Journal of the American Heart Association: The Next Stage of the Journey

If you're offered a seat on a rocket ship, you don't ask what seat, you just get on.

‐Eric Schmidt (former CEO and Executive Chairman of Google)

Greetings! Well, I have been offered the driver's seat of an amazing vehicle, and so with this January 2023 issue, I officially begin my term as the third Editor‐in‐Chief of the Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA). It is a profound privilege to do so. JAHA has seen tremendous growth since it began in 2012, and over the past 5 years there has been a doubling of submissions and articles published. JAHA is currently the world's leading open access scientific journal by impact factor, with a combined cardiovascular and cerebrovascular remit, and has the highest annual media impressions among American Heart Association (AHA) journals and a strong online presence. I would like to thank the outgoing Editor‐in‐Chief, Barry London, MD, PhD, and a dedicated team of editors and editorial staff for these tremendous achievements. I must also extend my gratitude to the JAHA community of authors, reviewers, and supporters, because without them we would not be at this highly successful point. As we move forward in the journey, it is my hope that we can put even more fuel into this figurative rocket ship.

Over the past 3 months, we have been at work, assembling a team, identifying opportunities, setting priorities, and handling new articles. In doing so, I gained tremendously from the thoughtful input provided by Dr London and the JAHA editorial staff. First, we began by selecting the senior leadership team. Getting Pamela Peterson aboard as our Deputy Editor is a major coup, because she has been with the journal since its inception, and most recently served as one of its Senior Associate Editors, thereby bringing not just her own superb scientific expertise, but tremendous institutional knowledge and editorial experience. We have expanded the number of Senior Associate Editors from 2 to 4, and Associate Editors from 7 to 20. I have engaged Barry London and Daniel Eitzman as Senior Guest Editors to work with our expanded team of Guest Editors. Our Guest Editors handle all articles where there could be any conflict of interests with the Editor‐in‐Chief, Deputy Editor, Senior Associate Editors, or Associate Editors, as well as any articles that may fall within their area of unique scientific expertise. All selected editors (regular and guest) are highly accomplished scientists and seasoned in editorial decision making and will serve as the executive council for the journal. Second, we jointly developed a mission statement for the journal, which conveys its broad remit, articulates its AHA–aligned mission, portrays its technology‐based vision, and emphasizes its values of integrity, excellence, and inclusiveness. Third, to fully engage across several disciplines that intersect with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health, and position JAHA to routinely address contemporary issues, we identified several topics and events to be led by 16 section editors. These sections include vascular bedfellows, integrative health, mixed methods research, precision medicine, population science, health policy, healthy aging, implementation science, global health, environmental health, health equity, digital health, mental health, machine intelligence, and scientific sessions. A key responsibility of our eminent section editors will be to commission or cowrite a review article, which highlights gaps or summarizes developments in their discipline. Fourth, to assure the continued high quality of all our published articles, we have expanded our statistical editor team to 10 statisticians to help coordinate the statistical reviews of our article submissions and will be appointing technical editors to ensure our accepted articles adhere to established standards for reporting various types of scientific data and study design types. Fifth, we are maintaining our superb editorial staff led by Kathleen Sullivan. Our editorial staff work tirelessly, largely behind the scenes, to keep our editorial processes effective and efficient, and we are extremely grateful to have them.

We will maintain our commitment to publishing all types of full original articles related to the mission of all 16 scientific councils of the AHA, with no limits on word count or the number of tables or figures in articles, and intend to invite more editorials to place the research we publish in proper perspective. However, we are introducing the following new article types: (1) protocol articles, which will comprise protocols for proposed or ongoing pivotal prospective studies, with a comprehensive narration of the study hypothesis, rationale, and methodology; (2) expert‐consensus reports, which will comprise clinical practice guidelines, scientific statements, or policy articles written under the auspices of a recognized regional, national, or international cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease organization or society; (3) crème de la conference, consisting of high‐level summaries of scientific conference highlights or a group of abstracts presented at the scientific conference of a recognized regional, national, or international cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease organization or society.

We are introducing several new initiatives:

1. Triage reviews: To accommodate the large volume of submissions, make informed decisions more quickly, and mitigate reviewer burnout, we are planning to invite prompt reviews from identified experts on the editorial board, which will lead to more decision letters labeled “reject without full review.” We have greatly expanded the regular editorial board from ~40 to ~120 individuals, which will permit us to have the requisite expertise on hand, and the bandwidth to request them to provide both triage and full reviews, as warranted. In making appointments to the board, we strived to boost the number of women, diverse members, and international representation.

2. Patient editorial board: There is a movement toward engaging patients in more aspects of the scientific research continuum. To incorporate the voice of the patient into what we do at JAHA, and prioritize meaningful dialogue, we have created a patient editorial board, with 6 individuals who have personal direct exposure to cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease. These board members will provide intermittent editorial commentaries, pick patient‐choice articles, and join our JAHA podcasts when appropriate.

3. AHA council board: All 16 AHA councils will have 1 of their members represented to facilitate collaborations between JAHA and the councils on special themed issues or topic spotlights, especially those related to council activities.

4. Early career editorial board: Although we will continue to have an early career editorial board, ¹ we have now developed a 2‐year curriculum, akin to that used at the journal Stroke, ² designed to gradually enhance the reviewer and editor capabilities of these early career individuals, under mentored guidance of designated JAHA editors, with the goal of having these individuals join the regular editorial board in the future.

5. JAHA podcast: “Aha! With JAHA,” will be a monthly podcast interview conducted by our podcast editors with authors of select JAHA articles or individuals involved in major policymaking related to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health.

Other initiatives in development are annual top 10 JAHA articles, continuing medical education article selections, a leaders, legends, and legacies section, a fast‐track peer review process for priority articles, video abstracts, and biannual surveys of JAHA readership (to improve engagement and satisfaction).

I am absolutely thrilled yet humbled to lead JAHA in its next iteration. The future holds remarkable possibilities but will likely require more from those of us who care deeply about biomedical science and optimizing cardiovascular health. JAHA is firmly committed to publishing the highest‐quality and most rigorously conducted biomedical research, which will influence thinking about cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health, further clinical practice, reflect patient priorities, and inform public health policy. The journal will leverage open science concepts in ways that strengthen access, transparency, and equity, as well as use digital, multimedia, and social media platforms to broaden our reach and tailor content to better meet stakeholder needs. JAHA will also ensure that its decision making routinely incorporates a diversity of perspective, prowess, and pedigrees, and that it builds synergies across the AHA ecosystem to reach the widest possible audiences and augment opportunities for authors and readers to engage with our content. As the journal continues to evolve, we welcome input from readers, authors, and reviewers. Authors with queries about the suitability of an intended article are encouraged to please contact us to discuss it. We enthusiastically embark on this next stage of the JAHA journey. Bon voyage.

Disclosures

None.