The First Anniversary of the International Journal of Heart Failure

With this issue, we are celebrating the first anniversary of the International Journal of Heart Failure (IJHF). We have published four issues of the journal and received a steadily increasing number of submissions. Since the IJHF launched its first issue in October of 2019¹⁾ and thanks to the exceptional quality of all contributors, the rejection rate reached 50%, indicating that we have been able to select high-quality research for publication. The IJHF is devoted to publishing timely clinical, basic, and translational research papers as well as instructive case reports as letters.

As expected, the paper of the Focused Update of 2016 Korean Society of Heart Failure (KSHF) Guidelines for the Management of Chronic Heart Failure²⁾ has been the most cited. Thus, the IJHF plays a certain role for KSHF and its members. Data from the Korean Acute Heart Failure (KorAHF) Registry and the Korean Heart Failure (KorHF) Registry³⁾,⁴⁾,⁵⁾ have been shared on our own platform of the KSHF. The IJHF also aims to deliver the latest topics on areas such as sodium-glucose co-transporters-2 inhibitors,⁶⁾ angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibition,⁷⁾ common comorbidities in heart failure⁸⁾ and so on. Amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, we released clinical recommendations regarding COVID-19 infection in heart failure patients⁹⁾ and we selected an interesting study on telehealth in HF care during the COVID-19-related lockdown in Argentina.¹⁰⁾ Exciting original research articles from 10 different countries were submitted, and the IJHF now serves as a communication channel for its own research, among our members as well as globally.

I would like to express my deepest gratitude for the strong support of other academic societies and journals, especially the Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors, Korean Circulation Journal, Korean Journal of Internal Medicine, and Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging, which were involved in growing the IJHF to the extent that it has. I also wish to express my most sincere gratitude to all the IJHF editorial and advisory board members, authors, reviewers, and associate editors for their tireless efforts. Moreover, I want to express my special appreciation to Prof. Dong-Joo Choi, the president of the KSHF for his leadership and encouragement of the IJHF.

Our goal is to spread our content and to have a profound impact on people and their research. I must acknowledge that the IJHF would not be successful without all your great contributions. We sincerely thank you again and encourage the submission of your best research to the IJHF, as well as sharp reviews.