Editorial 2018

Journal of Cognitive Psychology (JCP) commences 2018 with a comprehensive change in its editorial team, both in terms of its Associate Editors and the members of its Editorial Board. I am pleased to announce that an enthusiastic group of eight exceptional researchers have agreed to join me to serve as Associate Editors, committing their time and expertise to JCP’s continuing success. This team of Associate Editors includes: Tilmann Betsch (University of Erfurt, Germany), Monica Bucciarelli (University of Turin, Italy), Jamie I. D. Campbell (University of Saskatchewan, Canada), Ruth Filik (University of Nottingham, UK), Esther Fujiwara (University of Alberta, Canada), John E. Marsh (University of Gävle, Sweden), Michael Pilling (Oxford Brookes University, UK) and Susan M. Sherman (KeeleUniversity, UK). Our complementary areasof interest andexpertise allowus tocover thevast majority of topics within contemporary cognitive psychology. In selecting the best manuscripts for publication, the Associate Editors will be ably assisted by a first-rate Editorial Board that is comprised of 42 newly appointed members. Overall, JCP’s new editorial team demonstrates great diversity with respect to discipline expertise and geographical location, as well as an equal gender balance, which is all too often missing from editorial teams to the detriment of our discipline. The diversity of JCP’s editorial team maintains the journal’s established tradition of striving to reflect the diversity of the authors who we are keen to see publishing their work in the journal’s pages. My hope is that the new editorial team will bring fresh impetus to JCP to facilitate the publication of some of the most original and important cognition research that is currently taking place in the field internationally. From 2018 JCP will no longer be affiliated with the European Society for Cognitive Psychology (ESCoP). For more than 20 years the collaboration between JCP’s publisher, Taylor & Francis, and ESCoP has helped establish JCP’s reputation in the field of cognitive psychology. After much discussion and negotiation, ESCoP’s executive committee decided to establish their own new open access journal aligning with one of the Society’s main ambitions. To ensure that ESCoP’s obligations were fulfilled, the outgoing JCP Editor-in-Chief, Rob Hartsuiker, kindly stayed on with his team of Associates Editors until the 31March 2017 in order to deal with papers submitted before that date until they had been given a final editorial decision. Between April and December 2017 a new editorial team needed to be established for JCP, with an inevitable backlog arising in the processing of incoming manuscripts. If you are reading this editorial as a submitting author who encountered delays in the handling of your manuscript during 2017, then I can but apologise for these delays and thank you for your considerable forbearance. It is, indeed, a testament to the commitment of authors to publish in JCP that only a handful of manuscripts were withdrawn during this time. The majority of authors demonstrated great patience in waiting for their manuscripts to be considered by the incoming Associate Editors, who were appointed from August 2017 onwards. The Associate Editors had their work cut out in managing an accumulation of around 80 manuscripts as well as additional incoming submissions, whilst also maintaining the high quality standards of JCP. Needless to say, I am greatly indebted to each of my Associate Editors for their dedicated work in processing this daunting backlog of articles and for ensuring the continuity of full issues of JCP over the coming months. As for ESCoP’s new journal (Journal of Cognition JoC), I wish the Editor-in-Chief, Candice Morey, every success with the exciting launch of a new cognition journal, which I am confident will rapidly establish itself as an excellent open access publication outlet. This new journal couldn’t be in safer hands with Candice at the helm. Given the wealth of cognitive psychological research that is now taking place internationally there is clearly more than enough excellent work out there to allow both JCP and JoC to thrive, whilst each respective journal aligns with differing publication models. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Rob Hartsuiker for his dedicated work for JCP during his