I am grateful for the many submissions and the fact that we were able to publish many excellent articles again this year. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the doctors listed at the end of this document for their help reviewing this year’s articles despite not being on the review committee.

On 11 March, when an editorial meeting of the Journal of Medical Ultrasonics was to be held in Tokyo, Japan was struck by a magnitude 8.9 earthquake off its northeastern coast followed by a 4-m tsunami. Most of the members of the editorial board were not able to reach the office, and some were stuck at a hotel near the airport. Nevertheless, two members and an editorial staff managed to have a meeting for handling some important issues on schedule. Owing to the support and encouragement from all over the world, Japan has been recovering from the damage.

According to the recent ISI journal citation reports, the impact factor of our journal has risen to a score of 0.42, the level of which is still unsatisfactory for readers. The editorial board has critical roles to play in further improving the quality of the Journal. I would like to ask all medical doctors and engineers involved in ultrasound research to submit their research work to the Journal of Medical Ultrasonics.

Shiro KOZUMA

Editor-in-Chief