We are already at the December issue and 2018 seems to have flown by in a flurry of editing papers and conferences. As always, the WPSA branches and federations have been very active in organising conferences and meetings. As well as the usual well organised branch meetings, there have been some memorable events, including the very well attended EPC meeting in Dubrovnik. This was an excellent meeting in a superb location, and congratulations to the organisers, especially when dealing with the oversubscription from delegates. It’s good to see members supporting WPSA events around the world – not only for the dissemination of new science but also for the networking opportunities it provides. The good news is that the impact factor for WPSJ has increased by 40%, up to 1.493, and our five-year IF is now up to 1.682. This ranks us up to 18 out of 60 for all agriculturally related journals – a great achievement for which I would like to thanks all of the team, and the board members (especially Dr Zehava Uni) suggestions for changes to the summaries that appear to have driven this increase.

It was with sadness that I edited the obituary section for this issue. We have lost some major poultry names in the last few months, some of whom were great friends of mine and who I had worked with over the years, and were notable poultry personalities. Dr Paul Hockings review in the WPSJ and proposals for foot pad lesion scoring is still majorly cited, and remains a great piece of work. On a happier note, it was lovely to see Dr Peter Hunton being honoured for his work in poultry. Peter has been a very long term WPSA supporter, as well as serving his branch and the global body in several important roles. A personal thank you from me for all your past and current efforts, Peter.

Some issues have been raised recently about the ease of accessing the online version of the journal and via search engines, such as Google Scholar, Pubmed and Web of Science. If you personally have had problems with this, please let Dorien Kleverwal in the Dutch office know, so WPSA can get this amended to make finding papers quick and easy. Do not forget, when you apply for online access, you can request emailing for papers which contain the key words that match your personal scientific interests. This means that you will be emailed directly with links to those papers that are relevant to your work.

We need to look towards 2019, as this is the last issue of 2018. As I write, we are already finalising the March issue, and please, for all those authors who write to me two weeks after submission requesting publication information, note that the journal is typically running 6 months ahead of time regarding issues being published. At the recent meeting in Dubrovnik, it was decided by the Board that Taylor and Francis (based in the UK) will take over the publishing of the journal at the end of 2019. This is due to Cambridge University Press divesting their applied science journals and focussing on pure science publishing. WPSJ is not the only journal affected and it is nothing to do with our relationship with CUP which has, for me, been an enjoyable experience working with some very good people. For submitting authors, there should be no discernible changes, it will be business as usual, and there is already a plan in place for the hand over. It will mean more work for me in 2019, but I am confident that, with the assistance of board members (Drs. Bob Buresh, Werner Bessei, Roel Mulder and Zehava Uni, who have been appointed to this task) all will go well. We will also be revamping the editorial board in a more active role, and I will confirm the appointments after our initial meetings to organise this in 2019.

Meanwhile, it remains for me to wish all our readers and members happy holidays and seasons greetings, wherever you are in the world.

Dr Lucy Waldron

Editor