New journal - Circulation: Heart Failure

The American Heart Association has named the editor of Circulation: Heart Failure, its second of the planned six-publication extension to the weekly flagship journal, Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. The journals will be published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

James E. Udelson, M.D., acting chief of the division of cardiology at Tufts-New England Medical Center and associate professor of medicine and radiology at Tufts University School of Medicine, will serve as editor of Circulation: Heart Failure.

"Given the explosion of new information and knowledge in the heart failure field, the time seemed right for a journal devoted to exploring and highlighting many of those advances," said Udelson, who also is an associate editor for Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

"At the manuscript review meetings for Circulation, we found ourselves commonly having to reject high-quality manuscripts simply on the basis of priority or because the work had a focus that was felt to be too highly specialized in nature," Udelson said. "It is our hope that Circulation: Heart Failure will provide a forum for continuing expansion of new knowledge that will ultimately increase our understanding of pathophysiology and translate into improved care for our patients."

"I am extremely pleased with the release of the second member of the Circulation portfolio of cardiovascular subspecialty journals, and with its new editor, Dr. Jim Udelson. With his strong leadership, this journal will rapidly become a major source of the latest information in the field of heart failure," said Joseph Loscalzo, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of Circulation and the Circulation subspecialty journal family.

Udelson says the new bi-monthly journal reflects the rapid growth and unfolding new directions in the field of heart failure. Circulation: Heart Failure will present high-quality, rigorously performed studies in clinical and translational science, as well as basic research articles with potential implications for the field. Recurring features will address the latest topics and controversies in heart failure, the development of new drugs and devices, and case reports and imaging studies of interest to clinicians involved in treating heart failure.

Circulation: Heart Failure is the second of the new Circulation portfolio of journals, designed to meet the growing demand for tightly focused information in areas at the cutting edge of cardiology. Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology premiered recently. The remaining four titles -- Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics; Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging; Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes; and Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions -- are scheduled for launch later in 2008.

Each issue of Circulation: Heart Failure and the other new journals will be available in both print and online formats. The journal Web site, http://circheartfailure.ahajournals.org/, will launch next week when the first issue is posted and will also present "Publish Ahead of Print" articles and other online features.

American Heart Association/American Stroke Association Premium Professional members will have free, full-text access to journal articles through December 31, 2008. The first issue of each of the six new journals will be available to the public for free as sample issues.