A Mission for Rapid Dissemination of Scientific Researches
“Yurtta sulh, cihanda sulh - Peace at home, Peace in the world”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, 20 April 1931
This issue of the Turkish Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (Turk Gogus Kalp Dama) brings the advances in our field once and continuously evolving technology, despite regional conflicts and challenges. Since the first issue published in November 1991 by Dr. Aytaç, Dr. Sarıoğlu, and the respected visionary team, we are committed to sustain our mission which includes publishing scientific and accessible materials, significant advances in our field for continuous medical education and rapid dissemination of the current knowledge. We would like to remind to our readers that this year, the October 2016 issue will represent the 25th anniversary of the Turkish Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, and March 2016 issue of will represent the 2nd anniversary of the Cardiovascular Surgery and Interventions.

Despite all the obstacles in our region, the Editorial Board and our publishing partners Bayçınar Tıbbi Yayıncılık and Pleksus Bilişim Teknolojileri have spent a great effort to improve the quality of both journals under a rigorous peer-review process. Diverse selection of new associate editors from different regions of Turkey for the Editorial Board has also strengthened it. This selection was performed by inviting the past expert reviewers to join the Editorial Board with the aim to increase the motivation of the current reviewers. An increasing number of submissions for our journals reflect the dedication of our members for the society and our journals. Currently, we have been processing over 252 original scientific articles and a total of 526 manuscripts per year for the Turkish Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. The acceptance rate of the manuscripts decreased from 45.1% in 2012 to 23.1% within the past 12 months in the Turkish Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. Moreover, the mean length of time from the author submission of the manuscript to the final publication also shortened from 18.6 months in 2012 to 8.5 months over the past 12 months.

Furthermore, Ahead of Print section was designed a nd will be available in the website of our journal by the end of April and all accepted manuscripts with their DOI numbers will be accessible via internet. In addition, we have designed a user-friendly algorithm for the submitted manuscripts to adhere the instructions of our journals (see Information for Authors).

We also introduced a new application for the MEDLINE indexing which is to improve the quality of the manuscripts submitted to our journal and to substantiate our mission-rapid dissemination of scientific researches.

Although recently introduced, Cardiovascular Surgery and Interventions also received over 120 submissions during the first year. Monthly, the number of submissions has been increasing. The acceptance rate is 53% for this year. New submission sections including Technical Videos and Invited Letters have been also designed and will be available in the website of our journal by the end of April. We aim to share the perspective and experience of our distinguished colleagues with our readers by launching the Invited Letters section. In addition, Technical Videos section will focus on specific topics and surgical details on interesting cases or operative techniques in a more educative manner with a visual expression.

We are all committed to the continued success of the Turkish Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery as the primary journal of our society and the Cardiovascular Surgery and Interventions as a new face of our publishing practice. We are also grateful for the support we have received from the Board of Directors of the Turkish Society of Cardiovascular Surgery, previous Editorial Boards, the members of our society, and international contributions.