It is now 5 years since I took over the journal from Michael Matthews. At that time, I was concerned to make the journal more widely known and read. Michael had been very active in promoting the journal so that was a real challenge. Since then, both the number of article downloads per year and the impact factor have doubled, and so I am happy to know that I have made a contribution to the journal. I hope that the next editor, Sibel Erduran, and her editorial team will do an even better job. I have always been involved in this journal mostly out of personal, rather than strictly professional, interest, and I would like to see it doing well. Furthermore, having refrained from publishing articles in the journal for the past 5 years – I did not want to process my own work – I am happy that I am now able again to submit the work that my colleagues and I are doing.

Why am I leaving the journal? There are many reasons. Let me say that I think it is healthy for the journal and me to step down after a 5-year term. As far as the journal is concerned, a fresh perspective and outlook can only be fruitful after 5 years. Sibel has already sent out a call for papers that is a good example of this new perspective. As far as I am concerned, the workload for the journal is enormous. You might think that editing a journal is only about making editorial decisions, but there is a lot more than that. An editor has to read and edit manuscripts, find appropriate reviewers that is not always easy for interdisciplinary journals like Science & Education, read the reviews and make fair decisions, oversee production, and respond to authors’ and reviewers’ concerns and a lot more. I am happy to say that I did my best over these 5 years, and it is now time to devote my efforts and time to new endeavors.

What have I learned during these 5 years? A lot. I have read numerous manuscripts I would have not otherwise read and learned a lot about domains outside my modest area of expertise. I came to know many people, both personally and indirectly through their work for the journal. There are so many people I have never met whom I feel I know quite well as scholars through their articles and, especially, their reviews. I will never stop thanking the reviewers of this journal because they are in large part those thanks to whom high-quality scholarship is published in its pages. Some people say that reviewers’ work is not compensated (in whatever way), and it is at best acknowledged. I respectfully disagree. The reviewers actually benefit from their role in two important ways.

First of all, those of us who publish our research, we need other scholars to review it and send us feedback. Therefore, by serving as reviewers, we provide the same service to our colleagues. To put it simply, if you want someone else to review your work, then you have to review their work. Second, and perhaps most importantly, by reviewing articles, the reviewers have a big impact because they largely determine where the field is going. As they recommend decisions about accepting or rejecting articles, and as the editors generally comply with the reviewers’ consensus, it is eventually the reviewers who determine what research is published or not, with important implications for the field itself as well as for career outcomes related to promotions, funding, and more. This entails that reviewing articles is a huge responsibility and therefore should be done in a careful and thoughtful manner.

Except for the reviewers, I would like to thank the colleagues of my editorial team who supported my work during all these years. Charbel El-Hani had taken over the book reviews from me back in 2013, and as he did an excellent job, I asked him to stay when I took over. Ross Nehm and Alice Wong were appointed as Associate Editors right from the start, and I thank them for their work – especially Ross who stayed for the whole 5-year term. I also want to thank Greg Kelly who joined the editorial team when I mostly needed him. Last but not least, the support of Bernadette Ohmer and Claudia Acuna from Springer has always been valuable. Finally, I also want to thank IHPST for giving me the opportunity to serve in the first place.

I wish Sibel Erduran and the new editorial team all the best for this challenging and demanding work.