Do you ever look forward to a new year in anticipation of what lies ahead? As this year comes to a close, and 2013 looms on the horizon, I am excited to inform the readership, that the Journal of Forensic Nursing will be undergoing some significant changes in the coming year. From a historical perspective, the journal in its relatively brief history has grown and evolved as forensic nursing science has matured. The journal was originally launched under the direction of Anthony J. Jannetti Inc. (2005-2007), and later introduced to the international community under Wiley-Blackwell (2008-2012). On behalf of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Forensic Nursing, I am very pleased to announce that as we enter our ninth year of publication we will be partnering with Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins in the production of the journal. This new alliance will not only provide us with an opportunity to firmly establish our global presence as the foremost authority in forensic nursing, it will further assist us in developing a significant continuing education program, and as a result of Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins' long and successful history of publishing in nursing, this partnership will assist us in securing an Impact Factor for the journal. An Impact Factor is "a measure of the frequency with which the average article in a journal has been cited in a particular year or period" (Garfield, 1994/2012). And while some nursing scholars have been critical of the Impact Factor as a measure of a journal's success, suggesting that the quantity of citations is not a measure of the quality of a particular article (Oermann, 2012; Parse, 2012), in our case, achieving an Impact Factor for the Journal of Forensic Nursing would be a measure in the publishing world, of our achievement in growing the science of forensic nursing; one that will attract top researchers, clinicians, and academics thereby contributing to the continued growth of our specialty.

So what does this transition to Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins mean for the readers of the Journal of Forensic Nursing? For starters, the journal will have a new look and feel. The cover has a bold new contemporary redesign, as does the interior of the journal. One of the first things I hope you will note is how the content jumps off the pages of the journal as a result of the increased use of color, graphics, and photography throughout. I also hope you will notice that each issue of the journal contains more articles, due to the fact that our page budget has been increased under our new agreement. Additionally, our publisher promises a new "state-of-the-art" dynamic journal website that will provide members with online only content, journal extras, e-alerts, and more. Another very exciting feature that we can all look forward to is the launch of the Journal of Forensic Nursing custom iPad(R) Journal App, which will be available as a member benefit. Imagine being able to access the latest article and interact with the journal content, at the touch of a finger, regardless of where you are. The International Association of Forensic Nurses, together with the Journal of Forensic Nursing will join forces with the Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins accredited Continuing Education Group to provide members with continuing education activities to accompany journal content. Available through http://NursingCenter.com, new opportunities will be created for members to engage in continuing nursing education.

We will of course, continue to solicit manuscript submissions, engage in a double-blind peer review process, and mentor new authors. However, authors and reviewers will also notice changes to the Journal of Forensic Nursing. Manuscript submission, tracking and peer review will all be accomplished via an online system known as Editorial Manager(R). Once manuscripts are fully accepted and formatted for publication, they will continue to be published ahead-of-print in pdf format as part of our obligation to disseminate information of relevance to clinicians, researchers, and academics in the most timely and efficient manner. Of note, authors will also have the opportunity to provide supplemental digital content to complement the written word, for example including uniform resource locators (URLs) such as slides, videos, or other visual content, thereby enhancing the reading experience.

This transition to Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins represents a major change in the history of the journal. Collectively, we have been working hard to ensure that the transition is as seamless as possible. I have provided a brief overview, or a "sneak peek" so to speak of what we can expect through our new publishing partnership, and of course, this is only a glimpse, as there is so much more to come. One thing is certain, our new partnership represents another step in the evolution of the Journal of Forensic Nursing. Wolters Kluwer Health, Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, will provide us with opportunities to grow the journal in ways that we have not previously been able to do so.

For those of you who are superstitious, please don't fret, 2013 promises to be a great year for the Journal of Forensic Nursing. Stay tuned!!

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