Plans for the Circulation Journal

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to the first issue of the Circulation Journal in 2024. Over the past few years several important enhancements have been made, such as the simultaneous publication in English of Japanese guidelines with the release of the Japanese version, improving the efficiency of the reviewing process for submitted manuscripts and reducing the publication fee. Due to these efforts, the average processing time from submission to online publication is now 58 days, which is 12 days shorter than in 2020, and the number of manuscripts submitted is tending to increase from all over the world. We hope that more investigators will choose to submit their valuable articles to the Circulation Journal. In addition, the third joint symposium between the European Heart Journal and the Circulation Journal was held during the annual meeting of the Japanese Circulation Society (JCS) in 2023. The theme of the symposium was “Battling with Subclinical Atrial Fibrillation: Pathophysiology and Early Detection”. Professor Filippo Crea, who is the Editor-in-Chief of the European Heart Journal, kindly chaired the special lecture given by Professor Harry Crijns from Maastricht University, Netherlands. Professor Crijns gave an excellent lecture entitled “The Changing Role of Rhythm Control for Atrial Fibrillation”. From the JCS, Drs Takanori Yamaguchi and Kyoko Soejima presented their most recent research findings regarding the pathological approach to atrial fibrillation and the newest attempts to detect subclinical atrial fibrillation. Because such a joint symposium is extremely attractive and meaningful for discussing cutting-edge research and the future perspectives of cardiovascular medicine, it will be held again in 2024. The theme of the 2024 joint symposium will be “Digital Healthcare/Hypertension”. Our hope is that the Journal will continue to have a role in promoting communication with overseas academic societies. We are always striving to maintain and further enhance the scientific quality of the Journal to ensure it is recognized as a leading international medical journal. Finally, I extend my personal appreciation of the great contributions made by all authors submitting their valuable manuscripts to the Circulation Journal, and the reviewers and our editorial team for their dedicated efforts.

• Toshihisa Anzai, MD, PhD
• Editor-in-Chief
• Circulation Journal