This year has been one of transition for many of us, and this holds true for Serials Review. Beginning with volume 47, Serials Review will have a new editorial team. Beth Ashmore and I will be stepping away as editors, and Sharon Dyas-Correia and Courtney McAllister will be coming onboard as the new editor and associate editor, respectively. Both Sharon and Courtney have editorial experience in the technical services field, as they currently serve as editors for Serials Librarian, another journal in the Taylor & Francis library and information science portfolio. Although there are no current plans to merge the two titles, this is a great opportunity to explore synergies across both journals. I have no doubt the journal will continue to prosper under Sharon and Courtney’s leadership.
The new editorial team will inherit a journal that has seen significant changes over the last few years. The scope of the journal has broadened beyond discussions of serials workflows to include any technical services operation that includes lifecycle management as well as research related to scholarly communication transitions, such as open access and publication impact. The journal is also increasingly international in scope; case in point, this last issue for volume 46 includes authors from Vietnam, China, and the United States. Serials Review has also continued to expand column content, which provides practical advice and current trends and updates not yet found in the peer-reviewed literature.
These changes have coincided with transitions in the field that will continue to affect the future of the journal. For the serials and electronic resources management community, what do we need to evolve as a profession and particularly, what research efforts are most valuable to us as a community of practice? Concerns about quick and open access to information abound, and there is a coming reckoning as to how different members of our community will support these efforts from publishers to authors to practitioners.
The serials and ERM field is unique in the focused efforts that support continuing education and skill-building in this community. Conferences such as NASIG, UKSG, the Electronic Resources & Libraries Conference, and the Charleston Conference provide timely information for practitioners, and journals like Serials Review and Serials Librarian provide a ready avenue for sharing innovations and best practices. With minimal organization, this community can be poised to better support a quickly changing environment where practitioners need timely information and researchers need an open platform to share their research. Key indicators for success for research and information sharing should allow the practitioner to do what they do best—solve problems, take risks, and shift quickly to adapt and adopt new practices. My earnest hope is that Serials Review continues to evolve in ways that support these kinds of opportunities.