About the Journal
Focus and Scope
The Heart Surgery Forum® is an international peer-reviewed, open access journal seeking original investigative and clinical work on any subject germane to the science or practice of modern cardiac care. The HSF publishes original scientific reports, collective reviews, case reports, editorials, and letters to the editor. New manuscripts are reviewed by reviewers for originality, content, relevancy and adherence to scientific principles in a double-blind process. The HSF features a streamlined submission and peer review process with an anticipated completion time of 30 to 60 days from the date of receipt of the original manuscript. Authors are encouraged to submit full color images and video that will be included in the web version of the journal at no charge.
Editor-in-Chief Igor Rudez, MD, PhD
Department of Cardiac and Transplant Surgery
Dubrava University Hospital
Zagreb, Croatia
Founder and Editor-in-Chief Emeritus Mark M. Levinson, MD
Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery
Central Washington Hospital
Wenatchee, WA, US
Assistant Editors
Davor Baric, MD, PhD
Dubrava University Hospital
Zagreb, Croatia
Ben Bidstrup, FRACS, FRCSEd
Pindara Gold Coast Hospital
Terranora NSW, Australia
Daniel Unic, MD, PhD
Dubrava University Hospital
Zagreb, Croatia
Song Wan, MD, PhD, FRCS
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Shatin, NT, Hong Kong, China
Editorial Board
Lishan Aklog, MD
St. Joseph’s Medical Center
Phoenix, Arizona, USA
John C. Alexander, MD
Evanston NW Healthcare
Evanston, Illinois, USA
Rui M. S. Almeida
Parana’s West State University
Cascavel, Brazil
Tohru Asai, MD
Shiga University
Otsu, Japan
Roberto Battellini, MD
Hospital Italiano
Buenos Aires, Argentina
William E. Cohn, MD
Texas Heart Institute
Houston, Texas, USA
Reddy Dandolu, MD
University of Nevada School of Medicine
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Michael S. Firstenberg, MD
Summa Akron City Hospital
Akron, Ohio, USA
Jan D. Galla, MD, PhD
Teterboro Aviation Medical Services
Teterboro, New Jersey, USA
Changqing Gao, MD
PLA General Hospital
Beijing City, China
Vassilios Gulielmos, MD
Geniki Kliniki Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki, Greece
Philip J. Hess, Jr., MD
University of Florida Hospital
Gainesville, Florida, USA
Hitoshi Hirose, MD
Hahnemann University Hospital
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Mehmet Kaplan, MD
Siyami Ersek Thoracic and
Cardiovascular Surgery Center
Istanbul, Turkey
Michael Knaut, MD
Heart Center Dresden
Dresden, Germany
Tomas D. Martin, MD
University of Florida Hospital
Gainesville, Florida, USA
John Murkin, MD, FRCPC
London Health Sciences Centre
London, Ontario, Canada
Oztekin Oto, MD
Dokuz Eylul University Hospital
Izmir, Turkey
John Pym, MD
Aria Health
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Abdul-Rahman M. Ramzisham, MD
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Goya V. Raikar, MD
Oklahoma Heart Hospital Physicians
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
Edward P. Raines, MD
BryanLGH Heart Institute
Lincoln, Nebraska, USA
Lucas Ramirez-Gil, MD
Universidad de Antioquia
Medellin, Columbia
Hermann Reichenspurner, MD, PhD
University Hospital Eppendorf
Hamburg, Germany
Friedrich-Christian Riess, MD
Albertinen Hospital Hamburg
Hamburg, Germany
Mattew A. Romano, MD
University of Michigan Health System
Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Donald Ross, MD
The Royal North Shore Hospital
Sydney, Australia
Igor Rudez, MD, PhD
Dubrava University Hospital
Zagreb, Croatia
Hossein Shayan, MD
San Antonio Community Hospital
Upland, California, USA
Prasanna Simha, MBBS, MS
Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology
Bangalore, India
Curt Tribble, MD
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA, USA
Christina Vassileva, MD
Southern Illinois University
School of Medicine
Springfield, Illinois, USA
Murali P. Vettath, DNB, MCh
MIMS Institute of Cardiac Sciences
Kozhikode, Kerala, India
Grayson H. Wheatley III, MD
Arizona Heart Institute
Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Leora T. Yarboro, MD
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
Vipin Zamvar, MD
Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh
Edinburgh, UK
Publication Frequency
The Heart Surgery Forum will publish individual articles as soon as they have completed the production process and the publication fee has been received. Articles will be added to the current volume's Table of Contents. The average time from submission to publication is 60 days.
High-Quality Review with Rapid Publication
Beginning with Volume 20, Issue 1, all articles published in The Heart Surgery Forum® will be freely available online. By becoming open access, the HSF provides the most up-to-date research and clinical information to the largest global community of heart specialists.
For authors, we provide more readers, citations, and recognition of your work.
For readers, we offer the latest state-of-the-art techniques and clinical research in half of the time of most print journals.
Once accepted, each article will be published online immediately after its processed through production. In addition, every article will be published in the HSF print journal, which is available to subscribers for an additional fee.
The Heart Surgery Forum® offers many unique advantages:
- Indexed in MEDLINE/PubMed, ISI, EMBASE, SciSearch, Google Scholar
- Average time to first decision of two weeks
- Submission to publication 60 days or less
- Constructive, stringent double-blinded, peer review
- No color figure charges
- Low publication fee once accepted (1/2 cost of most)
Journal History
In 1997, The Heart Surgery Forum (HSF) was inaugurated by Mark M. Levinson, MD, as a multimedia scientific publication, which communicated over the new “Information Highway” known as the Web. The HSF began as a “labor of love” for heart surgeons as a dynamic tool for the betterment of themselves and their patients. Included in the original HSF Web site was a novel means to present interesting cases using color photos, movies, text and graphics, which was groundbreaking at that time.
Today, the HSF continues as one of the leading cardiothoracic resources in more than 182 countries. Published first online and then in print, the HSF publishes original scientific reports, collective reviews, case reports, editorials, and letters to the editor on the latest advances and studies in cardiac care.
Now open access and free to the world for the first time, the HSF provides the most up-to-date research and clinical information to the largest global community of heart specialists. For authors, we provide more readers, more citations, and more recognition of your work. For readers, we offer the latest state-of-the-art techniques and clinical research in half of the time of most print journals.
