Celebrating CCB's Past and Looking to the Future

Dear CCB Readers,

You now have before you Volume 12(1) of Chelonian Conservation and Biology. It's yet another collection of papers focusing on diverse themes, regions, and taxa. This year (2013) marks our 20th year of existence I wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on our past and share exciting happenings that will position CCB to prosper in the future.

Over the last several years CCB has celebrated several successes. As you know, CCB is indexed in a variety of science index systems, and we are in our 4th year of having a Thomson Reuters ISI journal Impact Factor that is comparable to other well-known Herpetological Journals. And perhaps more than ever before, we are welcoming manuscript submissions on some very exciting and innovative areas of Chelonian research and conservation. We continue to provide a venue for authors from all over the world, with a perfect example being this issue, for which we have papers from Australia, Brazil, Costa Rica, French Guiana, Kuwait, Peru, Madagascar, Mediterranean Region, Mexico, Palmyra, Panama, Seychelles Islands, United States, and Vietnam. This is up from Volume 11(2) in which we published papers from 12 countries!

Chelonian Conservation and Biology also has been faced with new challenges. As many of you know, changing times have required us to more commonly require page charges for published articles. We are still providing waivers when possible, and are actively fundraising to help ensure that we can continue to do so forever. And at the end of our second decade of existence, I'm happy to note that the submission rate is approaching an all-time high, even with the recent change in strategy. This wouldn't be possible without all the wonderful authors and authorship teams that have submitted to CCB; you are greatly appreciated.

While increased submission rates are to be celebrated, it requires us to retool our editorial framework. Now more than ever, our senior editorial team needs help, and to accomplish this we are moving to a new editorial framework that will replace the Editorial Board with a team of 6 Associate Editors. To this end, we have assembled a well-rounded team with broad expertise and regional representation that is reflective of CCB and the papers published herein. Our Associate Editor Team represents several global regions and has broad expertise in freshwater turtles, tortoises, and sea turtles. Two of our Associate Editors have been part of the CCB Team for years: Luca Luiselli and Bryan Wallace. In addition, I'd like to send a warm welcome to Joshua R. Ennen (University of Tennessee, USA), Sandra Hochscheid (Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Italy), Christina A. Jones (Arizona Game & Fish Department, USA), and Vivian P. Páez (Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia). This team will play a more active roll in the business of CCB, serving as Handling Editors and participating in the editorial decision making process.

As much as I am excited about the new direction, I also recognize that this is a major departure of the original CCB model. As the journal matures, we are adapting to new challenges and workloads to keep CCB vital and growing in impact. As such, I'm confident that this evolution of CCB's editorial structure will pay dividends for years to come. However, it is very important to recognize everyone who has been so helpful in getting us to this point. The excellent submitting authors from all over the world have created CCB's vibrancy, but equally important have been our biggest supporters and colleagues, the CCB Editorial Board. I would like to give my heartiest thanks and appreciation for all the members of the Editorial Board, without whose help CCB would have never lasted this long! These vital colleagues include F. Alberto Abreu-Grobois, Harold W. Avery, Ernst H.W. Baard, Kristin H. Berry, Karen A. Bjorndal, Roger Bour, Kurt A. Buhlmann, John L. Carr, Justin D. Congdon, Indraneil Das, Scott A. Eckert, Nancy N. FitzSimmons, Uwe Fritz, Arthur Georges, J. Whitfield Gibbons, Matthew H. Godfrey, Brendan J. Godley, Sandra Hochscheid, Brian D. Horne, John B. Iverson, Fredric J. Janzen, Gerald Kuchling, Dimitris Margaritoulis,Yoshimasa Matsuzawa, Anne B. Meylan, Peter A. Meylan, Nicholas Mrosovsky, Henry R. Mushinsky, Vivian P. Páez, James F. Parham, Nicolas J. Pilcher, Steven G. Platt, Bonnie L. Raphael, Richard Reina, H. Bradley Shaffer, Amanda L. Southwood, James R. Spotila, Chris Tabaka, Peter Paul van Dijk, Dawn S. Wilson, and Jeanette Wyneken. On behalf of the entire Editorial Team, and especially our Founding Editor Dr. Anders Rhodin, I would like to thank you all immensely for your help over the years on the Editorial Board and I wish you every success in the future.

Moving into our next chapter, I encourage those readers that would like to learn more about the operations of CCB to contact me or any of the other Editors at your convenience. In the meantime, I'd like to thank you for your continued interest in CCB and for reading this most recent issue!

Very Sincerely,

Jeffrey A. Seminoff

Executive Editor

Chelonian Conservation and Biology