JARO is the official journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology (ARO). Over the last year, the Board at ARO has mentioned the need for the journal to better reflect the science presented at the Annual Mid-Winter Meetings. For such reasons, the Editorial Board has been expanded and now includes eminent scientists in fields that deserve greater attention such as animal models, in vitro replacement technologies, opto- and chemo-genetics, but also clinical aspects including genetics related to hearing and balance, epidemiology, clinical trials among others.

JARO is becoming more global – while there were 31 Associate Editors before May 2022, the board has now been expanded to 60, a third being represented by women. The editorial board has also increased the proportion of non-US Editors from 30 to 50% (24 from EU, 5 from Asia, and 2 from South America). The updated Editorial Board can now be seen on JARO’s website and it will continue expanding in order to cover the wide range of research that ARO presents yearly. We welcome suggestions from authors and readers for Associate Editors to cover other areas.

I want to ensure that the journal reflects the evolution in the field and remains interesting to scientists in the auditory and vestibular research areas. The types of articles considered has now been expanded to include systematic reviews, meta-analyses, randomized controlled trials, genetic association studies, database studies, technical advances, and also commentaries, reviews, and symposias. While JARO transitions into this ambitious scheme, the editorial process will be facilitated by avoiding limits in lengths and in the number of figures/tables. While no restrictions in format will be required at first submissions, JARO will require that revised manuscripts that have passed the first round of revision, follow then the simplified guidelines.

In the process of accelerating the time from acceptance to publication, JARO has abandoned its format to now apply that of the traditional Springer articles. Abstracts are now structured in order to better grasp the study design, and references numbered to facilitate the reporting in large analytical studies. Supplemental figures, tables and data are now considered, as they can support the main data.

JARO is also getting a face-lift. A new website is also taking shape, with aims to allow readers to navigate into some basic info, while being directed to the Springer website to access the manuscripts. While the journal is now purely on-line and prints are no longer performed, one may think that journal covers may no longer be of interest. Yet, it allows a highlight of a particular topic published in a given issue, and it values the beauty of the science, also as an art. As on the present issue, we will develop new covers – which will illustrate the science and hopefully raise readers’ curiosity. We therefore invite all contributing authors to submit their best images, illustrations, pictures and suggestions for a cover.

Since my installment, JARO has been more active on social medias (Twitter: @JARO_News), tripling the number of followers and thus having a greater outreach. Do not hesitate to follow us and disseminate your work!

I hope that such changes will promote JARO as a journal we want to read, follow, and publish in.