It is a great privilege and honor for us to serve as the new Co-Editors-in-Chief of Optimization Letters (OPTL). Thanks to the outstanding leadership of the founding Editor-in-Chief, Panos M. Pardalos, and great efforts by many (including the authors, the Editorial Board members, reviewers, and the publisher), the journal has had an impressive start. Its first issue came out in January 2007. In just 5 years, OPTL has undergone significant growth and earned a solid reputation in the optimization community.

OPTL’s goal is to communicate in a very timely fashion the recent advances and trends in the field of optimization and its applications. It publishes short and concise articles limited to approximately ten pages. Such focus allows for fast processing times and rapid dissemination. Along with high standards for quality, originality, and significance of the published material, these are the key reasons behind the OPTL’s early success. As new Co-Editors-in-Chief, we would like to keep this momentum going and take OPTL to a new level of excellence. We will work hard to further improve the quality of the published papers and the efficiency of OPTL’s review process.

Undoubtedly, we have big shoes to fill in replacing the outgoing Editor-in-Chief Panos M. Pardalos. We hope to meet these challenges with the help and support of the Editorial Board members, authors, reviewers, and readers. We want to encourage you to elicit and submit high-quality papers. Your active participation in enhancing OPTL’s stature and visibility is highly appreciated. We also welcome your valuable suggestions and feedback.

Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to thank the publisher, the Editorial Board members, authors, reviewers, and readers for their continued support of the journal. We are looking forward to working with you on strengthening OPTL’s quality, reputation, and impact.