Welcome to the sixth and final issue of 2023. As if one protracted conflict involving the world's major powers were not enough, a second, long-simmering conflict, has re-erupted in the Middle East, at the cost of thousands of civilian lives and the destruction of irreplaceable cultural heritage. As a journal aimed at supporting reflective practice, we cannot stand back from the issues the world is currently facing. As a consequence, this issue will look at issues surrounding repatriation, colonialism, inclusion and collections management, which will continue to be the subject of future issues of MMC. For those new to the journal, Museum Management and Curatorship, now in its 38th year, remains one of the world's leading journals for museum professionals. When the journal was originally founded it was explicitly intended as a resource for museum practitioners. Museums and museum professionals need high-quality academic research on which to base new projects and inform current practices, and new methodologies to help critically analyse their success or failure. The MMC remains and will continue to remain grounded in museum practice in all its geographical and cultural diversity. The MMC is one of the few truly international museum journals. It continues to publish contributions from around the world, and is an important platform for scholars and professionals for whom English is not a first language. The MMC is not and cannot be a news magazine, but we are always looking at how best to respond as a journal to the current world situation and its challenges to the museum mission, while still retaining the scholarly rigour of a peer-reviewed journal, which by its nature takes time and increasingly patience, as peer reviewers become harder and harder to find. As always, we invite all of our readers to contribute to our ongoing reflection with their own ideas by writing to the team at [email protected]. I look forward to hearing from you, and to working together to ensure the MMC continues to meet the needs of the entire museum field.
