From the editor-in-chief

Change is inevitable, and this makes life both interesting and challenging. Many changes have occurred within these Transactions since the turn of the century. Like most all other journals, we have implemented an electronic web review system. In the old days, correspondences between authors, editors and reviewers relied on the postal service. The processes of generating these correspondences were tedious because authors had to mail out multiple copies of their papers that the editors then sorted and mailed out to reviewers along with the appropriate review forms. Most times, the editors had no idea whether or not the reviewers would respond. These days, the web review system automates a good chunk of this process. In fact, the EIC can quickly look over the status of every paper in the system and take over if there are any problems. In the old days, the manuscripts were sent directly by the authors to the appropriate technical editor, and the EIC had no reliable way to track the papers. This meant that the EIC had to rely on and trust in the efficacy of the technical editors. If, for some reason, a technical editor stopped performing their TAES duties, for whatever reason, months could go by before the EIC realized there was a problem, and by then, the molehills had turned into towering peaks. Thus, it was essential for the EIC to vet and hold onto every member of his/her editorial staff as much as possible.