Interview with Editor-in-Chief of JCDD, Prof. Dr. Thomas Brand at the London Editor’s Forum 2026: Views on the Publishing Landscape and Future Directions

MDPI recently had the opportunity to interview Prof. Dr. Thomas Brand, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Cardiovascular Development and Disease (JCDD), at the 2026 MDPI UK Editor’s Forum in London.

Prof. Dr. Thomas Brand is currently Chair in Developmental Dynamics at Imperial College, London.

Prof. Dr. Brand’s research initially focused on cardiac development and ageing. His interests included the development of the proepicardium, an embryonic structure that develops into the epicardium and the coronary vasculature. Other research topics included the signalling processes involved in left–right asymmetry of the heart and the early formation of the embryonic heart.

His research evolved into the study of a class of membrane proteins, the Popeye proteins, which are strongly expressed in the heart and skeletal muscle and are involved in cyclic nucleotide signalling and the modulation of cardiac pacemaker activity.

Prof. Dr. Brand is a referee for numerous prestigious journals, and acts as a referee for the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council (MRC), the German Research Foundation (DFG), the German Israeli Foundation (GIF), and the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP). He is also a member of the Working group on Developmental Anatomy and Pathology of the European Society of Cardiology.

We interviewed Prof. Dr. Thomas Brand about his future directions for JCDD and current views of the publishing industry:

How has the journal JCDD evolved since you first joined?

JCDD was founded in 2014, and I have been part of it since its inception. Initially I was only asked to write a review, and then subsequently I acted as a Guest Editor for several Special Issues. I then was asked to become an Associate Editor for JCDD, making me responsible for soliciting new Guest Editors and new section specialities within the publication.

I have been able to see the development of JCDD throughout the years. Initially it started out as a journal that was focusing just purely on cardiological development and paediatric cardiology; however, we have now also opened up the journal to include topics such as adult cardiology and general cardiology. And this has gradually shifted the focus of the journal from a purely basic journal into a more applied and clinical journal.

In 2023, I took over as Editor-In-Chief and since then have been maintaining and developing the journal further.

What has been your biggest success in the role of EiC of JCDD?

I consider my biggest success to be the recruitment of the next generation into the journal. I was surprised to see so many young people willing to invest their time and contribute as reviewers. Now we have an Editorial Board of high-calibre, young scientists. This is great because it forms a resource for people who will continue to engage with this journal in the future, which of course helps to ensure that this journal will thrive on a long-term basis.

Do you think it’s important that MDPI hosts events such as today’s Editor’s Forum?

I think it's important to see the topics that you think about whilst doing your job as an editor, as a Section Editor-In-Chief, or even as an Editor-In-Chief are the same topics that other people face and think about, and it's amazing to see that similar issues arise irrespective of the scientific field.

And in a general respect, I think it's very useful to come together and speak about these issues and hear about what other people are planning to implement within their journals. But I also feel it can be beneficial to have meetings that are specialising in particular fields, for example medicine, in order to investigate more specific topics that only apply to specific fields or subjects.

How have today’s sessions impacted your view the academic publishing industry?

I think the discussion about AI has been quite novel for me. I can see that this will be a continuous problem in the future, and I think it will be a continuous fight between the human brain and the machine.

Thank you to Prof. Dr. Thomas Brand for his time. MDPI looks forward to future collaborations with him.

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