As the year of 2008 is coming to an end, this is a time to reflect and look back as well as look into the future. ‘Free Radical Research’ has been navigated by us two Co-Editors-in-Chief, together with a dedicated team of Editors, through quite a number of years. First of all, we want to thank all the Members of the Editorial Board for their diligent and dedicated work, contributing their expertise and quality standards that made the progress of the journal. Likewise, our thanks go to the many reviewers from all over the world who helped in high-quality peer-review.
Particular thanks also go to the Society for Free Radical Research Europe, for which Free Radical Research is the official journal. Many close ties exist between the Society and the journal, notwithstanding the fact that the current President, Malcolm Jackson, is a member of the Editorial Board, as have been Regina Brigelius-Flohé and Frank Kelly, past-presidents of SFRR Europe. Likewise, the incoming president, Henrik Poulsen, has been a member of the board for many years.
The fruitful interactions with the Publisher were with Matthew Pacey throughout past years until mid-2008 when Carolyn Honour took over after the journal management was transferred from the U.K. base to New York.
We also would like to acknowledge the close collaboration with Rachel Andrews and Neshla Avey from the U.K.-based offices, and Marlies Scholtes from the Dusseldorf base of one of us.
As part of planning for the future, a nominations committee was created late in 2007, and it met at London at King's College in January 2008, due to the kind invitation by Giovanni Mann, a member of the Editorial Board. The committee was chaired by Santiago Lamas, Madrid, and the future format and composition of the journal's scientific leadership was deliberated. The committee was composed of members of the current board and of members of SFRR Europe. After input from the committees and from the publishers, a new format was decided upon which consists of the following: two Co-Editor-in-Chief as present, four (newly created) positions of Associate Editors, two (newly created) Reviews Editors, and a larger Editorial Board which is envisaged to go up to about thirty members, initially starting with about twenty in order to allow staggering by turnover in the future. This Editorial Board should cover the existing and the newly developing areas of research by top-quality expertise, and it also should represent all regions around the world, since the journal is global. A special case was made to embrace SFRR Asia, since many manuscript submission come from Asia, with Japan being a longstanding stronghold, but other Asian countries becoming more and more productive in our area of research. Likewise, the Americas will receive increased attention, with several new members of the Board to come from the USA and potentially other American countries.
The journal will continue on in 2009 with this new format, and we wish the new team good luck in their endeavors. One of us, B.H., will step down as Editor-in-Chief, having served the journal for many years, handing over to a current member of the Editorial Board, Michael Davies.
Several others of the current Editoral Board will continue being directly associated with the running of the journal, either as Associate Editor: Tilman Grune, Jeffrey Keller, and Frank Kelly; or as Reviews Editor: Regina Brigelius-Flohé; or as members of the new Editorial Board: Angelo Azzi, Malcolm Jackson, Giovanni Mann, Henrik Poulsen, José Vina.
Other members of the Editorial Board will phase out after many years of valuable contributions and enthusiasm. It is our great pleasure to wish farewell and express our gratitude to Jean Cadet, Etsuo Niki, Mark Smith, Naoyuki Taniguchi.
The following colleagues will newly join: Shinya Toyokuni as Associate Editor, Christian Schoneich as Reviews Editor, and for the Editorial Board: Takaaki Akaike, Enrique Cadenas, Kevin Croft, Chris Cooper, Helen Griffiths, Dean Jones, Lars-Oliver Klotz, Santiago Lamas, Joao Laranjinha, Mike Murphy, William Orr, Holly van Remmen, Jeremy Spencer and Young-Joon Surh.
We invite all authors of the international community of research in free radical research to submit their work for publication in FRR, either as original manuscript or as review/minireview. The impact factor is on an upward trend, now almost at the mark of 3.0 (at 2.925 for 2007).
With sincere thanks and best wishes for the future,