There are easier tasks in life than saying ‘good bye’ to something which you like and consider as important. However, there seems to be a phenomenon in our current working environments which could be labelled as ‘Markovnikov’s rule for senior experts’: the one who has already many duties/responsibilities (originally: ‘the carbon atom of an alkene which has the greatest number of hydrogen atoms’) will get more tasks (‘will receive the next hydrogen atom in an addition reaction’).

Consequently, one of the frequently used management strategies of today, namely prioritization, becomes unavoidable. Many of us have been learning over the years that even enthusiastic scientists do not possess unlimited time and energy. Also I had to realize that the increased workload in my ‘primary job’ and reduced personal travelling capabilities do not allow me anymore to spend so much time and efforts for serving this journal at a level which I consider as necessary according to my own standards. Therefore, I have asked the publisher to consider the termination of my appointment as Editor-in-Chief of Accreditation and Quality Assurance (ACQUAL).

We have witnessed and documented in ACQUAL significant progress in the further development and dissemination of concepts and applications for modern quality assurance and control (QA/QC) of measurements in chemistry as well as in the bio- and life sciences. Moreover, accreditation (the other term in ACQUAL’s title) will not only flourish because of the increasing reliance of regulatory controls on this kind of competence assessment by third parties. It will also profit from a now even better cross-harmonized and interlinked set of documentary ISO standards for assessing the competence of laboratories, reference material producers and proficiency testing providers. Therefore, all QA/QC stakeholders should be able to work and communicate on the basis of common systems of minimum requirements for demonstrated competence. This journal would be a perfect place for reporting on corresponding practitioners’ experiences and the best practices.

As of next year, such publication activities will be directed by Aleš Fajgelj and Adriaan van der Veen. I wish both colleagues a lot of success, knowing that they will be able to count on the cooperation of ACQUAL’s authors, referees and readers. I had the privilege to work closely with Heiner Korte during the last 6 years and will support the aims of this journal in other ways in the future.

Hendrik Emons   

   Editor-in-Chief