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(Circulation Research. 1999;85:303.)
© 1999 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorial

The Evolutionary Process, and the Process of Evolution

From the Editor in Chief and Associate Editors, Circulation Research.

Correspondence to Eduardo Marbán, MD, PhD, Institute of Molecular Cardiobiology, The Johns Hopkins University, 844 Ross Bldg, Baltimore, MD 21205. E-mail marban@jhmi.edu

Key Words: classification • journal article • editorial direction

	Introduction

 
In publishing, as in nature, evolutionary transitions take time. The Baltimore office of Circulation Research began handling new manuscript submissions on July 1, 1999, but the Pittsburgh office will continue to handle revisions of previously submitted manuscripts until September 15, 1999. Considering the lag between acceptance and publication, Circulation Research will not fully reflect the direction of the new editorship until later this year. Therein lies the resolution to the conundrum of why the journal looks only incrementally different than it did before. The July 9 issue of Circulation Research announced various new rules designed to maximize the information content of the printed page while exploiting the opportunities of online publishing.

Materials and Methods sections are to be drastically shortened in print, with relevant supplementary information posted online. The fact that such changes are not yet evident does not reflect a change of heart by the new editors; in fairness to those manuscripts prepared in good faith under the old rules, we have only enforced the new Instructions for manuscripts accepted on or after July 15, 1999. Such articles will soon begin to appear, but they will not dominate for several issues to come. Likewise, Rapid Communications will soon give way to Brief Communications. In the meantime, you will witness an evolutionary mélange. One change that does coincide with this issue occurs in the Table of Contents, where we have done away with the former distinctions between cardiac and vascular biology. We favor a classification based not on anatomy but . . . [Full Text of this Article]