While it has not been my policy to carry obituaries in the Journal, I would like to note, with deep sorrow, the tragically early death of Peter Jusczyk and to celebrate his major contributions to our field.

I am pleased to announce that the Journal is moving to four issues per year which I hope will help us to publish accepted articles somewhat faster.

I would like to welcome Edith Bavin of La Trobe University as a new Associate Editor. In addition we are also appointing a Statistics Consultant, Glyn Collis, of Warwick University, to assist the action editors when necessary.

We are continuing to publish at least one major Review and Commentary section a year. The next will appear in Issue 2 of this year and will consist of a review article by Dorit Ravid and Liliana Tolchinsky entitled: ‘Developing linguistic literacy: a comprehensive model’ together with a number of commentaries.

Finally, while we prefer not to include formal thanks for our editorial work in the acknowledgement sections of papers unless our contribution has been scientific and/or intellectual, but we are highly appreciative of feedback in correspondence with authors and reviewers.