This issue of Animal Welfare takes the journal into its eighth year. It has a gratifyingly high Science Citation Index impact factor (the index of how frequently papers published in scientific journals are cited which is widely taken as an index of quality) of 0.909, which places it very well up the ranks of both veterinary and zoology journals. This, and the relatively short mean interval from acceptance to publication (c 9 months), make the journal increasingly attractive to authors and the number of manuscripts submitted continues to grow. It is pleasing also that the journal has a worldwide uptake and readership and that subscriptions continue to increase.