Editorial

I am coming to the final months of my term as Editor, and I confess that the production backlog has not budged since my first day on the job. Authors' concerns about the backlog have driven my efforts for the past four and a half years. The page count has doubled, but then only kept pace with the increase of quality submissions; good for our community but bad for my plan to reduce the backlog. Special issues designed to soak up some of the backlog as well as highlight important research directions have attracted new authors and topics that enhance our community; another good outcome, but not much help with the backlog. As I set the contents of journal issues that will appear in print well into my predecessor's first year, I cannot help but think that I look forward to complaining about the backlog as an author. I expect more good things will come from it.