Open Heart – The new BMJ cardiovascular journal, advocating open access, open peer-review and open data

Open Heart is a new international cardiovascular journal from BMJ and the British Cardiovascular Society, launching in January 2014. The journal will publish a broad range of cardiovascular articles, including research protocols/proposals, findings of translational research, observational studies, randomised trials, systematic reviews and meta-analyses in the field of cardiovascular medicine. We will also publish narrative reviews and editorials focusing on research published and research methodology. Open Heart 's editorial team will primarily assess original contribution for robust research methodology and will also publish high quality research that presents confirmatory or negative results while novelty of findings will receive a lower level of attention. In an attempt to reduce publication bias, Open Heart also considers smaller, specialist studies providing preliminary or descriptive data that might be considered ‘hypothesis generating’ rather than definitive. Heart is a ‘conventional’ print journal, and like similar journals, is limited in the amount of research that can be published per issue. Consequently, Heart prioritises research articles, usually based on novelty and importance. Open Heart is published exclusively online, without any page restriction, and therefore allowing us to base our …