Farewell and Best Regards for JCSD

Nine years ago I joined the Journal of College Student Development as its editor. Last year I decided it was time for another person to lead this publication. I participated in a national search that identified and recruited Dr. Florence Hamrick to lead the Journal beginning in January 2004. She is a highly qualified educator and scholar. The Journal will thrive under her leadership.

In the past nine years I have read nearly 4,000 manuscripts, selected and worked with over 100 Editorial Board members, published 54 issues of the Journal, including 4 special issues and more than 3,600 pages of text. We developed the first electronic library of the Journal. The Journal's subscriber base has increased from approximately 6,000 to over 10,000, and the Journal's acceptance rate has declined from approximately 16.0% to as low as 8.2%. By all accounts, it is the most widely subscribed scholarly journal among the journals in the fields of higher education and student affairs and among the most competitive scholarly journals in any of the social sciences.

The success of a journal is determined by many factors: editorial board members who serve as peer reviewers; staff who pay the bills, copyedit, and manage the flow of manuscripts and keep to deadlines; associate editors who lead scholarship in segments of the journal; statistical experts who provide data analysis; staff in the central office who insure fulfillment and address budgetary pressures, copyright requests, and many of the behind-the-scenes details; authors who trust the journal to publish their research; past editors who have built the reputation of the journal so that scholars want to be published in it; educators who want to read it; and countless others who are willing to volunteer their time without remuneration to contribute to the scholarship of others. This united effort is responsible for the success of JCSD.

There are many people who deserve special mention for their work on the Journal, but two individuals among them deserve special mention. Lois Evans has served as Publications Coordinator for nine years. She has been responsible for the daily management of manuscripts, deadlines for authors and peer reviews, and has been the one person behind the scenes most responsible for the administrative details that make the Journal function. Without her, JCSD would not have been as successful. Thank you, Lois Evans. John Schuh, who has served as Associate Editor for nine years, has been responsible for the Book Reviews, On the Campus, and Research in Brief sections of the Journal. During several months when I was out of the country he served as Editor, and he has participated in the selection of every Editorial Board member in the past nine years. Thank you, John Schuh, for your devotion to the Journal.

Unless one has served on the JCSD Editorial Board, it is difficult to appreciate the amount of time and energy that each member of the Board has devoted to the success of the Journal. Editorial Board members are the peer reviewers who read and comment on manuscripts submitted for publishing consideration. The review of a manuscript can take anywhere from 2 hours to 6 hours, and JCSD Editorial Board members review as many as 20 manuscripts a year, serving a 3-year term; many agree to serve a second term. Contributing to the scholarship of others so that an author's research is accurate, clear, and complete is the work of a true scholar who, as Chaucer said, "gladly learns and gladly teaches." Thank you Editorial Board, current and past, for the work that each of you contributed to the Journal.

The Journal of College Student Development is a publication of the American College Personnel Association. Carmen Neuberger, Donna Bourassa, and Peter Brown, administrators who manage the national organization, have been extremely helpful, very supportive, and have devoted countless hours to the success of JCSD. Thank you for all that you have done.

An editor of a...