To the readers of Endocrine:

It’s a pleasure and an honor for me to welcome all of you to the first issue of Endocrine’s 2019 volume. As the journal’s new Editor-in-Chief, I’ll be taking over the position held for the past 8 years by Professor Andrea Giustina. It’s a hard act to follow. Thanks to the dedication and hard work of Andrea and the editorial board he created, Endocrine is today a solid, prestigious journal widely recognized for its excellence.

So, how does one live up to this legacy? As Andrea asked back in 2011 when he took over the role of Editor in Chief: Quo vadis, Endocrine? [1] What next?

First of all, I intend to maintain solid ties to the goals and winning strategies of my predecessor, and those strategies include the continuous support of Springer, one the world’s major publisher of scientific literature, and the dedicated and highly experienced staff headed by Laura Walsh. Equally important, I’d like to assure our readers that the Editorial Board and I will remain firmly committed to the journal’s ongoing battle against research fraud and other phenomena (e.g., plagiarism, undisclosed competing interests, duplicate publications, gift authorship, predator journals) that threaten to undermine the credibility of the scientific research community as a whole. Good science begins with good scientific ethics [2, 3].

Our aim will be to ensure (and enhance) the journal’s hard-earned position as an essential forum in the field of endocrinological research. Among other things, this means maintaining a broad scope that encompasses all areas of our field, including metabolic disease, oncology, andrology, and gynecological endocrinology and provides insight into issues affecting patients of all ages, from those seen by pediatricians to those encountered in geriatric practices. Our doors will also remain open to various types of research, including clinical, translational, and basic science studies. Endocrine will continue to be a reference point for readers engaged in daily clinical practice, as well as a multidisciplinary forum covering all aspects of the endocrinology domain [4].

Of course, we’re also looking at ways to improve and keep pace with the fast-moving world we live in. We encourage, for example, the submission of articles that offer fresh perspectives on known topics and identify new directions for research on these questions, papers that provide new insights into rare endocrine diseases, and those describing innovative technologies and their applications in the field of endocrinology. Increased space is also being planned for the publication of special issues and supplements dealing with important cutting-edge topics, major conferences, or other special events. A volume of this type—co-edited by David Cooper and Leonidas Duntas—will be published late spring of this year, providing a comprehensive, in-depth review of the use of thyroxine in clinical practice over the past 70 years.

We are also looking at ways to improve the efficacy and the efficiency of our peer-review process. To maximize the cost-effectiveness of this process, we are expanding and “enhancing the international flavor” of our team of external reviewers to include experts in numerous areas of our target field, who can provide prompt, authoritative, productive critiques of submitted manuscripts—critiques that will enable us to select the papers most likely to be of interest to our readers and allow the submitting authors to identify their paper’s weak points and take effects steps toward their elimination. At the same time, we will be taking fuller advantage of the talents and expertise of our associate editorial staff to rapidly identify manuscripts that are not candidates for peer-review, such as those that are not in line with the scope of the journal, or simply unready for peer-review (owing to the quality of the writing, ineffective presentation, obvious study design shortcomings). This strategy will reduce the risks of reviewer overload, improving the quality of reviews and markedly accelerating the entire editorial process.

As for the rest, it’s up to you, our readers. We’re counting on you and your manuscripts to help us provide solid, thought-provoking science for all members of the international endocrine and metabolic community.

Best wishes for 2019.