About the Journal

Focus and Scope

The Heart Surgery Forum® (HSF, Print ISSN: 1098-3511, Electronic ISSN: 1522-6662) 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.

Indexing & Archiving

All articles published in The Heart Surgery Forum® will be indexed in the National Library of Medicine’s Index Medicus and the MEDLINE database, as well as Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch), ISI Alerting Services, Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, and EMBASE.

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.

Article Processing Charges are required after a manuscript has been accepted for publication. The journal will not issue refunds of any kind after the acceptance of the manuscript. Once we received APC, 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.