After a long period of considerations, the German Mycological Society (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Mykologie, DGfM), founded Mycological Progress in 2002 as its official English-language journal. Affiliated were several European Mycological Societies and Academies. During the first 4 years, the journal was published by the IHW-Verlag Eching, and in 2006 taken over by Springer with an “Online First” program, and an electronic “Editorial Manager”. An impact factor was provided for Mycological Progress for the first time in 2009. Continuous article publication (CAP) started in January 2015 and proved to be very successful from the beginning. Simultaneously, the international Editorial Board was restructured and Section Editors were introduced. Sincere thanks are given to the publisher’s staff for their contiuous support.

As Editor-in-Chief, I was strongly assisted by the Managing Editors, first Dr. Angelika Honold until 2014, partly supported by Dr. Evi Weber, who took over the full function in 2015. I am especially grateful for their careful work that enabled us to fulfill a correct and quick editorial management. One of our strategies was to avoid a delayed reviewing process, a convincing intention hampered all the time by various unpredictable incidents. However, the joint effort of all being involved, provided convincing results. This is also due to those reviewers who were experienced as objective experts, and whom I owe special thanks. In general, I share the critical opinion on peer reviews, pointed out during the conference on “The future of scholarly scientific communication” held by the Royal Society in April 2015.

Another matter of concern is that Mycological Progress could not be established as an open access journal. I am personally convinced that good research can also be supported to cover printing costs. Promising appears to me that a free thinking scientific community is active and successful already to promote open access articles.

It is my pleasure to announce that Professor Marc Stadler agreed to take over the duties of Editor-in-Chief for Mycological Progress. His international experience in various fields of basic and applied mycology, his profound knowledge about mycological future perspectives, and his successful cooperation with many mycologists world-wide, are excellent credits.

I wish Mycological Progress further recognition and future advancement.

Franz Oberwinkler, May 2016