The Journal of Scheduling is entering its 18th year. It does not seem so long ago that we were launching it as a brand new journal. Throughout the years, we have seen the journal become established as one of the leading publication outlets for excellent research across all areas of the scheduling landscape. We pride ourselves upon our interdisciplinary focus and upon our emphasis on the importance of both theoretical and practical research. Moreover, we have always stressed the importance of research that aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice.

We continue to welcome special issues of the journal. For example, in 2014, we had two special issues of selected papers from the MISTA Conference that was held in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2011. In addition to special issues, we strongly encourage review and survey papers from across all areas of scheduling. The citation records of all the survey papers we have published over the last couple of years are impressive.

Throughout 2014, our journal has received a range of indicators which illustrate its continued success. According to eigenfactor.org, using its Article Influence score, the journal is ranked 20th out of 70 journals in the Operations Research and Management Science category. This is the same as it was this time last year. Our ranking in the SCImago Journal and Country Rank is 25th out of 151 outlets in the category entitled, Management Science and Operations Research, placing us in the top quartile. Our current Thompson Reuters impact factor is 1.26, which is a significant increase on last year. It places us in 33rd position (from 79 journals) in the Operations Research and Management Science category. However, our 5-Year Impact Factor is 1.562 and our position improves to \(30{\mathrm{th}}\) if the 5-year impact factor is used to rank the journals. Moreover, it moves to 21st if article influence is employed. The journal continues to rank particularly well on article influence measures. Between January and October 2014, the number of article downloads was 26,214 (the figure for November–December was not available at the time of writing). During 2014, we have had (at the time of writing) 166 new submissions to the journal. The acceptance rate of submitted papers is running at approximately 20 %. We think that this acceptance rate is just about right for our journal at this stage in its development.

We are pleased to report that the average time it has taken us to turn around an original submission (the time taken between submission and first decision) has improved considerably over the last year. In 2013, we reported a figure of 145 days. Throughout 2014, it has been 55 days, slightly less than 2 months. However, we are not complacent, and we are aiming to bring the average turnaround time down even further.

The success of the journal is due to many people, and we are grateful for all their efforts. We offer particular thanks to all our Associate Editors (old and new) and to all our reviewers. Their efforts are of critical importance to the success of the journal. Special thanks goes to Matthew Amboy, Neil Levine, Sudha Subramanian (our Journal Editorial Office Assistant at Springer) and Supraja Yegnaraman (our Production Editor). Finally, we would like to, once again, give a very special thank you to all our readers and authors.