This issue of the Journal of Glaciology is the last to be published in the format which was originally designed by the Society’s founder and first Senior Editor, Gerald Seligman. As from the next issue, No. 104, the Council of the Society has decided that there will be a number of major style changes which are desirable for economic reasons and which will enable the Editors to continue to take full advantage of modern printing and publishing techniques.

The major differences as far as readers are concerned will be that the Journal will be issued in a larger page size (the international standard A4 paper size) and will usually have two columns of text per page, although in exceptional and appropriate cases it may revert to a single column for illustrations, tables, and displayed mathematics. In addition, the type fount will change, and another difference, not so immediately apparent, will be that the text will be prepared on a word processor within the Society’s Cambridge offices in a similar way to Annals of Glaciology, thus only a final camera-ready copy will be sent to the Printers.

As far as authors are concerned, there will be a change in the style and appearance of the proofs which they receive, although there will be little difference in the way these are handled, and no change at all, for the present, in the way papers are refereed and edited. Other changes inasmuch as they affect authors (in particular, new instructions for the preparation of original manuscripts and illustrations) will be outlined in a new set of “Instructions to Authors” to appear in No. 104.

The Editors hereby give permission for abstracts of articles in this issue to be reprinted by abstracting journals.