The first issue of this journal, Heart and Vessels, was published in March 1985. Since then, it has been published in six issues annually through 2015. We now are pleased to announce that Heart and Vessels has become a monthly publication starting this year thanks to your active submissions.

Even though the number of articles we publish has increased, the quality of the articles is keeping to a high standard so that we can retain our good readership and high citation rates. The impact factor for this journal has marked more than 2.0 in recent years. We look forward to continuing to receive your excellent papers.

We would like to emphasize, at the same time, manuscripts submitted to Heart and Vessels must be new and original as clearly indicated in the Instructions to Authors. If the contents of a manuscript are an expansion of another publication, the author is responsible for providing a clear explanation and obtaining permission from the original copyright holder where necessary.

Nobuhisa Hagiwara

Editor-in-Chief

Heart and Vessels