EAPCN looks back to a long history since its foundation in 1868. During its development from an originally German to today’s English format, it continuously has been under guidance of outstanding editors—Alois Alzheimer is just one to name in the prominent list. In the last two decades, it was Hans-Jürgen Möller who decisively shaped the journal’s scope.

Originally stemming from a northern town in Germany, directly after obtaining his degree in medicine, Hans-Jürgen Möller headed southwards: After specializing in psychiatry and postgraduate training at the Max-Planck-Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, he was assigned as professor at the psychiatric department of the Munich Technical University. In 1988, he was appointed as chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University of Bonn. In 1993, 1 year before his return to the same position in Munich at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU), the former work space of famous psychiatrists like E. Kraepelin or A. Alzheimer, Hans-Jürgen Möller resumed the managing editorship of EAPCN and ever since has substantially shaped its bias. As author or co-author of more than 1,300 publications, he always strongly focused on the methodology of clinical research in psychiatry, biological psychiatry of schizophrenia and depression, clinical psychopharmacology and psychogeriatrics. Hans-Jürgen Möller furthermore has been member of the executive committees of several national and international psychiatric societies, among them the past presidentship of the European Psychiatric Association (EPA), as chairman of the Section on Pharmacopsychiatry of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) plus presidency of the Collegium Internationale Neuro-Psychopharmacologicum (CINP). He is honorary president of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP), which he chaired from 1997 to 2001, and headed—last not least—the German Society for Biological Psychiatry (DGBP) from 1995 until 1999, for which EAPCN since 1997 is the official publication platform. His work was honoured by various academic prizes and honorary titles.

Concordant with his primary interest in clinical research, EAPCN owes Hans-Jürgen Möller, the publication of outstanding and excellent clinical studies. In the light of his retirement, he now chose Peter Falkai as follower, who in July 2012 also overtook his position as chairman of the department at the LMU in Munich. But no worries: Möller will stay on the ball and be in charge of keeping his critical editorial eye on special issues and invited reviews of EAPCN.

Peter Falkai, longstanding member of EAPCN’s editorial board and account managing editor since May 2011, as new chief editor of EAPCN (starting in October 2012) intends to strengthen the journal’s focus towards neurobiological topics without intentions to distract authors from furthermore submitting thorough clinical studies of high quality. Congruent with his personal continuous interest, with this bias, Peter Falkai plans following the direction of the DGBP towards neurobiological substrates and their neurobiological origins as well as causal treatment options. This core area has been visible throughout his entire academic career.

Before overtaking the aforementioned position as chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University of Munich, he held the same position at the Universities of Saarland (2002–2006) and Göttingen (2006–2012). Being active member of the development of the German treatment guideline for schizophrenia, Peter Falkai together with Thomas Schulze furthermore successfully applied for a Clinical Research Group, funded by the German Foundation Association (DFG). The group will investigate the neurobiological and genetic basis of psychotic disorders and started its work in January 2012 under his surveillance. Momentarily, Peter Falkai is the president of the largest German psychiatric association (DGPPN).

Andrea Schmitt, overtaking the position as managing editor in October 2012, started her career as fellow of Wagner F. Gattaz in the Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, where she performed her Habilitation in 2005 under Fritz Henn. She focussed on clinical studies and MRI investigations in the Competence Network Schizophrenia and funded a brain bank of psychiatric diseases in 2002. After joining the group of Peter Falkai in Homburg/Saar, she managed the BrainNet Europe collection of tissue and performed histological stereology and molecular biology studies in several brain regions in schizophrenia. She developed an environmental risk factor model for perinatal complications in schizophrenia in the rat. She has now also moved to the LMU Munich, where she intends combining environmental factors like prenatal hypoxia with transgenic mice and studying gene–environmental interactions. She thus is interested in well-designed animal, post-mortem and MRI studies plus genetic imaging and adds neurobiological competence to the editorial board.

In summary, the new chief and managing editors together with the expertise from the editorial board aim at increasing the impact factor of EAPCN, focusing on high-quality clinical and neurobiological studies and working on a more rapid publication process. Submission of outstanding original studies is highly recommended, but authors can also submit proposals for reviews to Hans-Jürgen Möller and might be invited to write comprehensive reviews on interesting and actual topics. Therefore, we are looking forward to develop EAPCN to an even better reputated European journal in the areas of clinical psychiatry and neuroscience.