Some alert readers will have noticed Letty Naigles's name listed on the inside cover of the last few issues of the journal. As our submission rate increased during 2008 we appointed Letty as an additional Associate Editor. She is a valuable addition to our editorial team, bringing a wealth of knowledge and expertise.

From 2009 we are increasing the number of issues of the journal from four to five each year. We are grateful that Cambridge University Press has made this increase possible. We will be including review and commentary sections occasionally, and we will also be introducing special issues.

We are pleased to report that articles in press are now available on line a few months before they are in print. The articles can be assessed under First View articles in the Available Volumes section on the JCL website.

We are also pleased to report that, with just a few exceptions, we have been able to keep to our targeted four month turn-around time for initial decisions on submissions.

Once again, we would like to thank all of those people who have so willingly and ably reviewed for us in 2008. We hope that these child language experts will continue to support the journal and the child language research community in this way, and that others will be willing to join them.