This editorial refers to an article by S. Roy et al. 1 published in Cardiovascular Research in 2009 (see Box 1). It is accompan-ied by an editorial by J. Bauersachs, pp. 227–229, this issue, as part of this Spotlight on Landmark Papers in Cardiovascular Research.

This editorial celebrates the extraordinary citation of our recent publication 1 in Cardiovascular Research highlighting the emerging significance of miR-21 in the heart, particularly in the context of tissue injury, inflammation, and remodelling. The work was first submitted to a leading cardiovascular journal in January 2008. The submission was summarily rejected, citing ‘paucity of novel mechanistic insight’. The work went on to be published in Cardiovascular Research and has now been cited 150 times in 3 years, being recognized as one of the most highly cited articles in the journal. Had the work been published in the original journal it would have been published almost a year in advance and would have today ranked third in citation score among all of nearly 300 articles published in that journal in 2009. Here, we briefly review the progress in the field since our original work was published.