With this issue, the Journal switches to weekly publication. Each issue will release on Wednesday. We will publish 50 issues per year, skipping the last 2 weeks of December. Our primary goal is to provide not only more timely publication of accepted papers but also the latest neuroscience research in a form (be it with your on-line or print subscription) that optimizes the visibility of each paper. Our first step along these lines was a new layout for the on-line and print journal that began in January 2003. We believe that a shorter Table of Contents and smaller issues are also vital to this goal. We will not be expanding the number of accepted papers; thus each issue will soon average ∼25 papers per issue, or 8–10 papers per section. With the increased efficiency of the new on-line submission system, which launched in May 2003, we expect to further shorten the time from submission to publication in final form.⇓
Several additional benefits to readers and authors accrue from the change to weekly publication. First, we hope that you will soon look forward to a regular schedule of Wednesday e-mails with the Table of Contents. You should now be able to scroll the entire list before fatigue ensues. We will also be able to provide additional opportunities for cover illustrations and entice readers to read more articles through the papers highlighted each week in This Week in The Journal. Finally, we will use the weekly format to expand features available in the Journal. Look for several additional features beginning early this fall.
We hope that you will find this change beneficial. And for those of you who groan at this change, we promise not to go to daily publication anytime soon....