As of January 1st, Dr. Warren J. Manning has succeeded Dr. Dudley J. Pennell as Editor-in-Chief of the Society’s journal, the Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (JCMR). As the transition in JCMR’s leadership takes place, let us reflect a bit on the role of the outgoing and incoming Editors-in-Chief. Professor Dudley Pennell took the helm of the journal in 2007, following the previous successful and visionary term of the Founding Editor, Dr. Gerald Pohost. Dr Pennell’s role at the time was to continue the fruitful increase in the journal’s visibility which started in 1999 with Dr Pohost’s term, who left the journal with an Impact Factor of 1.87 and around 65 manuscripts published per year.
What happened in the next ten years under Dr Pennell’s supervision is nothing short of extraordinary. As objective as we are in this field, the numbers speak out for his outstanding accomplishments: more than 100 manuscripts published each year, an Impact Factor that tripled to 5.75, and an Editorial Board of 87 people from all across the globe. These figures express the significant increase in the quality of the papers submitted to JCMR as well as the direction given by the Editorial Board in focusing on important review and position papers from the Society. During his tenure, the Journal publication was transferred to Biomed Central and became available as an on-line Open Access Journal. The concept of Open Access publishing was new at the time, so this transition came with its own sets of challenges and opportunities that were smoothly handled by the editorial team based in London, UK. This team, coordinated by the always polite and efficient Managing Editor Miss Fei Wang, had to handle a significant increase in the number of submissions, now at more than 300 manuscripts per year, while continuing to keep high standards in performance metrics for reviews, acceptances and publication time. While it is now more difficult to publish in JCMR with a rejection rate of more than 70%, the Journal has certainly been lifted to new grounds by Dr. Pennell’s effort and guidance. The Society cannot be more thankful for the tremendous energy that Dr. Pennell has put into the Journal during these past ten years. This will certainly be remembered in the future as one of the most successful Editorial tenures that the journal has had.
Stepping into the position of two previous SCMR Gold Medal Award Recipients, the next Editor-in-Chief of JCMR will be Dr Warren J Manning, who also received in 2014 this prestigious Award and previously served the position of Deputy Editor of the Journal. The transition from London is nearly complete, and soon all editorial tasks will be based with the new editorial team in Boston. The Society welcomes the new Editor-in-Chief to his new position and wishes a most productive term. The bar was set very high by the first two JCMR Editors, but given Dr. Manning’s accomplishments and dedication to CMR, we expect only great achievements and that JCMR continues to hold its position as the most prestigious Journal in this field for years to come.
Juliano de Lara Fernandes
SCMR Publications Committee Co-Chair
