Overview

The Heart Surgery Forum (HSF) is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal dedicated to publishing original research articles, review papers, surgical techniques, and other type articles in clinical and translational research of cardiac surgery. HSF covers broad areas of cardiac surgical science and practice, including cardiac surgery and its related imaging, anesthesiology, perfusion, radiology, pharmacology, intensive care, and nursing. HSF provides a platform for disseminating scientific knowledge and clinical experience in the treatment of cardiac disease, aiming to advance understanding and practice in heart surgery and related disciplines. The journal also offers educational content and visual learning materials to enhance understanding and engagement among professionals. HSF is committed to improving communication and advancing cardiac surgery practices worldwide by promoting collaboration between cardiac surgeons and multidisciplinary teams.

ISSN Numbers

Print ISSN: 1098-3511

Electronic ISSN: 1522-6662

Impact Factor

Publication Frequency: 12 issues per year

Current Impact Factor: 0.6 (2024)

Scopus CiteScore: 1.1

JCR Category Rank: Q4 in CARDIAC & CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEMS; Q4 in SURGERY

Journal History

1997 The Heart Surgery Forum (HSF) was inaugurated by Mark M. Levinson, MD, as a multimedia scientific publication, which communicated over the new “Information Highway” known as the Web. The HSF began as a “labor of love” for heart surgeons as a dynamic tool for the betterment of themselves and their patients. Included in the original HSF website was a novel means to present interesting cases using color photos, movies, text and graphics, which was groundbreaking at that time.

1998 The Heart Surgery Forum released the inaugural issue.

2000 The Heart Surgery Forum has been indexed by Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), and received its first Impact Factor 1.058.

2002 The Heart Surgery Forum was indexed by PubMed (MEDLINE).

2025 The Heart Surgery Forum (from Volume 28 Issue 9) , published by IMR Press, has changed its open access publication model from the CC BY-NC 4.0 to the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Benefits of Open Access Publishing

All articles published by The Heart Surgery Forum (HSF) are made immediately available worldwide under an open access license. This means:

Everyone has free and unlimited access to the full-text of all articles published in The Heart Surgery Forum (HSF).

Free for readers, with a comparatively low Article Processing Charges (APC) paid by authors or their funding bodies or institutions.

Copyright

Most articles published in Volumes 1–27, Issue 8 (1998–2024) are copyrighted by IMR Press. The authors retain copyright in individual open-access articles.

Articles published from Volume 27, Issue 9 (2024) through to Volume 28, Issue 8 (2025) are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). The authors retain copyright in these articles.

Articles published beginning from Volume 28, Issue 9 (2025) are under the terms and conditions of the CC BY 4.0 license. The authors retain copyright in these articles.

IMR Press will insert the following note on the first page of the published PDF:

Permissions

For articles copyrighted by IMR Press, IMR Press grants any third party the right to use the article freely, provided its integrity is maintained and the original authors, citation details, and publisher are acknowledged. Permission is not required for the use of original figures or tables for non-commercial and educational purposes (e.g., review articles, books that are not for sale) if the article is copyrighted by IMR Press. Please include the full journal reference. For articles published in Volumes 1–27, Issue 8(1998–2024), please include the following copyright note:

Articles published from Volume 27, Issue 9 (2024) through to Volume 28, Issue 8 (2025) are available under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license. Articles published beginning from Volume 28, Issue 9 (2025) are under the terms and conditions of the CC BY 4.0 license.

HSF is not authorized to grant permission for material published under either license, as the authors retain copyright. However, depending on the intended use, permission may not be required.