Hypertension Update: A Reflection of the Past Decade.

H ypertension is entering its 43rd year in circulation and the current editorial team, led by Editor-in-Chief Prof. Anna F. Dominiczak and Deputy Editor Prof. Rhian M. Touyz are finishing their last year at the helm of the top journal in the hypertension community. On behalf of the entire editorial team, it is with pleasure that we share with you a few key highlights designed to enhance the impact of Hypertension for our editorship.

Metrics

Looking back at the last 10 years, submissions have remained consistent ranging from 1463 to 1725 with an average yearly submission of 1600. The submission outlier was in 2020, when submissions dramatically peaked at an unprecedented high of 2038 during the height of the global pandemic, which was a 20% increase in submissions from the previous year. At a time when the majority of our Editorial Board and reviewers were busy addressing concerns in clinics around the world, they were able to ensure that journal operations, publication and peer review progressed with ease, expertise and grace. We thank all reviewers for their excellent work in 2020 and 2021.

My colleagues and I have tried to ensure that an author submitting to Hypertension will be given an expeditious decision. At the beginning of our tenure, the time from submission to first decision was on a downward trend but still at 16.8 days. The average time from decision to first decision for the current Editorial Board is 13.8 days, with a record low in 2018 of 11.4 days.

Increasing Impact and Breadth

As technology and our ability to access research and information more easily have evolved in the last 10 years, the most impressive numbers might be better reflected in our more far-reaching impact. Of course, we are most excited to report that our journal Impact Factor increased from 6.87 in 2012 at the beginning of my editorship to 10.19 in 2021, confirming our Journal as the number one journal devoted to basic, population and clinical research serving the international hypertension community. Over the last 10 years, we have also included 3 groups of scientists who previously only rarely published in Hypertension. These are colleagues involved in hypertension in pregnancy, childhood hypertension, and pulmonary hypertension. This strategic decision has added both quality and breadth to the Journal.

Publishing Highlights

Some of the most important publishing highlights over the last 10 years were the Hypertension 2017 Clinical Practice Guidelines full text[1] alongside the executive summary[2] and systematic review[3] as well as the Guidelines Conversations, which can be found at: https://www.ahajournals.org/hyp/guidelines2017. Many other Statements and Guidelines have been published, especially in the last 2 years.[4-9] It was also important to publish the most recent and evolving research during the height of the pandemic that related to hypertension and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).[10-29] Much of this research, along with other important, discussion-inducing articles, were highlighted with Editorials, written by leading researchers and experts. It was a goal during my tenure to use Editorials to point readers to impactful articles that might start further discussion among the hypertension community.

Clinical Implications

Since July 2012, I have selected 3 clinically significant articles in every issue to be presented in our Clinical Implications selection of articles. Clinical Implications are a quick reference for readers looking for articles with clinical and translational potential. I hope that these featured manuscripts have helped our readers to translate scientific discoveries to clinical and public health applications.

High Impact PAPERS in Hypertension

The Editors began selecting articles in the summer of 2018 that have the greatest impact on current scientific knowledge, clinical practice, or future research direction for our High Impact Papers collection. The authors of articles in each collection receive a letter of congratulation, a certificate commemorating the selection of their article as a High Impact Paper in Hypertension and an offer to discuss their article through a live chat on Hypertension’s Twitter forum. Selected articles are highlighted on the journal website and announced to AHA members and followers of Hypertension.

Social Media Initiatives

In 2018, we began collaborating with the AHA Council on Hypertension’s Trainee Advocacy Committee to help broaden our Social Media presence. From this collaboration, we also added Social Media Section Editors to our editorial board. Currently, our Social Media Section Editors have diligently and successfully promoted our #HYPHIP line of live author chats through Hypertension’s @HyperAHA Twitter feed. Informative and interesting live chats are held at varying times and dates with authors from all over the globe. To see what’s new in the conversation and to stay connected for future live chats, follow @HyperAHA on Twitter or search for the #HYPHIP hashtag. Since the beginning of our collaboration and through the efforts of our Social Media Section Editors, our Twitter followers have increased dramatically; upward of 118% from 2859 followers in 2018 to 6256 followers presently. Likewise, our Facebook likes have increased 71% from 7037 likes in 2018 to over 12 000 likes presently.

Clinical-Pathological Conferences

Hypertension began providing a platform in 2014 for discussion of difficult clinical questions with the inception of video-recorded sessions called Clinical-Pathological Conferences that take place in-person or virtually during the most notable hypertension related conferences. Recently, in 2021, 4 case presentations were made during the virtual joint meetings of the European Society of Hypertension and the International Society of Hypertension in April 2021 and during the virtual 2021 Hypertension Scientific Session in September 2021. Accompanying articles will be forthcoming. The most recently published articles in the journal appeared online in 2021.[30,31] This series is unique in that the article published after the presentation not only includes discussion points captured during the session but also offers discussants from the audience the opportunity to be included as contributing authors of the article.

Top PAPERS Published in Hypertension

Every year, the Hypertension editors select the top 2 articles published in the Journal throughout the previous calendar year in each of the 3 article type categories, basic, clinical, and population science. All 6 2021 Top Paper Award articles[32-37] were published in 2020 and were highly accessed by readers, clearly novel, and have important clinical implications. The 2021 award winning articles span a wide variety of topics including: obesity-related hypertension, blood-brain barrier dysfunction in hypertension, COVID-19, interleukin-1β inhibition, discrimination and hypertension risk and dietary influence on blood pressure in early childhood.

Summary

As the Editorial Board has worked diligently over the years, we think that we have succeeded in accomplishing our long-standing goals to (1) publish the highest quality of original basic, clinical, and population research relating to hypertension; (2) increase the readership and scientific importance of Hypertension; (3) provide fair and quick reviews for submitted manuscripts followed by a rapid publication of all accepted articles; (4) serve well the international community of hypertension researchers and practitioners and serve as an important vehicle to achieve the mission of the American Heart Association.

Reflecting on 10 years of Hypertension publishing history, the Editors wish to thank our many readers for their time spent reviewing manuscripts, submitting the best research to Hypertension, and providing feedback so that Hypertension remains the premier journal devoted to basic, clinical and population hypertension research. The commitment and energy of our editors, editorial board members, readers, reviewers, authors and editorial office staff are always greatly appreciated. On behalf of the entire editorial team, it is with pleasure that we share with you our achievements of the previous 10 years.

Article Information

Disclosures

None.