Never stand still

Stagnation is viewed as a sign of impending decline. Only uninterrupted progress is regarded as a sign of a positive future. Despite the prophets of doom, a series of indicators signal that the field of transplantation as a whole and Transplant International in particular are healthy and strong, with a positive development ahead of them. The two focus issues published in 2016 highlight areas of active investigation. The series of articles on ‘donation after cardiac death’ (DCD) was edited by Rutger Ploeg [1–7] and the one on ‘vascularized composite allotransplantation’ (VCA) by Stefan Tullius [8– 14]. The focus issues, together with the stand-alone review articles published in each monthly issue, are testament to the innovative vigor and the constant progress of the field. We invite you to check them out at www.transplantinternational.com. The most recent Impact Factor of Transplant International (2.835) has shown an increase over the previous year and we are optimistic that this trend will continue. Wiley’s Transplant Peer Review Network (Tx PRN), with Transplant International as one of the founding members, was successfully launched in early 2016 and continues to evolve as tool to improve the publication process for authors and to reduce the work load for reviewers. Transplant International and the European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT) have moved closer together. The strengthened cooperation will become especially visible through a series of activities at the upcoming 18 ESOT Congress in Barcelona from 24 to 27 September 2017 (esot2017.esot.org). For 2017, we will strive to keep the momentum going, focusing on continuously increasing the quality of the scientific content published in Transplant International. We welcome your feedback, comments and suggestions at transpl-int@meduniwien.ac.at and invite you to contribute to the journal as author, reviewer and reader! Yours sincerely, Thomas Wekerle and Rainer Oberbauer