Construction in Progress...

...Please pardon the inconvenience.

This is the kind of sign which forces you to cross an incredibly busy street because the sidewalk is blocked; or has you ducking through some scaffolding to reach the entrance of a shop which is still selling things whilst the surroundings look as if they would not last another day; or, in a museum, explains why the Monet you actually came to see is currently on loan to an exhibition in St Petersburg. Anybody who owns a house knows that this is unavoidable – a building is a constant building site, or, with the words of a well-known German building center chain: “There is always something to do.”

The same can be said for a scientific journal. Many readers will from time to time ask themselves: “What does an Editor-in-Chief actually do?” They probably imagine a haughty, know-all, somewhat anankastic elderly person sitting at a cluttered desk and picking his/her nose. There the editor is thought to be busy tantalizing authors with rejections or countless revisions, bothering reviewers with untimely reminders, and enervating publishers with constant but obscure demands for so-called improvements. This cliché is, admittedly, rather precise. With a constant stream of manuscripts being submitted on a daily basis, usually in the category where there are enough already and with some of them written in a language only faintly related to English, the editor must ensure that, in the end, the reader will get what he is entitled to: in the case of this journal eight issues a year filled with interesting and scientifically sound content. This calls for sometimes brutal and seemingly arrogant decisions. The peer-review process, on which the editor relies, is a totally human thing and therefore prone to extreme fluctuations: from same-day-service to empty promises; from catchy but inadequate one-liners to extensive elaborations with references. Again, the E-i-C has to keep the different reigns together at all times.

Now for the improvements. The Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon is in the fortunate situation that after the election of a new E-i-C about two-and-a-half years ago, it is now also in the hands of a completely new team from Thieme publishers.[1] So everybody is enthusiastic and full of fresh ideas how to make things better. Again: it is in the hands of the person responsible for the content to direct it all. With David Stewart in New York, Graham Brumfield in Stuttgart, Kumar Kunal in Noida, and Daniel Schiff somewhere on the planet, yours truly in his Mainz den sits in the geographical center, trying to coordinate helpers in three time zones covering a 10 ½ hour difference. Noida? This is an acronym for “New Okhla Industrial Development Authority”, a rapidly growing city SE of New Delhi and (as of now) better known for its Formula 1 circuit than for publishing. There Kunal is now the dedicated production officer for this journal, converting manuscripts of all shapes and sizes into the neatly set articles you will eventually be reading. The change in layout meant re-typesetting all manuscripts accepted before 2012, and with the constant additions the workload of the production teams both in New York and in India has been immense. This has at times delayed the newly introduced eFirst publishing process, but we aim to be back on schedule very soon.

There is a constant and abundant flow of case report submissions. The editor and the surgical readers are very grateful for that,[2] but we are increasingly forced to reject manuscripts because there is virtually no space to publish them. In order to avoid too much disappointment and even injustice, we have come up with a solution which is believed to satisfy both authors and readers. This will be announced in detail later this year. So watch this space.

An actualization of the Instructions-for-Authors is long overdue. Although obviously often ignored, these are essential guidelines how to prepare a manuscript. Nonobservance can lead to immediate rejection for formal reasons. In order to be followed instructions must be clearly defined and both concise as well as detailed where necessary. The increasing incidence of fraudulence which we also experience at this journal unfortunately necessitates the introduction of new safety measures. All this will also be officially announced later this year.

The traditional Blue Pages, covering news from the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, are also being re-designed completely. Meanwhile they will only be printed in every second issue to avoid too much repetition. The reader can expect a complete overhaul and layout which should make this part of the journal an attractive news forum, not only for members of the society.

When it became known that the new Willy-Brandt-Airport in Berlin would not go into service on June 3rd, lots of reasons were sought. One explanation was that it might have been a mistake not to go for a singular main contractor but for individual assignment of each lot, of which there were many. Yours truly considers himself the foreman supervising and coordinating all the different building sites being worked on at The Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon. He is willing to take all the blame for any shortcomings the readers may currently encounter. He is also aware that by the time our total renovation will be finished, some other drains could start leaking. Construction will therefore be an ongoing process, but with a dedicated team on the site all of the time there should hardly be any inconvenience noticable.

• References

• 1 Heinemann MK. From Bygones to Perspectives. Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2012; 60: 1-2
• 2 Heinemann MK. Cold Cases. Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2011; 59: 131-132