With this issue, Microscopy and Microanalysis begins its eleventh year of publication. Our journal is getting better year-by-year. In 2004 this journal published more scientific articles than in any previous year. The first biological special issue, on parasites, increased the prominence of the life sciences within these pages. The growing popularity of the journal is also indicated by several letters to the editor about matters arising in certain articles. Such scientific exchanges highlight for our readership the subtleties of interpretation regarding advances in science, instrumentation, technique, and theory.

Several improvements in the logistics of publication have also taken place. Forthcoming articles are now mounted, in advance of print publication, on the Cambridge Journals Online (CJO) website [http://www.journals.cambridge.org/jid_MAM]. This electronic publication provides reproduction of the finished paper exactly as it will appear in print. Subscribers can access these and all previous papers by logging onto the CJO website (see instructions on the back of the mailing label). The only difference in the electronic publication is that the volume and page for the article may not have been assigned. This should not prevent other authors from citing the results contained in the electronic version because each forthcoming paper has an associated Digital Object Identifier (DOI) that registers the paper and gives priority to its contents. The proper method of citation for a forthcoming paper is the following: Author(s), (published online: date), title, Microsc. Microanal., DOI: 10.1017/S0000000000000000, http://www.journals.cambridge.org/jid_MAM.

There are other changes to enhance the look of the journal. We have created a new subtitle for the inside masthead: “An International Journal for the Biological and Physical Sciences.” This emphasizes the importance of our journal to all disciplines related to microscopy. Starting with this issue, the ‘instructions for authors’ will be printed only in the February issue, but the URL to an expanded ‘instructions for contributors’ will be given in each issue immediately below the list of the Editorial Board members, and on the ‘aims and scope’ page. Finally, but not least in importance, the table of contents has been moved closer to the front of each issue.

I encourage readers and presenting authors at the annual M&M meeting to submit full-length manuscripts to this journal. I thank all readers and past contributors for their support.