Autumn

The mellow autumn came, and with it came

The promised party, to enjoy its sweets.

Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto XIII, Stanza 75.

Autumn is the season of harvest, of looking back at what the year has brought so far, and of reaping fruit and crop. In the wine-growing regions of the Northern hemisphere, the vintners get a first idea of what the new vintage will be like, but still have to watch the process of fermentation with a critical eye.

At the office of The Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon, most of the harvest is already in. The impact factor has risen for a fourth consecutive year and is now at 0.925. This may not seem overwhelming news, but for the ones creating and producing it, it is a sign that everything is going the right way. I did elaborate on the problems of scientific measuring only two issues ago, so I do not want to repeat myself.[1] Suffice it to say that although most everybody is aware of the shortcomings of the impact factor, most everybody also likes to display it proudly on the front page, especially when it has risen. We modestly confine ourselves to the editorial.

Nevertheless, this makes an ideal reason to say some heartfelt thank-you's: a thank-you to the authors, the reviewers, and to the editorial board who provided the content, and a thank-you to all the people at Thieme Medical Publishers who then made everything neat and presentable. Without proper contributions and without skillful production, an editor can never create a worthwhile journal and will never be able to impress the impact or any other metric factor. So this has been a truly combined effort, and everybody who contributed has a reason to be proud of it. If it had not worked out, you would still have had the editor to blame. This may be comforting to know.

Editors feel most comfortable in pleasant surroundings. This does not mean that yours truly spends the better part of his afternoons in an armchair with a glass of pinot noir, but rather that he enjoys the good company of the journal's editorial board, even if only electronically. The last 3 years clearly showed that such a board is subject to what one may call an evolutionary influence, meaning that it has to adapt from time to time because of a changing environment. If you look at the frontispiece of this issue, you will see that several such adaptations have taken place. There is no distinction between an Editorial and an International Advisory Board anymore, because it became clear that we are all sitting in the same boat, the MS Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon, and also that some of the most creative members live thousands of miles away from Germany. Moreover, we have done away with the specialist topics, simply because there was too much overlap.

You may miss a few names. This is due to the natural course of time: some retire and some have just too many things to do. I express my gratitude to those who helped us along during the last years, but are now sailing to different shores.

You may notice new names. This is because of an increase both in absolute numbers of submissions (thank you again, authors!) and in diversity of subjects. It was felt necessary to better represent anesthesiologists and intensivists, pulmonologists, radiologists, pediatric and adult cardiologists, as well as basic science researchers. Thoracic surgery needed backing because of a constant, tremendous influx of manuscripts. I would like to welcome all our new board members—you are urgently needed.

You will also note an extension of national affiliations. It is with great pleasure that I can announce that the Swiss Society for Cardiac and Thoracic Vascular Surgery (SGHC) has elected The Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon to become its official scientific publication.

The Austrian Society for Thoracic and Cardiac Surgery has also entered an affiliation with this journal. Both societies have been represented by board members and by numerous contributors in the past, so that it seemed only logical to go the next step of formalizing these partnerships. For the German language countries the superordinate term “DACH” (German for: roof) has been coined: Deutschland–Austria–Confoederatio Helvetica. Although we seem to have become something of a DACH-journal, we are, of course, still open for valuable contributions from around the world—as one can see in this issue again.

Quite a harvest then for The Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon so far. Meanwhile the editor is down in the cellar, tending his barrels. The 61st vintage is almost poured now, and we are looking forward to a great new one. If it turns out to be full-bodied but with a distinctive tang of acidity, low in tannins but recalling memories of roses and berries, this is the way we want it to be. Hope you will continue to enjoy it as much as we do.

• Reference

• 1 Heinemann MK. On metrics. Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2013; 61 (5) 377-378