EDITORIAL

I would like to take this opportunity to let you know about some of the changes we are implementing at the journal. For me, the most exciting change has been the introduction of our on-line submission and review site at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jrm. This will significantly reduce the time for review completion as well as improve communication between the journal office and you, the contributor. Hopefully, allowing you to track the progress of your manuscript through the system will alleviate some of the concerns many of you have expressed to me as well as eliminate the chance of undue delay with the review process. Ultimately, the net result will be a considerably quicker time to publication. Inevitably, there will be teething problems with the system, and we have experienced one or two minor problems that we are fixing. As an example, the keyword assignation does not currently work. However, we are aware of this and will have it fixed by the time you read this. Please let me know of any other glitches you run into or any ways in which you think we can improve the system. I hope that the more streamlined system will make this journal a more attractive option when you are making the choice as to where to submit your work. Also please remember that while this is the Journal of Reconstructive Microsurgery, the emphasis is on the word Reconstructive. Along with the mission statement of the American Society for Reconstructive Microsurgery, which, thanks to Dr. Strauch's generosity is now the owner of the journal, we are interested in all complex reconstructions, whether strictly microsurgical or not. So consider this journal for any papers related to reconstruction period!

Hand in hand with the on-line submission and review process, we will also be offering preprint electronic publication. These e-pubs will be citable so that the potential time from submission to citable publication will be minimal. This will remove the push to get manuscripts into print and will allow us the opportunity to match and group papers and thereby make each issue more meaningful and interesting.

For the rest of this year, the papers you will see appear in the journal are what I consider transition papers (i.e., papers submitted during the transition from Dr. Strauch's editorship to mine). Some of these papers will have been processed and reviewed under his watch and some under mine. However, by the end of the year the transition will be complete. We will be fully electronic and will have processed all the manuscripts submitted up to the introduction of the on-line submission system. To coincide with that process I will be making some changes in the structure of the editorial board. We are fortunate to have so many excellent people within our subspecialty that I would like, from my perspective, to exploit that talent and from your viewpoint, to give everyone a chance to serve on the editorial board over time. I plan to reduce the size of the editorial board so that the board can have some real influence on the direction of the journal. This will allow the opportunity to retain some experienced individuals while at the same time allowing some new blood the opportunity to participate. I will also introduce a limited term membership of the board so that people will rotate on and off over time. This change will obviously have to be staged so we always have some experienced board members to mentor the newer members and to advise me. Toward that end, I would ask any of you interested in serving, whether you are currently on the editorial board or not, to contact me, let me know your area of interest, and also send me some of your ideas on the direction you would like the journal to take.

This is a very exciting time for me, for the Society, and for the journal. I thank you all for your patience during the transition period and I look forward to working with you all over the next several years to make this an even better journal.