CHANGE AND CONTINUITY IN THE EVOLUTION OF A JOURNAL

If you are a regular reader of Advances in Nursing Science you may have noticed that the journal has a new publisher-Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. There are some changes in the interior layout design, and we are undertaking a reorganization of the board of review. The numbering of pages, volumes, and issues has changed so that the issues of each volume extend through a calendar year, and the page numbers extend through the entire volume (as is traditional for scholarly journals). If you have not noticed these changes, it is probably because we have retained the distinctive layout and colors of the cover, symbolic of the long and continuous tradition of excellence that will be maintained for the journal.

We will also maintain the ANS tradition of issue topics. We also will maintain an editorial position welcoming ideas and perspectives that are not necessarily in the mainstream. While not all issue topics reflect this commitment, the periodic appearance of topics that call for "out of the ordinary" ideas serve as reminders that this journal welcomes that which stretches beyond what is taken for granted. Issue topics like "Politics of Care," (Vol 2:3), "Violence, the Family and Society" (Vol 8:4), "Feminism and Nursing," (Vol 13:3), "Energy and Healing," (Vol 15:4), and "Aesthetics and the Art of Nursing," (Vol. 17:1) may or will become widely accepted areas of scholarly inquiry. However, at the time many of the ANS topics are first announced, they create somewhat of a stir, and perhaps some anticipation concerning what might possibly appear in the issue to come. Always there have been nurses who welcome the opportunity that the issue topics offer, and others who are inspired by the ideas and perspectives that an issue topic presents. By periodically featuring the topic "Critique and Replication" we have reinforced the editorial commitment to ideals of critical challenge, insights, reflection, and growth. This issue topic calls for manuscripts that address advances in nursing science based on articles previously published in ANS.

This kind of article is not limited to these particular issues, but appears with some regularity. For example, in 1983 an article by Yarling and McElmurry1 titled "The Moral Foundation of Nursing" appeared. By 1988, when we were preparing Vol 11:3 on the topic of "Ethical Issues," a number of articles had surfaced that in some way responded to, challenged, or extended Yarling and McElmurry's work, several of which were published in ANS. Beverly McElmurry and Roland Yarling prepared a guest editorial for the April 1989 issue in which they reflected on the responses to their work, and indeed the "discussion" continued over the subsequent decade and beyond.

As Editor, this is the kind of exchange and challenge that I value, and I know that those who review manuscripts for ANS share this value. We seek the highest level of scholarship, but the definition of scholarship remains open and robust enough to include challenges to the very criteria by which we judge that which is worthy. This issue of ANS focuses on a topic that seems quite mainstream, but as you will see as you read the works that are published here, ideas and perspectives embedded in this issue maintain the tradition of thoughtful and thought-provoking perspectives. I invite all readers to join the ongoing dialogues and to continue this fine tradition in discussions, as well as in print.

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