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In contrast to other analytical chemistry journals, Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry (ABC) has not only a publisher but it also has a number of European chemistry societies as coowners. One reason for the multiple owners is the origin of ABC, which was originally founded as Zeitschrift für Analytische Chemie (Journal for Analytical Chemistry) by Karl Remigius Fresenius nearly 160 years ago. In 1990, Wilhelm Fresenius changed the journal’s name to Fresenius’ Journal of Analytical Chemistry to emphasize the international reputation of the journal, which received its first submissions in English in the 1950s [1]. In the mid-1990s, ten European chemical societies and two commercial publishers established a collaboration “to provide a combination of excellent scientific quality, reasonable subscription rates and high commercial efficiency... with the intention of publishing the best chemistry from Europe and the rest of the world, while promoting and preserving the desirable and necessary diversity of the scientific publications” [2]. When Fresenius’ Journal of Analytical Chemistrywas sold in 2001, the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh) (Society of German Chemists) with its president Heindirk tom Dieck seized the opportunity together with the owner, SpringerVerlag, to move forward with a European journal of analytical chemistry [3]. At the beginning, the GDCh, the Société Française de Chimie (SFC) (French Society of Chemistry), and the Sociedad Española de Química Analitica (SEQA) (Spanish Society of Analytical Chemistry) joined SpringerVerlag as co-owners of the journal. Their society journals, Fresenius’ Journal of Analytical Chemistry, Analusis, and Chimica Analitica, respectively, were merged to create a new journal, Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, which became the sixth member of the European family of chemical journals [2]. Following the tradition of the original society analytical chemistry journals, the scope of this new journal covered the entire range of analytical and bioanalytical research and its application. From the beginning, ABC’s focus was on analytical chemistry in environmental, material, and life sciences. However, in comparison to the former society journals, emphasis was placed on a multidisciplinary approach for solving analytical and bioanalytical problems, and, in particular, bioscience was given greater coverage in the new journal than in its predecessors. During the negotiations of the European chemistry societies and Springer-Verlag, the co-owners, in conjunction with Christina Dyllick and Peter Enders, selected the first international team of editors: Sylvia Daunert, Philippe Garrigues, Günter Gauglitz, Klaus G. Heumann, Kiyokatsu Jinno, and Stephen A. Wise [4–6]. These editors started working in June 2001, and at the beginning of 2002, the new name “Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry” first appeared on the cover of the inaugural issue of volume 372, still retaining the traditional colors of the predecessors (see Fig. 1). Shortly thereafter, ABC covers changed to offer a variety of photos and colorful graphic images from published papers. In 2002, Alfredo Sanz-Medel joined the editor team, when the Real Sociedad Española de Química (RSEQ) (Royal Spanish Society of Chemistry) became another co-owner of the journal. In subsequent years, the Austrian Society of Analytical Chemistry (ASAC), the Division of Analytical Sciences of The Swiss Chemical Society (DAS/ SCS), the Società Chimica Italiana (SCI) (Italian Chemical Society), and the Polskie Towarzystwo Chemiczne (PTCHEM) (Polish Chemical Society) also joined the group of co-owners, and in 2011, Aldo Roda from Italy became editor number eight. Because of the journal’s European origins, over 60% of the authors of papers published in ABC during the first decade came from Europe. However, within the last decade, the journal has become recognized as a truly international journal with now over 50% of the authors from countries outside of Europe. The journal’s expanding international reputation was also reflected by adding new editors * Günter Gauglitz [email protected]