LAUSR

The most fundamental issue in politics, and ethics, is that of individual liberty weighed against the interest of others, of the collective, and there is clearly a global crisis of lonely individualism and numerous examinations of the nature of social solidarity in our times (see, for example, Lost Connections, Hari 2018). How do we work with this tension and find some sort of balance? Bioethics is in its essence a collaborative dialogue, an international conversation about matters where there is no universally agreed way to proceed, where difference is explored, but even fundamental rights and principles are contested. The best way to do this is in a spirit of multidisciplinary and diverse-perspective curiosity. If we adopt the idea attributed to Gandhi, to Bbe the change you want to see in the world^ (not his exact words apparently, and he was talking of inner self transformation changing the world, see Ranseth 2015), the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry seeks to link people in a way that mirrors the mission of the journal and its communitarian aspirations. Many years ago, at the beginning of his palliative care career in Australia, one of us (MA) was a medical director at Calvary Hospital in Adelaide, South Australia. He asked the Sister Administrator why they were called the Little Company of Mary (LCM). It was explained that the Little Company consisted of the nuns, but the Greater Company was everybody outside the religious order who worked with them in order to discharge their mission. The JBI board and editorial team sees a journal as a virtual community, and perhaps the LCM is a good conceptual model for this community, centred around the production of the journal but also inclusive of everyone who has a contribution to make. Whether you are an author, peer reviewer, or one of our associate editors, you are a valued member of this community and we welcome your input and ideas. The JBI is a small part of a global conversation to promote insights and new perspectives about the conduct of the life sciences and healthcare. We inhabit an everchanging world of publishing a media, and the board is constantly looking at how best to position the journal and its community in this global business milieu. We are keen to ensure that we have the correct balance of academic experience together with meeting the publication needs of young developing scholars. There is, however, no desire in our leadership group to feed the Bpublish or perish^ mentality of the international Bioethical Inquiry (2018) 15:175–179 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-018-9867-4