You will be pleased to know that the journal had a particularly successful year. Not only did we receive our first, very impressive, impact factor, but we have also launched our on-line Editorial Manager. As a result, the number of manuscripts submitted to the journal for consideration has doubled in the last 6 months as compared to the same period last year. There is also a significant improvement in the quality of the material we receive which makes our editorial task even more exciting.

Again, this would not be possible without the hard work of our Section Editors, the Editorial Advisory Board and the dozens of reviewers who volunteer their valuable time and make sure that we maintain a high quality of manuscripts accepted for publication. Thank you to all of them but a special Thank You also goes to Dr. Katrin Stakemeier, Ms. Adelheid Braun, Ms. Ellen Klink and the entire team at Springer Verlag, who keep us on our toes but at the same time are extremely gracious when we impose on them close to impossible time lines. And last but not least a big Thank You to Ms. Janice Rogers, our Editorial Assistant and to Ms. Cindy Tasch, my personal assistant who pull it all together.

We also wish to thank several members of our Editorial Advisory Board who have recently completed their term and would like to extend a warm welcome to the new members who are joining our team.

As a reminder, instructions for authors are now available on the journal’s website at http://springer.com/00737.

Yours faithfully,

Meir Steiner

Editor-in-Chief