<i>JAMA Cardiology</i>—The Year in Review, 2020
Authors: Robert O. Bonow
Journal: JAMA Cardiology (2021)

The tumultuous events of 2020 posed unprecedented challenges for scientific publishing, and the operations and priorities at JAMA Cardiology were no exception.Faced with a serious, novel virulent disease that emerged in January and February and quickly grew to pandemic proportions, the cardiovascular community witnessed disquieting evidence of its myriad cardiovascular ramifications.There was early evidence that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection not only created risks of severe complications in those with underlying chronic cardiac conditions but also that the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and its inflammatory response also had unique effects on the myocardium, vascular endothelium, and the coagulation system-effects that are still being elucidated. 1 In the midst of the surge in COVID-19 infections, the journal editors experienced our own surge in the form of a voluminous influx of manuscript submissions from around the world describing the epidemiology and pathobiology of COVID-19's interface with the cardiovascular system, along with evolving insights into adverse outcomes and possible management strategies.We were tasked with teasing out those manuscripts from the hundreds of submissions that would be most informative and would allow us to publish breakthrough research and commentary related to COVID-19.At the same time, we were forced to adapt to the sudden realities of the COVID-19 era: workforce disruption, office closures, virtual meetings, and concerns of personal safety and the safety of family and colleagues.Amazingly, and thanks to the dedicated JAMA Network editorial and publishing staff (most of whom were working from home), we were able to sustain our weekly publication schedule and monthly podcasts, with numerous special ad hoc publications of COVID-19-related content of critical public health importance.We were thus able to have a strong voice in the evolving discussions of COVID-19 and cardiovascular disease.Of course, our foremost thanks go to our authors and reviewers, 2 whose valuable insights, guidance, and precious time allowed us to maintain our high editorial standard while also keeping to our publication schedule.We recognize that 2020 was an incredibly busy and complex year for everyone, yet these clinicianscientists found it possible to balance the academic mission against the intense demands of changing practice patterns and the need to care for successive waves of seriously ill patients.They are the true heroes.The yearly publication data for 2020 are shown in the Table . 3-8Our total submissions of 3683 manuscripts represent a 58% increase compared with 2019, and the 2847 original research manuscript submissions represent a 54% increase.Our overall acceptance rate was 9% (5% for research submissions).We received 910 manuscripts related to COVID-19 (25% of the total); if these are excluded from the analysis, our overall submissions increased 19% compared with 2019.This is in keeping with the steady increase in submissions that we have experi-enced in previous years.We remain a global journal with 64.6% of our submissions arriving from outside the US.JAMA Cardiology had a further increase in impact factor to 12.8 in 2020 (which is reported for the year 2019).This continuous flow of manuscripts has increased the workload of our very busy editors, but we relish the new knowledge and opinions that we read, evaluate, and discuss on a weekly basis.We continue Table.