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Aims and scope

Critical Care is a high-quality, peer-reviewed, international clinical medical journal. Critical Care aims to improve the care of critically ill patients by acquiring, discussing, distributing, and promoting evidence-based information relevant to intensivists. Critical Care aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the intensive care field.

EDITOR'S PICK - BIOMARKERS FOR SEPSIS: MORE THAN JUST FEVER AND LEUKOCYTOSIS—A NARRATIVE REVIEW

A biomarker describes a measurable indicator of a patient's clinical condition that can be measured accurately and reproducibly. Biomarkers offer utility for diagnosis, prognosis, early disease recognition, risk stratification, appropriate treatment (theranostics), and trial enrichment for patients with sepsis or suspected sepsis. In this narrative review, we aim to answer the question, "Do biomarkers in patients with sepsis or septic shock predict mortality, multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS), or organ dysfunction?" 

PROFESSIONALLY PRODUCED VISUAL ABSTRACTS FOR CRITICAL CARE

Critical Care encourages authors to submit a visual abstract along with their manuscripts. As an author submitting to the journal, you may wish to make use of services provided at Springer Nature for high quality and affordable visual abstracts where you are entitled to a 20% discount. Click here to find out more about the service, and your discount will be automatically be applied when using this link.

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CALL FOR PAPERS: CARDIOGENIC SHOCK

In this series from Critical Care, we  would like to compile articles that describe novelties in classifying cardiogenic shock patients insisting in early detection of high risk patients, and novelties in cardiovascular support including different forms of mechanical circulatory support.

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CALL FOR PAPERS: CARDIAC ARREST

In this thematic series for Critical Care, the focus is on important recent developments and state-of-the art practice in the field of cardiac arrest.

Cardiac arrest is a major public health problem. Many thousands of people have a cardiac arrest each year worldwide, many of whom will be admitted to the ICU, where urgent and appropriate treatment is essential to their survival. Mortality rates remain high, however, and keeping up-to-date with the very latest clinical practice evidence is crucial for the ICU physician to ensure optimum patient management.

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CALL FOR PAPERS: HOW THE COVID-CRISIS CHANGED OUR LIVES IN THE ICU

This will be a series of commentaries focused on a particular aspect that changed in our ICU: the way we make rounds, we allow family presence, we monitor patients, we use echo techniques and apply renal replacement therapy, etc. These comments should bring some guidance to others to improve quality of care.

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COVID-19 UPDATES

We collect here all most recent research updates on COVID-19 epidemics published in the journal to make them easily discoverable to the research community

HOW I...

What are the most challenging critical care issues? 
See how they can be best approached and managed

EDITOR'S PICK - THE EUROPEAN GUIDELINE ON MANAGEMENT OF MAJOR BLEEDING AND COAGULOPATHY FOLLOWING TRAUMA: SXITH EDITION

Severe trauma represents a major global public health burden and the management of post-traumatic bleeding continues to challenge healthcare systems around the world. Post-traumatic bleeding and associated traumatic coagulopathy remain leading causes of potentially preventable multiorgan failure and death if not diagnosed and managed in an appropriate and timely manner. This sixth edition of the European guideline on the management of major bleeding and coagulopathy following traumatic injury aims to advise clinicians who care for the bleeding trauma patient during the initial diagnostic and therapeutic phases of patient management.

CALL FOR PAPERS: TRAUMA CARE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

Critical Care is presenting a new Collection of articles that will summarize the current state of the art of trauma resuscitation and imagine the evolution and challenges for the 21st century: dealing with shock, trauma systems, demographic change, new approaches to trauma research, trauma care in low- and middle-income countries.

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CALL FOR PAPERS: TRENDING NEUROSCIENCE TOPICS IN ICU MANAGEMENT

Current management of patients with stroke, traumatic brain injury, sepsis, and even general critical illness are subject to requiring therapeutics that often involve complex neurological assessment, monitoring, and interventions. In this series, we have compiled several articles, each succinctly reviewing the latest information with respect to Septic-Encephalopathy, Critical Illness Weakness & Neuropathy, EEG Utility in the ICU, Ventilation Concerns & Therapeutics in TBI & Stroke, and a Clinical Algorithm for Neurological Multi-Modal Monitoring.

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CALL FOR PAPERS: THE FUTURE OF INTENSIVE CARE MEDICINE

This new Thematic Series focus on all aspects related to the future of Intensive Care Medicine, including but not limited to: organization, staffing, monitoring systems, new therapies, future organ support systems, ethical aspects.

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CALL FOR PAPERS: PERSONALIZED MEDICINE IN THE ICU

After so many negative randomized, controlled trials, that have evaluated a number of simplified therapeutic interventions that could be applied to large patient populations, people are turning their interest back to personalized medicine. This new Thematic Series will share thoughts based on scientific data and help the clinician to individualize the different aspects of the patient management.

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25 Years of Critical Care

Go through a special selection of 25 Critical Care influential contributions, one per each publication year, starting from the very beginning of our journal's prestigious history.

Articles

Editorial | 06 August 2019
Is this patient really “(un)stable”? How to describe cardiovascular dynamics in critically ill patients
Jean-Louis Vincent, Maurizio Cecconi and Bernd Saugel

Research | 01 August 2019
Vitamin A deficiency in critically ill children with sepsis
Xuepeng Zhang, Kaiying Yang, Linwen Chen, Xuelian Liao, Liping Deng, Siyuan Chen and Yi Ji

Letter | 30 July 2019
Vitamin C administration in the critically ill: a summary of recent meta-analyses
Anitra C. Carr

Research | 24 July 2019
Association of sublingual microcirculation parameters and endothelial glycocalyx dimensions in resuscitated sepsis​​​​​​​
Alexandros Rovas, Laura Mareen Seidel, Hans Vink, Timo Pohlkötter, Hermann Pavenstädt, Christian Ertmer, Michael Hessler and Philipp Kümpers

Editorial | 04 July 2019
How I manage intracranial hypertension​​​​​​​
Chiara Robba and Giuseppe Citerio

  1. Authors: R. M. Bateman, M. D. Sharpe, J. E. Jagger, C. G. Ellis, J. Solé-Violán, M. López-Rodríguez, E. Herrera-Ramos, J. Ruíz-Hernández, L. Borderías, J. Horcajada, N. González-Quevedo, O. Rajas, M. Briones, F. Rodríguez de Castro, C. Rodríguez Gallego, F. Esen…

Critical Care strongly encourages Authors of Research articles and Review articles to submit a Graphical Abstract.

A graphical abstract is a figure that clearly and succinctly conveys the main message of your research (paper). 

The goal of a graphical abstract is to attract readers' attention to the article and encourage them to read the whole paper, but also promote interdisciplinary scholarship and help readers quickly identify which papers are most relevant to their research interests.

See the journal Submission Guidelines for more info on how to prepare a Graphical Abstract
Research articles
Review articles

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Latest Supplements

42nd International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine 2023

Meeting abstracts
Volume 27 Supplement 1
Brussels, Belgium | 21-24 March 2023

41st International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine 2022

Meeting abstracts
Volume 26 Supplement 1
Brussels, Belgium | 22-25 March 2022

40th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine 2021

Meeting abstracts
Volume 25 Supplement 1
Brussels, Belgium | 31 August-3 September 2021

40th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine 2020 - Part 2

Meeting abstracts
Volume 24 Supplement 2
eISICEM 2020 | 15-18 September 2020

40th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine

Meeting abstracts
Volume 24 Supplement 1
Brussels, Belgium | 24-27 March 2020

Thematic Series

The Future of Intensive Care Medicine

Edited by Prof Jean-Louis Vincent

Personalized medicine in the ICU

Edited by Prof Jean-Louis Vincent

How the COVID crisis changed our lives in the ICU

Edited by Prof Jean-Louis Vincent

How I...

Edited by Prof Jean-Louis Vincent

Acute Stroke Management

Edited by Prof Marek Mirski

Expedited peer review

We recognise that scientifically sound, high quality manuscripts are often turned away from broad-scope "high-impact" journals based on the issue of "general interest." Critical Care will consider rapid publication of such manuscripts if they are submitted together with the original peer reviewer reports, letter of rejection, and a rebuttal. Please also mention this in your cover letter.

Additional peer review may be necessary and the final decision will be made by the Editor.

Prof Jean-Louis Vincent, Editor-in-Chief

Prof Vincent is Professor of intensive care at the University of Brussels and intensivist in the Department of Intensive Care at the Erasme University Hospital in Brussels. He is President of the World Federation of Societies of Intensive and Critical Care Medicine (WFSICCM) and a Past-President of the Belgian Society of Intensive Care Medicine (SIZ), the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM), the European Shock Society (ESS) and the International Sepsis Forum (ISF). He is member of the Royal Medical Academy of Belgium.

Annual Journal Metrics

  • 2022 Citation Impact
    15.1 - 2-year Impact Factor
    12.0 - 5-year Impact Factor
    2.912 - SNIP (Source Normalized Impact per Paper)
    3.577 - SJR (SCImago Journal Rank)

    2022 Speed
    5 days submission to first editorial decision for all manuscripts (Median)
    68 days submission to accept (Median)

    2022 Usage 
    7,881,794 downloads
    85,450 Altmetric mentions