New co‐editor for journal of software maintenance

After four years acting as Joint Editor, Me1 Colter has decided that it is time to step down. Dr Colter is one of the group who originally conceived the idea of a Journal about software maintenance, and he was a key person in seeing the Journal through its launch and becoming established as the most significant periodical dedicated to the field of software maintenance. We are fortunate however that Me1 is able to stay on the Editorial Board, where we look forward to his ever valuable contributions and input. I am delighted that Professor Ned Chapin from California State University, and InfoSci Inc. will be taking over as Joint Editor. Professor Chapin has an international reputation in software maintenance, having authored six books and more than 100 papers on software topics. He is a well known speaker at software maintenance conferences and will be a major asset to the Journal. Ned has expressed his wish to join me in expressing appreciation for the splendid job done by Me1 Colter in seeing the Journal through its early years, and establishing high standards for the work published in it. Ned has started searching especially for papers to fulfill more of the ‘practice’ part of the Journal’s sub-heading of ‘Research and Practice’. He has available for any prospective authors a set of suggestions on what points to cover and how to present them. He also has people available, willing to give some assistance to anyone who would like it in preparing a practice paper for the Journal. Assistance is available for the asking. Software maintenance is undertaken everyday in a great variety of situations wherever computer implemented information systems have taken root. With the pace of modern life, change presses relentlessly upon information systems and their users. The result is a tremendous and rich diversity of software maintenance experience. The Journal cannot hope to cover it all. It can strive to present significant, insightful, and thought provoking reports, analyses, proposals, and research findings. The result can communicate a balanced view with breadth and depth of coverage valuable to all who are affected by software maintenance. Ned Chapin proposes to strive for that objective. Finally Ned welcomes hearing from anyone interested in software maintenance. He can be reached by mail (PO Box 71 17, Menlo Park, CA 94026-71 17, USA), by FAX (415-8541568), and by telephone (41 5-8541567). Ned and I look forward to the next stage in the life of the Journal. There is every sign that software maintenance will take centre stage in the next decade, and the Journal intends to publish key practice and research results of benefit to the software maintenance community.