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Several years ago the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) established the "impact factor" as an interesting way to compare journals by the number of times their articles are cited elsewhere. Although even those at ISI will contest that this is only one criterion that should be reviewed when discussing the quality of a journal [H. Atkins, personal communication], it has become an important benchmark by which journals are compared. Journal impact factors are published every year and basically reflect the number of citations to that journal in the previous 2 years in relation to the number of articles published by that journal (i.e., the 1998 impact factor for any journal is calculated by dividing the number of citations to articles published in 1996-1997 that appear in 1998 articles divided by the number of papers published in 1996-1997). Thus highly cited articles will increase the impact factor of a journal, and journals that publish a lot of articles need to publish many highly cited articles to keep the proportion (essentially, the impact factor) high. AJP-Heart & Circulation is an excellent journal, and it is not our intention to focus entirely on competing with other journals; however, we cannot ignore impact factors either. Currently, rank and tenure committees, departmental funding, and other decisions are including the impact factor of the journals in which faculty publish as a part of the equation in making decisions.

What can we do? We can continue to strive to make AJP-Heart & Circulation the premiere cardiovascular journal in the world. In this regard, we will do the following: 1) publish more short, focused review articles; 2) continue the Special Topic calls; 3) put more emphasis on translational reviews to expand our reader base into more traditional medical communities; and 4) publish only high-quality articles. To stimulate more submissions and increase the pool of manuscripts to accept from, we must make known what is attractive about publishing in AJP-Heart & Circulation. Currently, we are one of only a few cardiovascular journals that have no page limit on manuscripts, thereby allowing publication of "complete works." Within a few months, the peer review of AJP-Heart & Circulation will become completely electronic, which will speed up the review process. APS is also exploring ways to publish articles online upon acceptance, essentially eliminating the delay between acceptance and the ability to be cited. We will also be changing the figure on the cover every month to highlight important or interesting research found in that issue.

The nature of AJP journals is to publish complete works, while leaving room for breaking findings. This and the changes outlined above will enhance the quality of AJP-Heart & Circulation - the purpose of such is evolution. The fallout will be an increase in our impact factor as well. In addition, we occasionally add Associate Editors and Editorial Board Members to meet the changing needs of our readership.