I am delighted to welcome readers to this first issue of 2013 which sees the journal move into its fortieth volume. In 1974, Gopal Kanji founded the Bulletin of Applied Statistics, which later became known as Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS), and was the only editor for almost 35 years until his retirement in 2007. Under Gopal's editorship, JAS became a leading statistics journal with authors and readers from across the globe. It was a great honour to take over from Gopal, and I continue to apply his open and encouraging approach to the publication of novel research in the area of applied statistics. His death in May 2010 came as sad news but the journal continues as an enduring legacy for the statistical community, and the ‘Gopal Kanji Prize’ is a lasting memorial to his aim for excellence.
The journal continues to be popular with an ever increasing number of submissions. Although this can, at times, put a substantial strain on the reviewing process, I continue to view efficient, yet rigorous, refereeing as a main priority and will aim to continue to reduce the time taken for authors to receive a decision. Once accepted, the average time to online publication is, impressively, less than four weeks, with in-print publication within about four months.
This year has seen a couple of major changes which should further improve the speed of publication and also increase publication integrity. The journal issues are now built continuously and so papers receive their final citation details, including issue number and pagination, once they are ready for online publication. Also, all papers undergo a screening using CrossCheck to highlight any unoriginal material before acceptance. I plan to introduce other innovations in the coming year.
I close, as always, by thanking all who continue to contribute and support the journal. In particular, authors for their patience, referees for the time and experience given freely and the production team at Taylor & Francis for their hard work behind the scenes.
Finally, I wish all a Happy New Year!