This issue marks the conclusion of my seven-year term as editor of Acadiensis. In reflecting on the experience, my mind kept wandering back to 1986 and my first day as a doctoral candidate at UNB. Upon parking my car, I jumped out and began a brisk march to Tilley Hall; I soon realized, though, that I had forgotten my briefcase that held all of the needed registration forms and information. In returning to my car, I discovered that I had both left the headlights on and the keys in the ignition; at least the doors were locked. It seemed a stretch that day to imagine that I would ever finish a PhD program, much less return to the UNB history department and edit Acadiensis. Yet here I am, 23 years later, contemplating the conclusion of a professional responsibility that has consumed more of my time and mental and emotional energy than any other for a long time. It is hard to know what to say.

First, I would like to thank all of those who have over the years made contributions as authors and as peer reviewers as well as all of those who offered advice to me during my time as editor. The reputation of Acadiensis is as dependent on the wider community of scholars as it is on the editorial team. Secondly, I would like to thank the members of the editorial board, who have been patient and supportive throughout my editorship. Most importantly, I would like to thank my colleagues on the editorial team: Beckey Daniel, Nicole Lang, and Steve Dutcher. While there have occasionally been some pretty rough days, we shared a lot of good experiences while getting out the various issues of the journal.

As many contributors and subscribers will already know, Acadiensis has completed a significant transition during the past year: the entire run of the journal has been digitized and can now be accessed online, either through the Acadiensis website (http://www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/Acadiensis/) or, more directly, by going to the Acadiensis archive site itself (http://journals.hil.unb.ca/index.php/Acadiensis/issue/archive). As it states on our website, though, the most recent five years of the journal are currently restricted to member institutions of the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN). If you are part of one of CRKN’s member institutions (i.e., most Canadian universities belong to it), you can access the journal by going through your institution’s website. If you are an individual subscriber to Acadiensis and you wish to access the most recent issues, please email your name and email address to the Acadiensis office (acadnsis@unb.ca). You will receive an email as soon as your access has been enabled.

Another major change in the journal is the upcoming implementation of the new Open Journal Systems-based website, which will be the electronic hub for the everyday operation of the journal beginning in April 2010. Potential contributors will submit manuscripts for consideration through this Open Journal Systems (OJS) site, and the editorial team will deal with these submission through OJS: sending the manuscripts out for peer assessment, contacting authors with editorial decisions, and working with the authors of manuscripts that were successful in the peer assessment process in terms of revisions, etc. One very useful feature of OJS is the ability of authors to track their manuscript’s progress through the assessment and editorial processes, right up to the time of publication in print and on the website.   The OJS website address for Acadiensis will be as follows: http://journals.hil.unb.ca/index.php/Acadiensis.

This coming year will also see a major transition in the structure of the editorial team. Starting with the Winter/Spring 2010 issue, John Reid of Saint Mary’s University and Janet Guildford of Mount St. Vincent University will be taking over as co-editors of Acadiensis. John and Janet have always been strong supporters of the journal and are well known as important contributors to the field of Atlantic Canada history. At the same time, Michael Boudreau of St. Thomas University will join the editorial team as review essay editor, adding his considerable experience and expertise to the production of the journal. It is my hope that our contributors extend the same support, loyalty, and generosity to the new editorial team as they did to me during my tenure. With such a strong team set to take over, the future indeed looks bright. I wish them all the best.

I had hoped to write some profound parting thoughts on how the journal has evolved over the course of my seven years as editor, but they just never came to me. All I kept thinking of was a conversation that I had with Phil Buckner, the founding editor, when I visited him at the University of London in January 2007. When he asked me how the journal was doing, I told him it was hard to say – that we were in a real transition period both in terms of intellectual content and such practical matters as funding and the electronic publishing revolution. He laughed at me (it was not the first time) and remarked that Acadiensis has been in a transition since the first issue in 1971. The problem, it dawned on me, was that I had spent four years anticipating that editing Acadiensis would at some point become less complex and difficult, which cannot happen because of the nature of the job. It has been only in the past few months, when I have finally been able to look back, that I have realized what an enormous privilege it has been to have such a problem.

BILL PARENTEAU