Statement of the chairman of the publication committee of acta cardiologica sinica

The Taiwan Society of Cardiology has been well-recognized as an important academic-oriented society, created to serve and educate members of the society as they perform vital work for the larger public good. Acta Cardiologica Sinica, the official journal of the Taiwan Society of Cardiology, is also a well-known journal in Taiwan. Through the tireless work of its previous presidents in conjunction with the skilled editorial team of the society, Acta Cardiologica Sinica has been classified as a qualified SCI journal since 2010. This achievement by the ACS Journal has contributed to the larger academic nature of the society, and remains a great and manifest source of pride for the members of the society. We are particularly proud and excited about the fact that the impact factor of Acta Cardiologica Sinica has increased from 0.253 (2010) to 0.633 (2011). We continuously seek to maintain and enhance this fine tradition of excellence, with continuing efforts to increase the impact factor of the journal, a persistent mission of the publication committee and the editorial team. In academic publishing, impact factor is the clearest statement of journal quality, which will ultimately convince our local researchers to submit manuscripts to our journal. Acta Cardiologica Sinica has been published quarterly since its launch 26 years ago. In an effort to increase circulation, expeditiously publish a larger volume of significant papers, and further to let the reader keep pace with rapid advances in scientific information, the journal’s Publication Committee has decided to publish ACS bimonthly starting in January, 2013. In order to timely publish important papers within the new publication schedule, it is important to have a sufficient number of manuscripts submitted to our journal for consideration. Members of the publication committee and the editorial team feel an obligation to make the plan a success. We intend to increase the MiniForum category in each edition to make sure there are enough manuscripts for timely publication. One member of the publication committee and editorial team will be the guest editor of the MiniForum, tasked to set up an important and special issue. Each MiniForum will comprise 3-6 original articles or review articles. The authors of those submitted manuscripts will be invited by the guest editor. If the number of invited manuscript is not adequate, the member of the committee and editorial team will be encouraged to write a manuscript themselves. We hope that the bimonthly publication will not dilute the quality of our journal, and that any submitted manuscripts of poor quality will still be rejected. Local data which is focused on the cardiovascular fields will be most welcomed and encouraged. We also would like to extend space in our journal to publish local clinical guidelines to educate our cardiologists. The broader visibility of our journal is important as a mechanism to increase its impact factor, where easier access to our publication would produce opportunities for a regional and even worldwide audience to read and thereafter cite the articles in our journal related to their own research fields. ACS can be approached through the Ovid system, which is an online system freely accessible by our members. However, not all international readers who are interesting in our journal can freely use the Ovid system. PubMed is overseen and managed by the National Library of Medicine, which collects and stores in the USA the largest database of biomedical publications jn the world. It comes as no surprise then that PubMed also has the most frequently visited website for research and inquiry among scientists and clinicians, and is free for all users. Previous editors-in-chief of Acta Cardiologica Sinica and current officers of the Taiwan Society of Cardiology have repeatedly tried to get our journal enrolled by PubMed, but the efforts have not yet born fruit. Although we are disappointed by this result, we are committed to overcoming this vexing hurdle. We will continue the yeoman’s work to get Acta Cardiologica Sinica accepted by PubMed and ultimately become a member of the largest biomedical data bank in the world. In addition to the increased visibility of our journal, open access for submitting manuscripts to be considered for publication to our journal is very important. We hope that Acta Cardiologica Sinica is a genuinely international journal in the cardiovascular fields. Establishing a friendly and functional website for readers who are interested in our journal, who would possibly submit their papers for publication is timely work and should be completed as soon as possible. Not only can authors submit their works through the website, but they can follow their manuscripts’ progress through the review process. The invited reviewers can download their assigned manuscripts and submit their comments and recommendations through the website. The reviewers also can track the progress of a particular manuscript to which they are assigned. We can shorten the review process to prevent review delay by setting up timetable monitoring functions, with the goal of completing the article review, editing and publication process earlier to most expeditiously give our readers the latest scientific and medical information. To accomplish the tough missions mentioned above, we need strong and ongoing support from the Executive Board of the Taiwan Society of Cardiology and all of our members. Without your support it will be a much more onerous task to accomplish our goals, and successfully complete our noteworthy undertaking. Finally, I cordially thank the members of the publication committee and the editorial team who voluntarily coalesced their time and efforts to complete this tough but rewarding job.