It is our great pleasure and honor to announce to our readers our new publishing partnership with Nature Publishing Group (NPG), a renowned international science publisher, to publish The Journal of Antibiotics (JA) from January 2009.

The new partnership between NPG and the Japan Antibiotics Research Association (JARA) to publish JA is an exciting development and will greatly enhance the visibility and impact of JA—and help to establish the journal as one of the leading bioactive and microbial natural products journals.

Under the leadership of Editor-in-Chief Dr Satoshi ÅŒmura, we foresee a close and fruitful collaboration among the vital elements of a successful journal. These elements include the Association and publishers, Editorial Board members, reviewers, and of course our authors. The outcome of this collaboration will ensure the high quality of JA, increase the international standing of the journal, and will, I believe, fulfill some of the aims of JARA: to serve the research community by publishing a journal with the highest quality and with high impact in the field of bioactive and microbial natural products research.