The New Year gives us an opportunity to reflect on our achievements and our challenges. The Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention (JCRP) successfully navigated through 2007 beginning with a "new look" cover, but most importantly, the significant achievement of gaining acceptance into the ISI/Thomson Scientific Current Content/Clinical Medicine and Science Citation Index Expanded. The latter signifies the latest step in our mission to increase the relevance of the Journal to scientific and clinical communities within cardiopulmonary rehabilitation and prevention. I am pleased with the direction of the Journal and look forward to 2008. Nonetheless, there are several ongoing initiatives that face us, and as such, require attention.
Issues associated with conflict of interest and institutional-industry relationships, existing when journal officials, authors, and reviewers have financial relationships in a public or a private company, continue to be areas of great discussion. The negative perceptions of such relationships in themselves can damage the integrity of the publishing process and may lead to more significant difficulties. The rising call for the establishment of policies and practices for disclosure and assessment of these relationships is ongoing. For sometime, JCRP has had in place a policy that asks all authors to provide a statement regarding the existence of conflict of interest. Beginning by midyear, this policy will be expanded to include a more specific declaration of relationships by editorial officials, authors, and reviewers. It is our intent to provide a simple method for identifying this information, which should not add significantly to the overall process.
On a final note, as most of you know, JCRP is the official journal of not only the AACVPR but also the Canadian Association of Cardiac Rehabilitation (CACR). Since the early days of my tenure as editor-in-chief, I have looked forward to provide greater opportunity for the 2 organizations to contribute and collaborate in their involvement with the Journal. At this time, I am pleased to announce the addition of a new associate editor to the Journal's team. James A. Stone, MD, PhD, FRCPC, FAACVPR, FACC, and Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, has accepted my invitation to join our team. Dr Stone, whose many accomplishments include serving as editor-in-chief for the CACR Canadian Guidelines for Cardiac Rehabilitation and Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, brings to the JCRP leadership his recognized expertise in cardiopulmonary rehabilitation as well as his insights into further ensuring closer communication between the CACR and JCRP. Please welcome Dr Stone to the journal editorial staff. I look forward to his involvement.
As always, I invite your comments.
Best wishes for your 2008.
Mark A. Williams, PhD, FAACVPR, Editor-in-Chief
Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention