LAUSR

After the three years of excellent and dedicated works by Dr. Manami Inoue, I am taking over the role of Editors-in-Chief of Journal of Epidemiology, an official journal of Japan Epidemiology Association (JEA). The journal was originally launched in 1991, the year of JEA foundation. Since then, valuable contribution from researchers in JEA members and rest of the world and support from readers allowed the journal to make substantial progress. This situation will never change continually. The situation around scientific publication is getting complicated. Increasing numbers of journals makes the journals competition harder. Ethical issues surrounding scientific publication are also catching much attention. In this context, to further accomplish the progress, the journal has been challenging several topics. An introduction of open access licencing, adoption to Creative Commons Attribution License and expansion of editorial board members from JEA members and international researchers from Asian Pacific regions. The most recent challenge is choosing Elsevier, one of the largest scientific publishing company in the world as the journal's partner. The new editorial system provided by Elsevier is still under development; however, I believe this collaboration will help progress of the journal later. Editorial board members are also thinking of introduction of new types of special articles that will come up later issues of the volume 27. We, the editorial team will continue to do our best to make the journal the one of the dominating journals in the field of epidemiology. I sincerely welcome your continuous contributions.