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Looking Back, Looking Forward

This editorial marks both the 25th anniversary of the journal and the handover of the role of editor in chief from Geoff Norman, the founding editor for the journal, to Rachel Ellaway. We have written this editorial together to mark these milestones, and we take the opportunity to reflect on where the journal has been and where it might go from here. The thought of being the editor in chief calls up Hollywood clichés of green eyeshades and sleeve garters, and shouting across a smoke-filled room to ‘hold the front page’. Or more recently, the espionage-like drama of All the President’s Men or Post. We can attest from personal experience that academic editors aren’t quite as exciting a bunch as that. What an academic editor does need to do is more prosaic but also more reflective and constructive. The past few months, where we have both engaged in a handover has caused us both to reflect on what it’s all about, from the mundane, like adding up page counts for the next issue to the strategic, reflecting on how the journal and the editor’s input have influenced the field generally. There is a production side to things. We construct issues, oversee the processing of submitted papers, and adjudicate what does and does not get accepted for publication. Below is a very attenuated job description: We nurture the journal as a whole, and the many individuals who contribute to its working—our Deputy Editors and Associate Editors, and our many peer reviewers. We write on and for the journal, leading and challenging thinking through editorials and through the directions we give to the journal. We maintain standards and integrity—at least we try! Stewards of the science and scholarship, and occasionally a policing role too—not only does this mean careful attention to peer review and quality monitoring, it also involves checking for academic misdemeanours—our recent paper on self-plagiarism and salami slicing as an example (Tolsgaard et al. 2019). We develop and innovate—new formats, special editions, new and emerging ideas and thinking. We market and promote the journal through venues like the Editor Roundtable sessions at meetings.