LAUSR

The American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2018. It feels like an appropriate time to reflect on the JNC, the official publication of ASNC, and to note how we’ve grown and changed over the years (Figure 1). The first Editor’s Page of the JNC in 1994 by our first Editor, Barry L. Zaret, MD, started with these words, from the Ethics of Fathers some 2000 years earlier: ’’ If I am not for myself-who will be? If I am for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?’’ The first published Original Article was entitled ‘‘The effects of afterload reduction on myocardial carbon 11-labeled acetate kinetics and non-invasively estimated mechanical efficiency in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy’’. The first author was Rob Beanlands and the senior author was Markus Schwaiger. The paper was submitted in June 1993 and published in December 1994. Dr. Zaret served 2 terms of 5 years each. In the January issue of 2004, the Editor’s Page by George A. Beller, MD was entitled ‘‘The Passing of the Baton’’. Dr. Beller also served 2 terms of 5 years each. In the January issue of 2014, the editor’s page by Ami Iskandrian, MD was entitled ‘‘The Journal of Nuclear Cardiology and the Changing Guards’’. I am starting my second term of 5 more years. During this timeperiod, many changes have occurred in the JNC in terms of both style and content. Few things have not and will not change; our emphasis will always be to provide new information in the form of original articles, educational material, guidelines and position papers, and articles dedicated to practical and technical issues. The Journal fosters an inclusive attitude (from within and outside the United States) in terms of submissions, reviewers’ selection, editorialists, and all other contributions. Our philosophy remains unchanged, fairness, respectfulness, helpfulness, and timeliness. There are currently 6 major imaging journals (Table 1), but of those, only JNC deals solely with the use of nuclear imaging in the cardiovascular system (CV); the others either deal with imaging the entire body or with the use of multi-modality imaging (nuclear, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging [CMR], echocardiography [Echo], and computed tomography angiography [CTA]). The number of nuclear cardiology publications of any type in the JNC during a oneyear period (2017-2018) far exceeds those in the other journals combined (Figure 2). The number of submissions to JNC has increased (Figure 3) and yet we have managed to keep the turnaround time (submission to decision-making) short (Figure 4). The number and type of manuscripts reflect the many changes over the years (Table 2). More than half of the papers are original articles; the abstract of the lead article in each issue is translated into Chinese, French, and Spanish. Almost all original papers have a Ami E. Iskandrian, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Nuclear Cardiology.