It’s quite amazing that 2015 has gone by so quickly – hard to believe I am writing the December editorial. It’s been a busy year obviously – and the Journal has seen some new developments FirstView is now up and running – this means that, as soon as each individual paper is completed, it will appear online although not in print until the next available issue. This means for authors, that they get their paper out in public much more quickly than they previously did, where all papers had to wait until the print copy was prepared. Authors increasingly ask me when their paper will be ready once it has been finalised – so now that time period is much shorter. The Journal runs about six months ahead of itself (I am currently working on papers for March issue) which is fairly typically for print copy based publications.

Other Journal news – I had a major ‘clear out’ of papers that were languishing on the submission system waiting for final revisions to be made by authors – which is now done and we can get back to our regular turnover. Please note that papers that have sat in the system awaiting revision will now be given a deadline for completion or will be removed from the system – a bit of housekeeping from our side if you like.

As for events in 2015, the Poultry Science Association was kind enough to invite me to their meeting in July. Dr Mamduh Sifri retired formally – somewhat of an end to an era as he is such a major figure in the avian science world and will be missed for his work, research, energy and kindness. The sad loss of Professor Gordon Rosen in August, after a short illness was a great loss to many people – both commercial and in research. There will be a memorial evening for Gordon at the UK Spring Branch meeting at Chester in April – and information will be posted on their website as organisation progresses.

Of course, looking to the future, the major event in the poultry world next year will be the Congress in Beijing. I trust many of you are already planning to attend and I look forward to seeing you there.

Dr Lucy Waldron

Editor