Welcome to Volume 10 of Optics Express. With this volume, we are introducing a number of changes in the journal, both apparent and not-so apparent. One change that will be easy to see is the new look for Optics Express. The journal’s new Web site design improves user interactions in a number of ways and allows faster access to journal papers. We will also be moving from a 6-month long volume to a year-long volume. A not-so-apparent change is an improvement in the tools that the Associate Editors use in dealing with the flow of journal papers. Finally, in another not-so-apparent change, the journal has a new Editor. I will be taking over from Joe Eberly, the founder and guiding light of Optics Express for the past 5 years. It is an honor and a pleasure for me.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Joe for all he has done for Optics Express, for the Optical Society of America, and for optics in general in the last 5 years. He started with a vision about what electronic publishing could do for scholarly publishing in the field of optics, and he convinced the OSA to help make that vision a reality. He pushed, poked, and prodded the OSA and many colleagues to help him design and implement a working journal that would capture the benefits of all-electronic publishing, while matching the quality of other OSA journals. He spent an enormous amount of time in nurturing and promoting Optics Express, and he never flagged in his insistence on excellence in all aspects of the journal. The result was an entirely new journal in the field of optics – all electronic, peer-reviewed, multimedia ready, with a phenomenally short time-to-publication. Because of Joe’s efforts, the OSA has become a leader in all-electronic journal publishing and has the experience and maturity to produce other all-electronic journals (such as the Journal of Optical Networking, the newest OSA journal). The field of optics has benefited by gaining a high-quality, peer-reviewed journal that covers all aspects of optics and is free to readers. Joe, we deeply appreciate your foresight, your perseverance, your dedication, and your leadership. Thank you.

To give an idea about the current status of Optics Express, let me share a few recent statistics. In Volume 9 (covering 6 months) there were 88 papers published. Over 60% of those papers had first authors from countries other than the US, a number consistent with other OSA journals. The average time to publication was 47 days, well within the Optics Express guarantee of 8 weeks. Compared to 2000, the number of papers published in 2001 rose by an amazing 88%. For the start of Volume 10 there will be over 3,600 subscribers to the journal table of contents (sent automatically by e-mail), up dramatically from the 2,700 subscribers for Volume 9. And, as you heard last month from Joe, Optics Express has been ranked 10^th in impact among all optics journals. This is an extraordinary achievement for a journal as young as Optics Express. In summary, the journal is healthy and growing.

So, what’s next for Optics Express? To keep the impact of the journal high, we will continue to publish high-quality papers in the shortest time possible. But we will also strive to fulfill the role of being OSA’s cutting edge, all-electronic journal. That means encouraging the use of appropriate multi-media in papers and exploring better ways to present information to the journal’s readers. So, as a reader, expect high quality papers and even more exciting ways of staying informed. And, as an author, be creative and continue to submit state-of-the-art research in state-of-the-art forms to Optics Express.