published in 2008 will not be available until mid-2009. We also will use future surveys of authors and readers to get their reactions and advice. I am gratified to note that even though several new cardiac imaging journals appeared on the scene in 2008, our submissions are strong and continuing to grow. Moreover, the associate editors and I are pleased in general with the quality of the papers submitted to us, and certainly with those deemed competitive for publication. From feedback I have received, the new appearance and layout of JASE have been well received. I believe that the quality of our peer review process is very good, and that our feedback to authors is generally helpful. We have instituted some administrative changes to streamline the peer review process even further – since efficiency is always important. We have been able to reduce considerably the average delay between acceptance and publication of papers, and in this regard I believe that we currently do much better than most journals. We have worked hard on incorporating more opportunities for readers to earn CME credits, and we are committed to expanding this program in 2009. We have also made progress in including more authoritative review and summary articles of interest to clinicians as well as researchers, and intend to continue that trend. If I were responsible for grading JASE, I would certainly give passing marks. I would, however, also encourage those responsible for the Journal to keep working hard, as further improvements are certainly possible. As the holidays approach, I would like extend to all readers, authors, and ASE members my thanks for your support, and my best wishes for happiness and good health through the remainder of this year and in 2009. As always, I can be reached at [email protected] if you have comments or suggestions.
JASE 2008 – A Report Card Alan S. Pearlman, MD, FASE, Seattle, Washington As I write this Editor’s Page, the leaves are falling with a vengeance, and holiday season is coming. As the year comes to a close, it seems fitting to pause, take inventory, give thanks for what the past year has brought, and look toward the coming New Year. One year ago, during my transition from Deputy Editor of the Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography (JASE) to my current role as Editor-inChief, I first arranged an issue of the Journal. A lot has happened since that time. In January 2008, the first issue of JASE was published under the editorial direction of someone other than legendary Founding Editor Dr. Harvey Feigenbaum. This issue gave clear evidence of change – a new cover design, new associate editors, a new journal office, a new table of contents format, and a new interior layout. The new cover design included the acronym “JASE”, which most readers use to describe the Journal. JASE focuses on cardiac imaging techniques and applications, so the cover was redesigned to feature an appealing image from a paper therein, and a short list of articles “In This Issue”; these visual clues were intended to excite reader interest and curiosity, and to encourage them to look inside! Fittingly, the cover for the first issue of 2008 included a photograph of Dr. Feigenbaum, since the Journal would not exist without his energy and vision. In addition to Drs. Bijoy Khandheria and Julius Gardin (PastPresidents of the ASE and staunch supporters of the Journal), our expanded group of Associate Editors now includes Drs. Jeff Stevenson (an expert in echocardiography in congenital heart disease) and Victor Mor-Avi (an expert imaging scientist). Alan Waggoner (a unique sonographer-investigator who has served the Journal with distinction as Section Editor for Sonographer communications) was deservingly promoted to Associate Editor. I selected the Associate Editors for their specific areas of expertise, their dedication to ASE, and their collegiality. I wanted to be able to take advantage of their input and advice when considering the merits and shortcomings of manuscripts under consideration by the Journal. Over the past year, the editorial group has convened on a weekly basis and discussed individual papers as well as the comments of peer reviewers selected for their expertise in the topic of, and the techniques employed in, each submission. Editorial decisions are not always easy, and we do not have room to publish all of the good articles we receive, but I do sleep better knowing that – regardless of outcome – each paper is given careful and thoughtful consideration by the editorial group. The expanded group of expert editorial consultants who are part of our Editorial Board have been selected from among our best reviewers, because of their dependability, commitment to the Journal, and peer reviewer skills. I recall a former editor of another journal emphasizing that one of the most important tasks of an editor is to provide constructive, courteous and timely feedback to prospective
From the Division of Cardiology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington. Reprint requests: Alan S. Pearlman, MD, FASE, Division of Cardiology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Box 356422, Seattle, Washington 98195. (E-mail: [email protected]). 0894-7317/$34.00 doi:10.1016/j.echo.2008.10.019
authors. Therefore, I particularly value those reviewers who view the peer review process as one of quality improvement. The reviewer’s role is to identify shortcomings and to help authors make improvements in the next revision of their work. As Editor, much of my time is consumed by writing decision letters to prospective authors, occasionally requiring light editing of reviewers’ comments when they are confusing in content or inappropriate in tone, and usually including a short list of recommendations that reflects discussion during editorial group meetings. My goal is to provide feedback that is helpful to authors, and even if the paper under consideration ultimately is not competitive enough to be accepted, I want our suggestions to help the authors to do an even better job on their next paper. Relocating JASE Editorial Offices to ASE headquarters (now in Morrisville, NC) was another important change. Working from Seattle with staff based in North Carolina initially appeared to be a logistical challenge, but I was convinced that a closer linkage between JASE office activities and ASE staff would be valuable. I particularly wanted to expand JASE’s role in offering Continuing Medical Education (CME) opportunities to our readers. In order to maintain competence and to keep up with our ever-evolving field, practitioners must constantly have opportunities to review high quality learning materials and to re-educate themselves. A number of surveys in recent years have confirmed that the opportunity to earn relevant CME credits by reviewing appropriate articles in the Journal was of high interest not only to current members, but also to prospective members. It seemed to me that the Journal’s ability to increase CME content would be facilitated by closer liaison between the JASE office and other ASE staff responsible for society activities as an accredited educational organization. I was also motivated by the knowledge that, under the leadership of chief executive officer Robin Wiegerink, ASE staff always have been extraordinarily dependable, dedicated, and a pleasure to work with. Nicole Egan, Chelsea Flowers, and Cathy Kerr have done a superb job in supporting JASE office functions, and in their interactions with other ASE staff on such activities as CME, annual scientific 1389
1390
Pearlman
sessions abstracts and program, ASE standards and guidelines documents, posters summarizing key guideline recommendations, society newsletters, and other ASE initiatives. In order to carry out my work as Editor on an Eastern Time zone schedule, I have had to rearrange my other activities, but the benefits have been well worth it. In reorganizing the JASE table of contents, I have tried to group articles by clinical topic as well as by echocardiographic technique; sometimes one approach is more suited to the content of that issue than the other. Most readers of JASE are busy professionals, and do not have time to sit down and read an entire issue from cover to cover. I wanted to give busy readers some help in navigating the table of contents, thinking for example, that a sonographer wanting to learn more about new methods for evaluating left ventricular function using tissue Doppler and feature tracking might want to locate and read such papers, while a busy clinical pediatric cardiologist might be more interested in papers focusing on congenital heart disease. In each table of contents, we have tried to use subheadings in order to help orient the reader. Papers do not always fall into neat or unambiguous categories, but I have tried to make the table of contents format reader-friendly. The new interior layout of the Journal uses of a new font that most readers find “cleaner” in appearance and easier to read than the old one, as well as wider margins and more efficient spacing of tables and figures. These changes have allowed us to fit at least 10% more content on each page of the journal, allowing us to publish “more good stuff” in roughly the same number of pages. In addition to Original Investigations, we have made room for other important initiatives. We have solicited and published a number of “editorial comments” from experts in the field in order to provide more background and context for important new observations. We have also included occasional review articles summarizing topics of high interest to readers, and have used these to provide the opportunity to earn CME credits. Over the course of 2008, JASE readers have had the opportunity to earn up to 4 CME credit hours for studying papers published in the Journal. We had hoped to include CME for several other papers, but for logistic reasons were not able to do so. In addition, we had planned a supplement containing sonographerdriven articles describing how to optimize the echocardiographic assessment of several conditions of high interest – and each of these papers were to have been accompanied by CME opportunities. We will fulfill this promise in 2009. Our intent is to offer readers the chance to earn at least 10 hours of CME credit annually. While we are not there yet, we will introduce several new initiatives in 2009 in order to reach our goal. Another exciting advance has been our ability to include, in our online platform, dynamic video clips that accompany static illustrations and allow readers to visualize important findings as moving pictures, just as echocardiographers and sonographers see them on a daily basis. We were able to add this feature, which clearly makes
Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography December 2008
JASE more of a “dynamic” learning experience, at no cost to authors. Readers with ready access to the Internet can not only read about novel imaging approaches and observations, but also view those findings in a real-time format. In the future, we will take advantage of new opportunities as advances in digital imaging technologies allow us to do so. ASE standards and guidelines documents are among the most popular and influential papers that JASE publishes. During 2008, we published three such documents. I am pleased to announce that we will publish at least 3 authoritative documents on topics of high interest to readers early in 2009, and over the course of the year we will probably publish others. We have also invited a number of state-of-the-art review articles focusing on topics of importance to readers, and anticipate publishing these in the coming year. These guidelines and review articles will provide additional CME opportunities for readers. We have plans for some other initiatives in 2009, and I urge readers to “stay tuned”. Ultimately, others will decide how well the Journal has performed in 2008. The popularity of articles we have published will influence the Journal’s impact factor, but results for articles published in 2008 will not be available until mid-2009. We also will use future surveys of authors and readers to get their reactions and advice. I am gratified to note that even though several new cardiac imaging journals appeared on the scene in 2008, our submissions are strong and continuing to grow. Moreover, the associate editors and I are pleased in general with the quality of the papers submitted to us, and certainly with those deemed competitive for publication. From feedback I have received, the new appearance and layout of JASE have been well received. I believe that the quality of our peer review process is very good, and that our feedback to authors is generally helpful. We have instituted some administrative changes to streamline the peer review process even further – since efficiency is always important. We have been able to reduce considerably the average delay between acceptance and publication of papers, and in this regard I believe that we currently do much better than most journals. We have worked hard on incorporating more opportunities for readers to earn CME credits, and we are committed to expanding this program in 2009. We have also made progress in including more authoritative review and summary articles of interest to clinicians as well as researchers, and intend to continue that trend. If I were responsible for grading JASE, I would certainly give passing marks. I would, however, also encourage those responsible for the Journal to keep working hard, as further improvements are certainly possible. As the holidays approach, I would like extend to all readers, authors, and ASE members my thanks for your support, and my best wishes for happiness and good health through the remainder of this year and in 2009. As always, I can be reached at [email protected] if you have comments or suggestions.