Note from the Editor

Volume 9 of BRIA is the final issue for which I will serve as editor. Even as you read this, Don Finn, who will edit volumes 10–12, is busy doing all those odd jobs editors do so that he can submit quality manuscripts for volume 10 to Sarasota. And do so in a timely fashion. In editing volumes seven and eight I followed the rule that the journal’s pages are for the authors and not the editor. The authors have more to say and you will find it more valuable. Besides, editors-elect and new editors soon become aware that they have perhaps too many forums at which to make their views known and too many authors put too much credence in what they say. As if we really know what we will do.

But over the past three plus years, I have accumulated a large number of professional “debts” to those who have assisted me in taking what you have read and will read in BRIA from manuscript to published paper. All of them deserve a proper thank you and so I will take a page to do so.

Authors, both those whose papers were and were not accepted, have made the job easier through their understanding of how fitfully an editor works as he tries to fit BRIA into an already too full schedule. Their willingness to wait and then hurry up as the due dates approached has made the job bearable.

The various reviewers have provided guidance to me and valuable insights to the authors and deserve a special “thanks.” Just as the authors must provide an editor with manuscripts with potential, at a journal such as BRIA it is the reviewers who identify that potential and help to mold it. The most they can expect for their labors is a footnote thanking “anonymous reviewer(s).” Some have received the inadequate reward of being able to list on their resume a line which says,“BRIA Editorial Board.” Others worked just as hard, but on an as-needed basis. Their help often was more valuable because they brought rare expertise to the review. Expertise which gave the authors new insights into their own work. Many of these “ad hoc” reviewers are not even accountants.

My predecessors helped in a variety of ways—advice, a backlog of papers and the understanding a new editor so often needs. They and the ABO Section entrusted to me a journal whose reputation was on the rise. I hope that I have continued their work—even if I am not named “Ken.”

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not thank all of those who did the real work in transforming incoming manuscripts into an attractive volume of BRIA. Those with whom I have worked here at Pitt—first Brenda Winders and then Barbara Turba—and Laurie Rayburn, Beverly Harrelson, Jim De La and the able staff in Sarasota.

To all of the above and to all of those whom I may have inadvertently omitted, a “Thank you to all and to all a goodbye.”

Jacob G. Birnberg