JCRP at 40 Years – Looking Back and Moving Forward

By Lenny Kaminsky, PhD, FAACVPR, FAHA, FACSM; and Kate Maude 

This year, the Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention celebrates its 40^th Anniversary, a milestone that we are grateful to mark with the help of AACVPR.

Our journal started as an idea from Michael Pollock, PhD. Based on overwhelming interest and participation in a meeting he led entitled “Heart Disease and Rehabilitation” in 1978, Dr. Pollock set out to determine the need for a journal focused on the same topic. Based on an analysis of the literature on the benefits of cardiac rehabilitation, Dr. Pollock identified a gap that a new journal could fill, and recruited Dr. Victor Froelicher to serve as Co-Editor for the first issue. In 1981, Drs. Pollock and Froelicher released the inaugural issue of JCRP, at that time known as the Journal of Cardiac Rehabilitation. Many of the topics covered in that first issue, from risk factor modification to perceived exertion in cardiac patients, are likely familiar to you and your teams.

As submissions increased in the early-to-mid 1980’s, it became clear to the editorial team that broadening the scope to Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation would be beneficial to the profession and the Journal. In January 1985, we adopted the new name of the Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation, and in 1986, AACVPR adopted the JCR as the official journal of our society. In 1994, the Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation was adopted as the official journal of the Canadian Association of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation (CACPR).

As the years went by, articles published in the Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation helped push the field of cardiopulmonary rehabilitation forward, with important AACVPR Statements and Recommendations paving the way for growth and innovation in the field.

2007 served as a banner year for our Journal, both marking the final name change to the Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention, and the first time the Journal was reviewed and ranked for an Impact Factor.

Since then, the Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention has continued to serve as the premier North American journal addressing the fields of cardiac rehabilitation, pulmonary rehabilitation, and prevention thanks in great part to the hard work and support of JCRP’s Editors, Associate Editors, Editorial Board, Peer-Reviewers, authors, and many AACVPR members like you.

AACVPR participation and support has helped propel the Journal into its fourth decade of existence, and we encourage you to stay engaged if you are regularly use the Journal, or become familiar with all the content if you haven’t yet investigated the journal. All AACVPR members have access to the JCRP current issue and archives, so it’s never too late to learn and grow with us.

First, we invite all AACVPR members to dive into the history of the Journal, Cardiac Rehabilitation, Pulmonary Rehabilitation, and Prevention by reading the special 40^th Anniversary Invited Commentaries from Issues 1-4 of this year. Written by JCRP’s past editors-in-chief, associate editors, and members of the JCRP Editorial Board, the commentaries paint a clear picture of where we started as a profession, and what we have to look forward to.

At the upcoming AACVPR 35^th Annual Meeting Virtual Conference, we would also invite you to participate in a number of exciting sessions celebrating the 40^th Anniversary of the Journal and highlighting some of the exciting new initiatives we have launched within the Journal and in partnership with AACVPR in the past year:

• JCRP Invited Review: Translating Science into Practice: Integrating Individuals with Stroke into Cardiac Rehabilitation – Join us for this session on how to apply scientific research to your daily practice. Susan Marzolini, R. Kin, PhD, whose is on the Journal’s Editorial Board will present a review of the current scientific literature on stroke patients in cardiac rehabilitation, and will describe ways that you can adapt this knowledge into changes in your practice. The full article can be accessed here.
• JCRP 40^th Anniversary Session – On Friday, October 2 at 11:00 am CT, join Lenny Kaminsky, PhD, FAACVPR; Phil Ades, MD, Brian Carlin, MD, MAACVPR; and Carl Lavie, MD to look back on the Journal’s history and forward to the future of JCRP and our professions.
• Late Breaking Manuscript Presentations as part of this year’s Oral Abstracts – From the beginning of the conference on Wednesday, September 30 all the way through the end of December, make sure to check out the Late Breaking Manuscript Presentations that will be on demand as part of AACVPR’s Oral Abstract Presentations. This year, AACVPR and JCRP partnered to offer a new opportunity to the most outstanding abstracts submitted as part of the normal AACVPR Call for Abstracts Process. The top two scored abstracts were invited to submit their research as a full manuscript for publication consideration in JCRP. Both manuscripts went through the full review process and were ultimately accepted after peer-review. The two abstracts selected, along with the links to the full manuscripts, are below:

Engagement with the Journal does not have to end with this year’s Annual Meeting sessions. We also encourage you to follow us on our social media accounts for a new, more engaging experience. In 2020, we were fortunate to bring on our new Digital Media Editor, Brittany Overstreet, PhD, to help increase the reach of our journal’s work. Since the creation of this new position on our editorial team, we have launched new Infographics – quick visual summations of the work presented in articles published in JCRP – to help you quickly digest the research findings and clinical applications of newly published research. Click here to find JCRP on Twitter and click here to find us on Facebook, and make sure to follow our accounts to stay up to date on new publications relevant to your practice. We also encourage you to share these mentions of articles in JCRP on your own social media accounts.

Finally, if you are considering submitting an article for publication consideration in the field of cardiopulmonary rehabilitation or prevention or know of colleagues looking to do so, we encourage the submissions of high-quality manuscripts for review to JCRP. With your help, we look forward to paving the way to the next 40 years of innovation in the field of cardiopulmonary rehabilitation and prevention!

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