Beginning this volume (34, 2013), a new Editorial Board (EB) has taken charge of the Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy (JAA). It has been more than three decades since its launch in 1980 and the journal has achieved significant progress in all aspects of production, visibility and dissemination. Facilities required for rapid publication of research from members of an expanding fraternity together with a global reach and impact of published papers has been enabled with the use of an online submission and peer review management system and the Academy’s collaboration with Springer for worldwide visibility and access.

On behalf of the Academy, I wish to thank the outgoing EB members as well as the entire astrophysical community for all their help and efforts in not only sustaining this journal but also improving its scientific content. Special thanks are due to Chanda J. Jog, the previous Chief Editor for her untiring efforts in managing the journal and streamlining the complete review process.

I take this opportunity to appeal to the astrophysical community, including the earlier EB members, for their continued support to the journal. With accepted articles that appear online much ahead of the print version and the wide use of the e-print archive like SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System, articles accepted in JAA will become accessible globally without any delay. In this way, JAA ensures extensive dissemination along with the advantage of no charges for colour printing and number of pages. We, therefore, hope that the journal will attract a large number of articles from both ground and space based multi-wavelength Indian observational facilities.

Together with the EB members I look forward to working with the entire astrophysical community to take JAA to greater heights.

March 2013

Ram Sagar

Chief Editor

Journal of Astrophysics & Astronomy