Editorial Note

The new editorial team would like to offer a hearty thanks to the outgoing team, who steered the journal to new heights and who continue to offer technical and moral support. Mahalo nui loa to John Lynch, for the eleven years of tireless, conscientious effort he has devoted to Oceanic Linguistics and for his ongoing support in all editorial matters, to Bob Blust for two decades of service as Review Editor, and to Byron Bender for over fifty years of work in various editorial capacities. Thankfully, they all continue their tenure on the Editorial Advisory Board. Bob Blust, furthermore, continues to serve as the editor of Oceanic Linguistics Special Publications. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of our peer reviewers for their considerable time and effort in making this issue and future ones possible.

Every editor of Oceanic Linguistics thus far has overseen all types of positive developments for the journal. Some innovations the current team is working towards include (i) implementing an electronic submission system, as is now commonplace for other major journals, (ii) ensuring a double blind review process, (iii) creating templates in Word and LaTeX to facilitate proper formatting, (iv) allowing for supplementary audio-visual materials, (v) exploring ways to increase open access articles. We are already accepting manuscripts through our new submission system, which can be found at: https://oceaniclinguistics.msubmit.net/.

The reader will note that it has taken three Editors plus one Assistant Editor to replace John Lynch, a testament in itself to his capabilities. As the new editors are also active authors we have established a process of quarantining editor-authors from all aspects of the review process. Editor-authors do not know who their peer reviewers are nor do they have any say in any editorial decisions regarding their own submissions. We thus expect reviewers to be just as brutally honest with manuscripts they may suspect originate with a member of the editorial team as they are with any other submission.

We look forward to continuing along the path set by our predecessors with the same quality and efficiency that has always characterized Oceanic Linguistics.