2024 Annual Report of The Journal of Cardiovascular Aging

In 2024, The Journal of Cardiovascular Aging (JCA) marked significant growth and achievements in advancing cardiovascular sciences. The journal published cutting-edge original research and comprehensive review articles, as well as a series of insightful editorials and commentaries that enriched the field. Additionally, JCA successfully hosted a widely acclaimed webinar series presented by leading scientists, further fostering academic exchange and collaboration.

In 2024, JCA  achieved several important milestones, including its inclusion in several prestigious indexing databases. These accomplishments are a testament to the unwavering dedication and expertise of our esteemed Editorial Board members, the hard work of our editorial staff, and the publisher's strong commitment to scholarly excellence. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to our Editorial Board members, authors, reviewers, and readers for their invaluable contributions and continued engagement with JCA.

Key achievements in 2024:

1. Indexing

JCA reached significant indexing milestones in 2024:

• Inclusion in CNKI, CAS, and Scopus, achieving a CiteScore of 2.4.
• Official selection for inclusion in the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI, Web of Science), effective August 7, 2024, marking a pivotal step in expanding the journal's academic reach.
• Anticipation of the journal’s first Impact Factor in June 2025. All published papers will be comprehensively indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection, enhancing the journal’s visibility and scientific impact.

Furthermore, articles authored by NIH-funded investigators are indexed in PMC/PubMed and are freely available for download, ensuring broader accessibility and dissemination of research.

2. Publications

In 2024, JCA published 4 Issues containing a total of 25 articles. The cover pages of these issues, each featuring a selected article, are shown in Figure 1. The distribution of article types is illustrated in Figure 2. Collectively, these articles span a wide range of research areas and have attracted 14,837 views and 4,959 downloads.

                     

Figure 1. Covers of JCA issues published in 2024

Figure 2. Types of the articles published in 2024

Thirteen articles published in JCA in 2024 were from researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). These articles are listed in PubMed and freely available for download.

Table 1 shows the top 5 most viewed articles published in 2024.

Table 1. Top 5 most read articles published in 2024

(Data accessed on January 3, 2023)

Table 2 lists the top 10 most cited articles published since 2021.

Table 2. Top 10 most cited articles since 2021

Note: Citation data are sourced from WOS.

The JCA editorial team remains committed to ensuring the efficient and timely processing of submitted articles. In 2024, the average time from submission to online publication was 77 days.

3. Editorial Board

JCA annually updates its Editorial Board, welcoming new members and rotating others. We sincerely thank the Editorial Board members who completed their tenure this year for their invaluable contributions. In 2024, we were delighted to welcome 12 distinguished physicians, scientists, and physician-scientists to the board (Table 3). We deeply appreciate their willingness to support the journal’s scientific mission. The board currently comprises 61 members from 11 countries, including the USA, China, the UK, Italy, Canada, Germany, Australia, Japan, Singapore, France, and Greece (Figure 3). This diverse representation underscores our commitment to fostering global collaboration in cardiovascular research.

Table 3. New Editorial Board members (2024)

Figure 3. Geographic distribution of Editorial Board members

4. Authors

In 2024, JCA featured contributions from researchers across the globe. As in the previous two years, JCA charged no publication fees for articles published in 2024. All articles are freely accessible on the JCA website, with NIH-funded papers also freely available via PMC/PubMed. The research published in JCA was supported by funding from esteemed organizations, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the American Heart Association, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the British Heart Foundation, among others. We express our sincere appreciation to the authors of original research articles and those who kindly accepted our invitation to contribute review articles, editorials, or Commentaries on Impactful Discoveries (CIDs).

5. Peer Review

All original research and review articles, as well as case reports, underwent rigorous internal and external peer review by at least two reviewers. Editorials, commentaries, and perspectives were reviewed by the editors. We are deeply grateful to the reviewers for generously volunteering their time and expertise, helping uphold the journal’s high standards of scientific discourse and publication quality.

JCA’s peer-review process is designed to foster constructive dialogue between authors and editors while minimizing unnecessary experimental revisions. Authors are encouraged to engage directly with editors to discuss the relevance of additional experiments suggested by reviewers. Our commitment remains to publish robust, high-quality research that significantly advances the field of cardiovascular science .

While maintaining strict confidentiality for reviewers, we also prioritize transparency in our peer-review process. This year, we introduced a new initiative: posting reviewer comments alongside author responses on the journal website for each article. This allows readers to better assess the scientific merit of the published discoveries.

6. Readership

The readership of JCA spans the globe (Figure 4), with notable engagement from countries/regions such as the USA, China, the UK, India, Germany, Canada, Italy, Hong Kong, Australia, and Japan.

Figure 4. Geographical distribution of readership by country/region

7. Features

• Webinars

The JCA Webinar Series has earned widespread recognition as one of the premier webinar series in the global cardiovascular research community. In 2024, the journal hosted five successful webinars, each featuring prominent cardiovascular scientists who presented and discussed groundbreaking scientific discoveries (Figure 5). Each webinar is named in honor of a distinguished physician, scientist, or physician-scientist who has made foundational contributions to the field. These webinars, accessible online via the JCA website, have attracted significant viewership, with some sessions surpassing 20,000 views.

Figure 5. Distinguished speakers featured in the 2024 JCA Webinar Series.

• Special issues

In 2024, JCA released three Special Issues, each addressing key topics in cardiovascular research:

1) “Mechanisms of Cellular Quality Control and Cell Death in the Heart”

• Guest Editors: Dr. Lorrie Kirshenbaum and Dr. Inna Rabinovich-Nikitin
• Focus: Recent advancements in cellular quality control mechanisms and pathways of cell death in the heart.

2) “Metabolism: Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Cardiovascular Disease in the Elderly”

• Guest Editor: Dr. Michinari Nakamura
• Focus: How age-related metabolic changes, combined with sex, genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors, drive the progression of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the elderly.

3) “Circadian Influences on Cardiovascular and Cardiometabolic Functions”

• Guest Editor: Dr. Martin Young
• Focus: The latest findings on circadian biology’s impact on cardiovascular and cardiometabolic health, with an emphasis on therapeutic applications.

These Special Issues provide valuable insights and significantly advance the knowledge in the field of cardiovascular aging.

8. Conference & Collaborations

In 2024, JCA actively engaged in high-profile scientific events to enhance its global presence and foster collaborations. The journal participated in the 2024 Annual Scientific Meeting of the IACS-North American Chapter, held from September 19-21 in Houston, TX. Additionally, the 35th Great Wall International Congress of Cardiology (GW-ICC 2024) took place in conjunction with the Asian Heart Society Congress from November 7 to 10, 2024, in Beijing, China. Seven JCA Editorial Board members attended the GW-ICC, where they delivered presentations on cutting-edge cardiovascular research. These efforts align with JCA’s mission to disseminate scientific advancements and strengthen collaborations within the global cardiovascular research community.

9. Awards

In March 2024, JCA announced the recipients of “The Journal of Cardiovascular Aging Nick Frangogiannis, M.D. Award”. This award was made possible through the generous sponsorship of renowned webinar speaker Dr. Nick Frangogiannis and carries a total prize of $750. Dr. Frangogiannis personally selected the two best original research articles published in 2023. The first authors of the first-place and runner-up articles received electronic certificates and cash prizes.

Award Recipients:

First Place: PANoptosis is a prominent feature of desmoplakin cardiomyopathy

Runner-Up: Senolytics rejuvenate the reparative activity of human cardiomyocytes and endothelial cells

Additionally, JCA introduced two new awards sponsored by two prominent webinar speakers:

1) The Roberto Bolli, M.D. Award

This award recognizes the author(s) of a short essay (500 to 750 words) on a topic of broad interest to JCA’s readership.

2) The Journal of Cardiovascular Aging Best Early Career Manuscript Award

Sponsored by distinguished webinar speaker Dr. Joseph C. Wu, this award prioritizes manuscripts reporting innovative and impactful discoveries, with a focus on supporting early-career researchers.

For additional information on these awards, please visit the journal's website.

Concluding Remarks

JCA remains steadfast in its mission to disseminate cutting-edge scientific discoveries and promote innovative advancements in aging and cardiovascular disease research. The Editorial team extends its deepest gratitude to the Editorial Board members for their invaluable scientific contributions and unwavering dedication. We also sincerely thank our authors for their outstanding research, which forms the core of the journal’s success, and our reviewers, whose rigorous and thoughtful evaluations have greatly enhanced the quality of our published content.

JCA is dedicated to publishing high-quality original research and review articles. We warmly welcome scientific contributions from our Editorial Board members and the broader research community. Upholding our values of timeliness, fairness, and transparency, we remain dedicated to ensuring rigorous peer review and the publication of robust scientific findings.

Editor: Yuanyuan Dong
Language Editor: Catherine Yang
Production Editor: Ting Xu
Respectfully submitted by the Editorial Office of The Journal of Cardiovascular Aging

Contact us: [email protected]
Website: https://www.oaepublish.com/jca
Submission: https://www.oaecenter.com/login?JournalId=jca