It is a great honour for us to assume the editorship of the International Urogynecology Journal. Having been editors of this journal since 2003 we feel confident we can continue the important work of the Editor-in-Chief, a role which Mickey Karram has performed so successfully over the past 7 years. The Editor-in-Chief, the editors and the editorial office have functioned as an efficient close-knit team of independent thinkers but all with an ability to work together. Mickey has led this team with integrity, strength and humour; hard decisions were made when necessary, but always in a collective fashion. When Mickey was appointed Editor-in-Chief he already had an international reputation for his research into pelvic floor disorders and his textbooks on urogynecology and pelvic surgery. His presence and reputation have enhanced the development of the journal over the past 7 years and we look forward to him continuing to play a role in the journal as an Honorary Editor.

We also welcome two new editors, Chris Maher and Rebecca Rogers, both with strong academic records. Chris Maher has just completed 4 years as Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the International Urogynecology Association and and Rebecca Rogers as President of the American Urogynecologic Society. We look forward to working closely with them over the coming years, together with our other editors—Bob Freeman, Gunnar Lose, Paolo Palma, Diaa Rizk, and Steve Swift—all of whom have made outstanding contributions to the journal over recent years. We also wish to acknowledge the fantastic job Judy Sheridan has performed in running the editorial office. She was efficient and a pleasure to work with for both editors and authors. Her role will be continued by the new editorial assistant Elektra McDermott in the editorial office in Florida.

We look forward to serving you, our readership and authors. We will continue to elicit and choose the best possible basic science and clinical scientific manuscripts, reviews and clinical opinions in our specialty of urogynaecology and female pelvic floor dysfunction. To the authors who trust us with their research and manuscripts, which frequently are an accumulation of years of hard work, we will continue to provide you with the best peer review possible, fair and considered decisions, and quick publication times. An author satisfaction survey performed by Springer for the International Urogynecology Journal in 2010 showed that 59% of authors were very satisfied and 32% satisfied with the overall publication process. The median interval between submission of the manuscript and final decision was 6 weeks, and time from acceptance to online publication was also 6 weeks. We believe this is good but we will strive to work harder and better, to improve the journal for both readers and authors.

Finally, we look forward to hearing your comments and feedback on how you think the journal is going, and what we can do to improve your “blue journal”, the International Urogynecology Journal.