Very shortly after the publication of this issue of the Journal, we will be publishing an extensive supplement containing various reviews prepared by the faculties of the meetings held in early Spring at Phoenix, Arizona, organized by Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and St Petersburg, Florida, organised by the Children's Heart Institute of Florida. During the meeting held in Phoenix, we also gathered together the members of the Editorial board present at that time. At this meeting, those members present approved changes to the structure of the Board as suggested by the Editor-in-Chief and the publishers. These changes have subsequently been approved by the other members of the board not present in Phoenix. As from this issue, therefore, there are significant changes, not only in the structure of the board, but also in the status of the Senior Editorial Staff.

So as to understand the nature of these changes, it is pertinent to provide a brief history of the formation of our journal. The suggestion to create a new journal devoted specifically to issues relating to Cardiology in the Young came from Bill Henry. Bill initially discussed this proposal with Bob Anderson during the first World Congress of Paediatric Cardiology, held in Bergamo in 1988. Convinced of the validity of the concept, and during the days of the congress and those that followed, Bill and Bob discussed the way forward with Lucio Parenzan, Giancarlo Crupi, Anton Becker, Mike Tynan, Atsuyoshi Takao, Edgardo Ortiz, Tim Garson, Fernando Lucchese, and Hiromi Kurosawa. All were enthusiastic about the venture, and supported also the concept of forming a World Forum to help propagate knowledge of the diseases of the heart as confronted by the worldwide population of young people. The journal itself was inaugurated in 1990, and was initially prepared for publication by Bill Henry in Chapel Hill, ably aided by Jose Ferreiro. The journal was printed and distributed from Hong Kong, and from the outset contained colour illustrations without any charge levied on the authors. After an initial period of publication in this fashion, the journal was acquired by Greenwich Medical Media, a small publishing house based in London, and for several years was ably produced under the guidance of Geoff Nuttall. Two years ago, Greenwich Medical Media was subsumed by Cambridge University Press. Since then, the journal has flourished in significant fashion under the umbrella of this world-leading publishing house. Another significant step, achieved jointly by Geoff Nuttall and Cambridge University Press, was to reach an agreement with the Association for European Paediatric Cardiology whereby Cardiology in the Young would become their “house journal”. The recent modifications in the formation of the Editorial board reflect all these recent changes.

Thus, so as to recognise the support now provided by the Association for European Paediatric Cardiology, we have invited their President and Secretary-General to become ex officio members of the Board. These positions are currently held by András Szatmári and Eero Jokkinen. Recognising the huge support provided for our recent supplements from Florida and Philadelphia, and with full support of Jeff Jacobs, we have invited Gil Wernovsky to take overall editorial responsibility for our future supplements. Ted Baker will continue in his role as Executive editor, and Felicity Gil will continue to provide support as Editorial associate. The roles of International editors will now be taken by Bill Henry and Hiromi Kurosawa. So as to recognize their positions in the establishment of the Journal, Tim Garson, Giancarlo Crupi, Anton Becker, Lucio Parenzan, Michael Tynan, Atsuyoshi Takao and Fernando Lucchese will take new positions on our board as Founding Editors. Edgardo Ortiz was also one of our founding editors, but he has kindly agreed to continue to take a role within the Editorial board itself. This newly constituted board, made up of experts in their various fields from throughout the World, will continue to supervise and oversee our editorial policies. In creating this new board, we have asked several of our long-standing members to stand down, thus making way for new blood. To those who are stepping down, we thank them most sincerely. The success of the Journal has depended very much on their efforts. We welcome the new members who have replaced them, all of whom have expressed their commitment to the ongoing growth and development of the Journal. The journal could not maintain its ever-increasing scientific standards without the support, given freely, from all the members of the Board, as well as the other referees who uniformly respond to our requests for timely and critical reviews. We are pleased to report that we continue to receive increasing numbers of manuscripts of high scientific standard. Indeed, the recent influx of manuscripts has been so great that, at the meeting of the Board in Phoenix, it was agreed that we should give priority to original studies over brief reports. Those contemplating submission of reports of solitary cases, therefore, should be aware that, unless their case is unique, or of overwhelming clinical significance, it is likely to be rejected simply on the basis of priority. Any of those submitting material for potential publication should also take care to ensure that their manuscripts are prepared so as fully to satisfy our “Instructions to Authors”. It is amazing how many authors submit manuscripts stuffed full of abbreviations, not having taken the trouble to establish that our policy is to avoid all abbreviations. We have had feedback from our new Supplements editor that not all approve of this policy, but as Editors, we remain adamant in our view that use of abbreviations aids only the authors, and does little to improve the readability of the published work. We are, however, prepared to relax our rule on the use of symbols, and abbreviations for dosages. We hope, therefore, that our new Board will spur us on to greater heights, and that the quality of our published manuscripts will continue to improve, not only in our regular issues, but also in our supplements.