As the successor to such famous, leading personalities in biometeorology as Professors S.W.Tromp, W.H.Weihe, R.W.Gloyne, and H.Lieth, it has been a great honor for rne to serve as Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Biometeorology. It is eight years since I took over this position, in 1995, and now I am preparing to hand over to my successor in January 2004.Biometeorology covers a wide range of disciplines, and the International Journal of Biometeorology attempts to incorporate all of them, from the natural sciences to the human and social sciences. To overcome the difficulties of reviewing such a variety of material, during my editorship I divided the journal into four fields (Plants, Animals, Humans and Artificial Systems) and assigned an editor to each. In addition, an editor for epidemiology was appointed in 2001 due to the increase in the number of papers submitted in that area. The meticulous editing of each field editor together with conscientious reviewers has been one of the most important factors in the development of the International Journal of Biometeorology. As evidence of the journal'sprogress, I recall that in 1995, when I became Editor-in-Chief, the journal appeared irregularly and issues were often delayed for more than 6 months due to the lack of contributions. However, since 2001, the journal has been published on schedule. Also, prior to 2001, about 50 papers were submitted to the journal annually. This number rose to 60 in 2001, to 76 in 2002, and so far in 2003 more than 80 papers have been submitted. Furthermore, the impact factor of the journal has also improved; it ranged between 0.3 - 0.6 during 1995-1999, increasing to 1.056 in 2001 and 1.273 in 2002. Problems concerning the environment have come to be recognized as serious global concerns. In this respect biometeorology is an important field of research and I expect to see much progress in biometeorological studies with the International Journal of Biometeorology making a significant contribution.
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