There have been some very favourable events for the journal Clínica e Investigación en Arteriosclerosis [Clinical Practice and Research in Arteriosclerosis] in recent years. The fact that the journal was included in 2013 in the Medline database, created and managed by the United States National Library of Medicine, has given it worldwide visibility. This had a very positive impact on the journal's expansion, with a 60% increase in the number of original articles received, greater participation of the Latin American community and us starting to receive articles written in English. In early 2017, Clínica e Investigación en Arteriosclerosis was published simultaneously in Spanish and English, a momentous event in terms of increasing its international prominence. Also in recent years, we have significantly increased our publication of consensus documents and clinical guidelines, which have been an important source of citations. The above changes, just some of many, have resulted in a progressive increase in the number of manuscripts received while, at the same time, we have seen a steady increase in the citation indexes. For example, the CiteScore (https://www.scopus.com/sourceid/7200153133), an index that measures the average number of citations received in a particular year, divided by all articles published in the journal in the three previous years, increased from 0.18 in 2014 to 0.84 in 2018. In November 2018, Clínica e Investigación en Arteriosclerosis was included in the WoS/Clarivate Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), another important step for obtaining impact factor.
If we were assigned impact factor, it would mean a substantial rise in the prestige of our society's journal and its consolidation as a high-level scientific journal in the international arena, and the present period is therefore key. Assigning of impact factor will also be fundamental for increasing the number and quality of papers submitted for publication in the journal.
To obtain that impact factor for Clínica e Investigación en Arteriosclerosis, the works selected for publication must have a high level of scientific quality. To achieve this, we have to be able to count on the collaboration and efforts of all members of the Sociedad Española de Arteriosclerosis (SEA) [Spanish Society of Arteriosclerosis] in sending high-quality scientific manuscripts. It is also necessary to have an Editorial Committee made up of a large and efficient team of reviewers. The reviewers, both in the clinical field and in experimental and clinical-epidemiological research, must assure that the review process is agile, rigorous, and capable of selecting and prioritising the articles that have the highest quality and interest, particularly for the scientific community associated with dyslipidaemia, atherogenic factors and vascular disease. With this goal, we have just appealed to all the members of the Society by email, inviting them to participate in the Editorial Committee as manuscript reviewers for the journal. We hope our appeal generates a large positive response.
Another important step in the evolution of Clínica e Investigación en Arteriosclerosis is the renewal of the Editorial Board. The Board needs to be made up of highly regarded experts, which should contribute to increasing the quality of the articles received and published in the journal and, at the same time, greater international projection.
In line with prestigious journals, as part of our journal's editorial team, we have created the figure of Associate Editor. This person will be an expert with the responsibility of working in a strategic area for the journal, and within that role, collaborating with the editors in all the steps designed to increase the number and quality of articles received and published in Clínica e Investigación en Arteriosclerosis.
Last of all, we plan to include new members of the Latin American community in the Editorial Committee, in order to encourage their collaboration in the journal and increase the presence of studies carried out in Latin America, an area with which we feel closely linked. We hope our colleagues based there will do us the honour of contributing to further enhance the visibility of Latin American science in the journal and add the value for the journal of being a channel of expression for the scientists in that area. The future of Clínica e Investigación en Arteriosclerosis requires the collaboration of all members of the SEA and of the Society itself. As we said before, this is a very important time for the future of our journal. However, we have only arrived in this fortunate position thanks to the efforts of the successive editors and Editorial Committees, the authors, the professionals of the Elsevier publishing house and, without any doubt, the readers who, all together, have made this situation possible. The Clínica e Investigación en Arteriosclerosis editorial team would like to thank all of you for your excellent work and your trust, and ask that we continue moving forward together towards the great challenge of being assigned impact factor, a goal which is becoming increasingly within reach. When we achieve it, we will have taken a giant step towards consolidating the prestige of the journal in the international scientific community.
Carlos Lahoz Josep Ribalta Xavier Pintó
Clinical Research Editor Basic Research Editor Editor in Chief