JACC: CardioOncology: Poised to Serve a Maturing, Collaborative FieldOpen Access

Introduction

I first became interested in the field of cardio-oncology as a young cardiology fellow. I was fascinated by mechanisms of cardiovascular disease. With the guidance of wonderful mentors, I was driven to understand further how perturbation of fundamental signaling pathways were relevant to human heart failure, cardiac remodeling, and cancer therapy–induced cardiotoxicity. This intellectual curiosity—coupled with an earnest desire to have a positive impact and a sense of extraordinary privilege to care for cancer patients—continuously fuels my passion for advancing this multidisciplinary field.

As the Editor-in-Chief of JACC: CardioOncology, I am driven to maintain the highest standards of excellence that govern the JACC family of journals. Over the next 5 years, my responsibility is to lead with a tireless devotion to never feeling satisfied, to constantly strive for outstanding success, and to focus on the JACC goals of excellence, insightfulness, and simplicity (1).

My overall vision is for JACC: CardioOncology to become the essential scientific resource in cardio-oncology. JACC: CardioOncology will play a vital and transformative role in advancing the cardiovascular care of a growing number of cancer patients and survivors through the dissemination of knowledge. As there are a growing number of cancer survivors with an estimated 20.3 million by 2026 (2), and a substantial cardiovascular disease mortality rate worldwide, there is a critical need for education of clinical providers and the scientific community. Our Editorial Board—composed of leaders in the field of cardiovascular and oncological basic science and clinical medicine—will be driven to engage the community actively through an unwavering commitment to the highest standards. To accomplish this mission, we will be guided by the following fundamental principles:

Communicate excellence in science. We will seek to publish the most impactful, informative, and innovative science executed with methodologic rigor. Publications will span basic, translational, and clinical research, with implications for clinical care. Original research publications will serve as the primary foundation for JACC: CardioOncology and provide critically important learning opportunities, emphasizing translation of new findings to clinical practice. We also will publish research letters, concise pieces with smaller messages, but they will maintain the same level of rigorously executed, innovative original research. We will not focus solely on “positive studies.” We will publish well-conducted “negative studies” that inform the field and studies that seek to challenge or validate current clinical paradigms. We will also require a central illustration and a perspective summary with each original research manuscript, to maintain consistency with the JACC fundamental principles of simplicity and insightfulness. Moreover, each publication will answer the question: “How does this work affect the clinical care of cancer patients?”

Educate and engage the multidisciplinary team of cardio-oncology providers. To advance, the field of cardio-oncology needs to be firmly dependent on scientific and methodological rigor and promote the education of providers. Clinical practice needs to be driven by evidence and not by anecdote. We will promote scientific rigor and literacy through State-of-the-Art Reviews and Primers, another important foundation for JACC: CardioOncology. Topics will include both elementary and advanced methods in basic research, clinical science, cancer therapeutics, and clinical care. We will aim to make these concepts accessible to the broad community in oncology, cardiology, and across disciplines including advanced practice providers, pharmacists, clinicians, and physician scientists.

We also will offer the opportunity to publish evidence-based Clinical Case Challenges, describing the multidisciplinary cardiovascular and oncological care of a cancer patient with an expert, evidence-based review of the approach to diagnostic and therapeutic management.

We will provide a platform for mentorship and advocacy of junior clinicians and scientists to attract new talent to the field and support a strong pipeline of early-stage clinicians, scientists, and fellows-in-training. I also envision that JACC: CardioOncology will become the home for proceedings from major cardio-oncology symposia.

Provide immediate education through an open access publication and digital media. Open access has gained a great deal of momentum and provides us the wonderful opportunity for JACC: CardioOncology to be readily available to the entire community, without restriction. Moreover, to promote the work of JACC: CardioOncology and our authors broadly, we will use various media and communications strategies, including social media. Our goals are to foster cohesion among clinicians, scientists, and stakeholders. We are thankful for the engagement of our social media experts, early career investigators, and fellows-in-training to help lead and actively drive forward these efforts.

Devote our attention to positively affecting the needs of our community. Our aim will be to focus on impact, and not impact factor. Ultimately, our goal is excellence, with a devoted attention to the needs of our readership and the advancement of patient care and scientific discovery. We believe that important metrics for our authors and readers to also consider include time to first decision, time to publication, number of submissions (national, international), number of downloads, press coverage, and social media traffic. Our Editorial Board is highly committed to offering an objective, fair, and efficient peer review process upheld by the highest standards.

Ultimately, JACC: CardioOncology is a tremendous opportunity to shape and transform the field of cardio-oncology into a mature field that focuses on scientific evidence, patient centeredness, community engagement, and multidisciplinary collaboration.

As I reflect on the past decade, the evolution and growth of the field of cardio-oncology have been tremendous, and they have been made possible only by your commitment and devotion to the field. Together, I know we will advance the field of cardio-oncology, and your passion to do so has been energizing. I greatly look forward to your readership and your submissions, as well as our collaboration together to achieve outstanding success and purposefully advance and inspire the cardiovascular science and care of our growing numbers of oncology patients.