Several times over the past four years,
we have written about the increasingly difficult page constraints for
the journal. Over these four years, the number of manuscripts submitted
to Hypertension has doubled; yet the page allotment provided
by the American Heart Association has remained stable. For this reason,
there are only a limited number of devices that the Editor can offer on
behalf of our authors to increase the number of papers published while
keeping this page allotment stable. Clearly, our major option
is to reduce the number of pages of each paper. We therefore make the
following urgent suggestions to our authors. With your cooperation, we
could increase the number of manuscripts published by 20 percent if we
adhere to the following format and new editorial policy. 1.
Henceforth, we reduce the maximum number of pages of each paper from 25
to 20 typescript pages (including tables, figures, and
references). 2. We will not publish figures and tables if
they duplicate one another. 3. Be fair in your selection of
references by including only primary references; thereby, one may
reduce the number of references by approximately 20 percent.
If we follow the foregoing recommendations and policy, there is no
reason why we cannot increase the number of papers published in
Hypertension by 20 percent per year. It follows that we
shall not be obliged to increase the number of rejections to more than
70 percent, a figure that we are approaching at the present time.
Furthermore, to obviate major
© 1998 American Heart Association, Inc.
Urgent Notice to Our Authors
Urgent Notice to Our Authors