Editorial

As the second year of my tenure as Editor begins, I would like to provide a short report on the current status of the Journal. As most of you are aware, two issues were most often raised in discussions concerning how the Journal might better serve its readership. The first, of course, was the lengthy review process, and the second was the six page limit placed on paper length for those authors seeking to avoid mandatory page charges. There is some good news to report in both areas. First, for manuscripts submitted after January 1, 2000, the page limit has been increased to nine; and the second, the Journal backlog has been reduced to a single issue. That is, papers accepted for publication and received in final form by ASME will, at present, be published within six months. We continue to work toward a processing cycle, from receipt of manuscript...