This December 2017 edition marks the end of my first year as Editor-in-Chief of Spinal Cord. It is therefore a time of reflection and a time to thank the many people who have contributed to the success of the journal over the year. There have been many changes in 2017 which reflect the change of guard, the change in the role of the Associate Editors and the change to our Editorial Board. Some of the changes are procedural which would not have been noticed but other changes are fundamental to the publication direction and priorities of Spinal Cord.
The most important but perhaps silent change has been to the role of the Associate Editors. The journal’s four Associate Editors (Marcel Post, John Steeves, Sonja de Groot and Masaya Nakamura) have taken on the role of handling manuscripts. They oversee the review process and make high level recommendations about publication. This has been a very positive move for the journal because it ensures that we have the necessary breadth of content expertise to cover the range of papers we receive. It also helps to ensure that we widen our pool of reviewers through our combined professional and academic networks.
