Exploration of Cardiology (EC) is a new gold open-access journal from Open Exploration publisher and starts bi-monthly electronic publication on July 1st, 2023. The 3 main features of the journal are in its birth certificate: gold open access, exploration, and cardiology.

Open access is a win-win situation for readers and authors. It is a gain for readers and society at large. The words of the seminal Budapest 2002 Open Access Initiative sound even more convincing today in the era of global instability due to pandemics, war, and climate changes: “Removing access barriers to this literature will accelerate research, enrich education, share the learning of the rich with the poor and the poor with the rich, make this literature as useful as it can be, and lay the foundation for uniting humanity in a common intellectual conversation and the quest for knowledge.” [1]. In the last 30 years, subscription costs to a journal rose by 250%, and more institutions cannot afford expensive subscriptions. With open access, readers find no barrier since there are no paywalls, and this is especially important in the field of medicine. It is a gain for authors since open-access articles are more read, more cited, and more impactful. Open-access papers received 48% more downloads and 14% higher Altmetric Attention Scores (a measure of public interest in the article across websites and social platforms) than subscription articles, as shown by data from the United Kingdom Royal Society transformative journals referred to the year 2021. Gold open-access articles can be accessed at no cost on the journal’s website and are licensed under Creative Commons licenses. In this way, they can be freely distributed and shared with other people, with no payment, no subscriptions, no restrictions. It is also a gain for publishers since the new business models of article processing fees or payment by institutions or consortia have proved profitable. The large majority of 68% of the 18,992 open-access journals listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals as of February 2023 did not levy any article processing charges from the author. The number of open-access journals increased in number by 11% in the last 14 months, and presently includes journals from 132 countries and 80 languages. Open access is today the dominant and possibly destined to be the only form of medical scientific publishing. The open-access philosophy and practice have been strongly supported by the European Union to strengthen science and the knowledge-based economy, and open access is mandatory for all Horizon 2020 projects [2]. The administration of President Joe Biden has announced that research agencies in the United States should make the results of federally funded research free to read as soon as they are published, starting in 2026 [3]. The Chinese government is also encouraging the open-access publishing model as a way to promote sustainable and green practices in economic and social development [4]. At least in the honeymoon period of publication, this is the policy of EC, the most convenient one for the submitting author.

In the name of the journal, there is exploration. This is a trademark of the Open Exploration publisher, but also a cultural manifesto. Exploration is what you do when you do not know what you are doing, and this is the rule rather than the exception for scientists, and sometimes even for physicians faced with new and unexpected challenges in the pandemic era. Exploration is a state of mind, and a cultural attitude to always doubt that what you have always done is the best and only way to do things, in the laboratory and the clinical ward. Exploration implies a vision, a way of thinking going outside the comfort zone of known borders, and finding new areas of cross-disciplinary and frontline knowledge, with new players, new technologies, and new perspectives. EC is a single-blind, peer-reviewed online journal covering clinical, epidemiological, technological, experimental, biological, and molecular aspects of cardiovascular physiology and disease. It focuses on crossing the boundaries of conventional research disciplines, disseminating impactful research to the general public, and inspiring global multidisciplinary collaborations in the field of cardiovascular disease. A special focus is dedicated to the economic, legal, environmental, and ethical sustainability of our patterns of cardiological practice. The sustainability issue for a long time was ignored and is still underrepresented in mainstream cardiological literature. Healthcare money shortage and energy crisis, the pandemic pressure, climate change, and increasing evidence of environmental roots of cardiovascular disease pose new challenges to clinical cardiologists, researchers, and professional societies. Based on these principles, EC will give priority to all techniques, methods, and practices promoting the development of ‘green’ (climate-neutral) and ‘blue’ (sustainable) cardiology. Other topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to, biology and biotechnology, biomedical engineering, chemistry and material sciences, nanoscience, robotics, bioengineering, computer sciences, obviously the game-changer artificial intelligence applied to cardiovascular diagnosis and treatment, and any other emerging multi-, inter-, and trans-disciplinary research fields. The journal publishes original research, updated reviews, editorials, perspectives, and commentaries.

In the name of the journal, there is cardiology. In the last Scimago 2021 list (updated 29 June 2022) we count 356 titles in the field of cardiology and cardiovascular medicine [5]. The podium of the top-notch journals last year was made by Nature Reviews Cardiology (impact factor = 49.421), European Heart Journal (impact factor = 35.855), and JAMA Cardiology (impact factor = 30.154), down to hundreds of journals with a near zero impact factor. Do we need another cardiology journal, obviously without Scopus indexing at birth? In my opinion, it depends on how it is shaped and filled. The appeal of the journal is made by the value and originality of the articles and the measure of outcome is the interest of the readers. In the bibliometric age, failure or success is entirely in the hands of readers and authors, without the intermediation of scientific societies, technology or pharma vendors, or professional vested interests. In the initial honeymoon period, the journal is free of charge, and you will not pay to enter the game. If you have something to say worth sharing with the cardiological community, the floor is yours. You may wish to consider publishing your next paper with us and help us put EC in a prominent place in the cardiovascular editorial domains. The game just started.