Interact CardioVasc Thorac Surg 2009;8:1-2. doi:10.1510/icvts.2008.199943
© 2009 European Association of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery
Interactive Cardio-Vascular and Thoracic Surgery virtual conferences are now printed monthly: more at www.icvts.org
Ludwig K von Segesser, MD, FETCS, FACS, FESC*
Department of Cardio-Vascular Surgery, Centre Hospitalier Univarsitaire Vaudois, CHUV, CCV 10-275, Rue du Bugnon 46, CH-1011 Lausanne, Switzerland
*Tel.: +41 21 314 22 79; fax: +41 21 314 28 79
E-mail address: Ludwig.von-segesser{at}chuv.ch Web: www.cardiovasc.net
Virtual conferencing in our fields of interest has been launched with the announcement of the ICVTS web-site at www.ICVTS.org in 2002 when a series of scientific communications underwent fast-track review and were pre-published on the web, not as a batch ready to form an entire issue but one by one, immediately after type-setting, and, more importantly, open for discussion. Since then the incoming comments are added to the communication specific thread as soon as available in order to form a virtual conference with a discussion including the original communication, the comments from third parties, and the answers by the authors [1].
Once the discussion period is closed, usually after 28 days, the communications and their discussions are moved to the archive section of the ICVTS web site [2]. A printed issue was produced initially four times a year and later six times including as outlined above, both, the communications and the corresponding comments close to each other. An important step in the development of ICVTS was certainly its inclusion in the prestigous CTSnet Journal Collection [3] at http://www.ctsnet.org/sections/journalsandbooks/journals/index.html in 2005, which was followed in 2007 by the listing in the MEDLINE/PubMed databases of MEDLARS [4].
Since its beginning, ICVTS has grown continuously in content, discussions, print run, and most importantly, in electronic circulation. Over the years, total web usage of ICVTS has improved consistently. For the most recent years total web usage increased from 778,522 in 2005, to 937,440 in 2006, and 1,223,289 in 2007. The full text HTML downloads during this same period were 336,025 for 2005, 406,505 for 2006, and 512,189 for 2007. For the first half of 2008, the full text HTML downloads accounted for 355,959 and total web usage was 897,558 an estimated increase of almost 50% over the previous year (see Table 1 for details).
There are many reasons for the on-going success of ICVTS, and ease of use through the web is certainly among them. The broad range of topics as well as formats, allowing for inclusion of early reports, assessment of alternative strategies, as well as studies on late outcome are also major contributors to its success. Currently ICVTS welcomes New Ideas [5], Work in progress reports [6], Institutional reports [7], Negative results [8], Best Bets [9], Follow-up papers [10], Protocols and other formats. Considering its success, EACTS council has decided to move from 6 issues per year to 12 issues, i.e. monthly publication of your work in print. This initiative will further decrease the publication times of ICVTS and provide better service to our contributors. There is one easy step to join the discussion of the next monthly issue of Interactive CardioVascular and Thoracic Surgery:
Type now www.icvts.org and send a comment!
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References
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- von Segesser LK. Peer review versus public review – new possibilities of on-line publishing. Interact CardioVasc Thorac Surg 2002;1:61–62.[Free Full Text]
- von Segesser LK. www.icvts.org: the most frequent downloads. Improved feedback from an interactive publication. Interactive CardioVasc Thorac Surgery 2004;3:1–2.[CrossRef]
- von Segesser LK. ICVTS brings virtual conferencing to CTSNet. Interact CardioVascr Thorac Surg 2005;4:1–2.[CrossRef]
- von Segesser LK. Interactive CardioVascular and Thoracic Surgery (ICVTS) has been selected to be indexed and included in MEDLINE/PubMed. Interact CardioVasc Thorac Surg 2007;6:579.[Free Full Text]
- Nakajima M, Tsuchiya K, Okamoto Y, Suetsugu F. Intraoperative saline injection leak test – a simple method to assess mitral valve repair when a simultaneous aortotomy does not allow pressurization of the left ventricle. Interact CardioVasc Thorac Surg 2007;6:580–581.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Vettukattil JJ, Bharucha T, Anderson RH. Defining Ebstein's malformation using three-dimensional echocardiography. Interact CardioVasc Thorac Surg 2007;6:685–690.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Kalkat MS, Abedin A, Rooney S, Doherty A, Faroqui M, Wallace W, Graham TR. Renal tumours with cavo-atrial extension: surgical management and outcome. Interact CardioVasc Thorac Surg 2008;7:981–985.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Buklas D, Massetti M, Neri E, Chocron S. Built-in defect of a biological pericardial aortic prosthesis? Interact CardioVasc Thorac Surg 2008;7:1110–1111.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Turley AJ, Raja SG, Salhiyyah K, Nagarajan K. Does cardiac resynchronisation therapy improve survival and quality of life in patients with end-stage heart failure? Interact CardioVasc Thorac Surg 2008;7:1141–1146.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Noyez L, Verheugt, van Swieten HA. The importance of an organized follow-up for the evaluation of mortality after hospital discharge in cardiac surgery. Interact CardioVasc Thorac Surg 2008;7:449–451.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
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