Spring cleaning: freshening up the portfolio

INTRODUCTION

The American Physiological Society (APS), the APS Publications team, and the Editors in Chief and Associate Editors of its journals continually look for ways to better serve our scientific community. This sentiment is shared by the executive editorial board of the American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology (AJP-Heart and Circ). Over the past six months, this collective group has reviewed the article types currently offered by APS Publications and has made updates to freshen up what we offer to our authors and readers. The purpose of this editorial is to inform authors, reviewers, and readers on the recent changes made to our article-type portfolio. The primary changes are the renaming of the “Rapid Report” to “Short Report” and renaming “Innovative Methodology” to “Methods and Resources.” The full article types available with a description of each type are listed in Table 1. We also encourage authors to consult the online Information for Authors for APS Publications as a helpful resource in preparing a submission (1).

Table 1.

Article types for AJP-Heart and Circ submissions

Article Types with Short Descriptions
Research Article
Present important new results of a complete research project.
Source data, e.g., large datasets and databases, in specialized or generalist repositories are also encouraged, as well as novel analysis of public datasets.
Short Report
Brief summaries of important new findings do not need to tell a complete story.
Source data, e.g., large datasets and databases, in specialized or generalist repositories are also encouraged, as well as novel analysis of public datasets.
Methods and Resources
Resources, protocols, or tools useful to cardiovascular research.
Method does not need to be new or to be extensively tested.
Initial proof of concept is sufficient.
Review Article*
Synthesize state-of-the-art knowledge in a defined area highlighting new questions and summarizing future research directions.
Mini-Review*
Summarize important new and emerging fields in a concise way.
Systematic Review*
Answer a defined research question by collecting and summarizing all empirical evidence that fits predefined criteria.
Cores of Reproducibility in Physiology (CORP)*
Research article or review article with detailed instructions on best practice in physiology for a particular method or equipment in broad, common use.
Perspectives
Disseminate new and original thinking in physiology.
Editorial
Commentary on issues related to the mission of AJP-Heart and Circ.
Editorial Focus
Commentary on articles of unusual interest published in AJP-Heart and Circ.
Letter to the Editor
Address articles published by AJP-Heart and Circ or general matters of interest to our readers.
Historical Article
Summarize a historical moment in cardiovascular physiology.

Important updates are highlighted in boldface. See https://journals.physiology.org/ajpheart/article-types for further details. AJP-Heart and Circ, American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology. *By invitation only.

SHORT REPORT (FORMERLY, RAPID REPORT)

Previously, the “Rapid Report” was limited to submissions that presented research data with high innovation and potentially high impact, packaged in a limited word count and figure format. The goal was to communicate early findings to build momentum for promising concepts. We found that authors and reviewers alike were not well calibrated as to what high innovation and high impact meant, and our editorial team found it difficult to handle this manuscript type due to the lack of clarity for expectations. We found authors, reviewers, and editors were left wanting a better alternative. The need for our authors to report early findings coincides with an evolution in science communication and knowledge mobilization that has heralded an era of online preprints, hybrid conferences, podcasts, and digital media.

The new “Short Report” article type is intended to offer a means for authors to report a sound scientific case for a topic that is compelling and novel or builds accuracy in the field. In this way, AJP-Heart and Circ is interested in studies that address a gap in the literature or set a cornerstone for additional research to build upon. The strength of evidence will remain high for acceptance, but the completeness of the story or mechanism need not be fully resolved. There is an opportunity for authors to present findings that challenge dogma or offer a contrarian view to the established consensus in a key area of physiology. Salient observations related to the expression and characterizations of understudied genes and proteins or cell types of the cardiovascular system with demonstrated physiological relevance could be addressed in this format. The Short Report can be used to catalyze interest and call attention to understudied topics relevant to the heart and circulatory system.

Short Reports may also be based on the presentation of source data (e.g., large datasets and databases) in specialized or generalist repositories or provide novel analysis of public datasets. This type remains limited to 4,000 words and four figures or tables. The authors are allowed one round of revision for Short Report submissions. We have retained the brief summaries of new findings, with a clarification that we do not expect submissions to tell a complete story. We also updated the reviewer invitation email to clarify the details and expectations of this article type. We encourage all authors to address the appropriateness of a Short Report in the letter to the editor at the time of submission.

METHODS AND RESOURCES (FORMERLY, INNOVATIVE METHODOLOGY)

Previously, “Innovative Methodology” included strict requirements for what could be submitted, greatly limiting the chance to promote precision within the cardiovascular research community. The Innovative Methodology required high expectations for innovation and detailed validation. By reterming this category to “Methods and Resources,” we are clarifying that the method does not need to be new. Supplying details of a method promotes standardization and advances our goal of enhancing excellence within the cardiovascular research community. If the method is new, we have removed the requirement for extensive testing and validation to allow authors to publish an initial proof of concept and allow the community to follow up with further validation. Authors can use this article type to both replicate or update seminal works in physiology with highly reproducible results to digitize and modernize physiological evidence. Methods that save time or improve our ability to quantify results are highly responsive. This article type can be used to align classical techniques with the latest advanced techniques to help create reference datasets for future calibration. Providing a library of reference data for broader use in machine learning or bioinformatics, educational foundations for virtual physiology laboratories, or assisting graduate students or staff in training are all examples that fit in with this article type. Along these lines, approaches that use artificial intelligence tools to gain physiological insight are appropriate. We are interested in articles that make available resources, protocols, or tools useful to cardiovascular research. Studies that demonstrate drug delivery or molecular targeting of the cardiovascular system will be of interest, particularly if ways to overcome vascular barriers, avoid electrophysiological interference, or present information on specific cell types is detailed. For example, we welcome articles that include expected ranges of values for a technique, which will be particularly valuable for investigators new to a method.

Our field is evolving and advancing in complexity, so now is the opportune time to reinforce our foundations of knowledge. The need for sequencing-guided pharmacology and cardiovascular tolerance and toxicology studies is becoming more prevalent with humanized organoids, as are three-dimensional cell (co-)cultures and organ-on-a-chip techniques. These approaches have a need for comparative physiology studies from organ to organoid to match gene to cell and tissue physiology. The creation of reference data accessible by others aligns with the open science philosophy that is a cornerstone to achieving precision in research. Methods and Resources from individual laboratories or small teams can highlight common pitfalls in the field while providing tips and tricks to established methods that will complement efforts to supply systematic guidelines from author teams that represent the overall research community goals and standards (2–6).

The revamping of these two article types aligns with the mission of the editorial team of AJP-Heart and Circ to reinforce rigor and reproducibility expectations (7–10). As editors, we commit to helping our authors and reviewers calibrate so that expectations match goals. As we continue to improve our journal, we are reminded of the quote by A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, “Excellence is a continuous process and not an accident.”

We thank our authors, reviewers, and readers for actively engaging with us along this journey.

GRANTS

We acknowledge funding from National Institutes of Health Grants AA024892 (to J.R.C.), AG053585 (to A.J.L.), HL111600 (to C.M.R.), HL136737 (to J.A.K.), and HL147570 (to J.A.K.); Biomedical Laboratory Research and Development Service of the Veterans Affairs Office of Research and Development Grant 5I01BX000505 (to M.L.L.); US Department of Defense Grants W81XWH-19-RTRP-IDA and W81XWH-13-2-0057 (to A.J.L.); Gheens Foundation (to A.J.L.); Natural Sciences Engineering Research Council (to K.R.B.); Canadian Institutes of Health Research (to Z.K. and K.R.B.); Canadian Foundation for Innovation (to K.R.B.); Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (to Z.K. and K.R.B.); Heart and Stroke Foundation of New Brunswick (to K.R.B.); and New Brunswick Health Research and Innovation Foundations (to K.R.B.).

DISCLAIMERS

The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of any of the funding agencies or APS. All authors have reviewed and approved the article.

DISCLOSURES

Z. Kassiri holds a Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Cardiovascular Matrix Remodeling and is a member of the Royal Society of Canada: College of New Scholars. K. R. Brunt is a Translational Scientist at the New Brunswick Heart Center. The authors hold the position as the executive editorial board of AJP-Heart and Circ and were blinded from reviewing or making decisions for the manuscript.

Merry Lindsey, Zamaneh Kassiri, Amanda LeBlanc, Crystal Ripplinger, Jonathan Kirk, Jason Carter, Petra Kleinbongard, and Keith Brunt are editors of American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology and were not involved and did not have access to information regarding the peer-review process or final disposition of this article. An alternate editor oversaw the peer-review and decision-making process for this article.

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

M.L.L. drafted manuscript; M.L.L., Z.K., A.J.L., C.M.R., J.A.K., J.R.C., P.K., and K.R.B. edited and revised manuscript; M.L.L., Z.K., A.J.L., C.M.R., J.A.K., J.R.C., P.K., and K.R.B. approved final version of manuscript.