Although it is typical in these editorials to provide a brief overview of the issue, I will take the liberty with my first editorial to outline my vision for Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases.

First, I must congratulate and thank my predecessors Roger Kirby and Judd Moul for a job extremely well done. Roger was one of the founding editors of the journal back in 1997 and has been an editor ever since. Judd joined Roger in 2000 and by 2003 it was Roger and Judd as co-editors. It was unclear whether a new prostate-focused journal would survive back then, but given the overwhelming success of the journal, I think the answer is clear. As such, I am deeply honored to take over from Judd and Roger—who serve as both mentors and friends. What they have left me today is a vibrant and well-respected journal. I hope to continue to build upon their success and take the journal to the next level.

Ultimately, I would like to turn the journal into an even more respected journal in the fields of urology and oncology, publishing ground-breaking and novel research and state-of-the-art review articles. To accomplish this will be no tall order. However, there are some simple steps that we will take.

  1. 1

    Peer-review time: All authors (myself included) want to know the status of their paper as soon as possible. Therefore, I commit to you today, that we will work to shorten the time from submission to the first decision as much as possible. Papers that are not viewed as high-enough priority for publication will be returned to the authors within days in order to not delay their eventual publication in another journal. Papers that are viewed as high-enough priority will be sent to experts for making a decision as soon as possible.

  2. 2

    Time to publication: Although the journal is technically a quarterly publication in print, it should be viewed as a weekly publication. After acceptance, papers are moved rapidly through the production process and new articles appear every week as an Advance Online Publication. As such, this approach allows for the most rapid dissemination of the important work that we publish.

  3. 3

    High-quality papers: The quality of a journal is dependent on the quality of papers submitted. Thus, our goal is to publish the best papers and to identify what will be important tomorrow. This will involve occasionally soliciting articles that will provide important knowledge to our readership. However, we do of course encourage unsolicited papers and that is indeed the backbone of the journal. Along similar lines, we will continue to publish high-quality start-of-the-art review articles that represent a consolidated viewpoint of the literature at one snap-point in time.

  4. 4

    Visibility: Herein, Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases has a distinct advantage in being connected through the Nature Publishing Group. Thus, certain high-profile articles within our journal have appeared and will continue to appear on the nature.com website. Moreover, the eTable of Contents is sent to approximately 77 000 people in each issue. Thus, you can rest assured that any paper published in our journal will be noticed by your colleagues and peers.

  5. 5

    User friendly: I believe it is important to have open lines of communication between the editorial office (myself and the managing editor) and the authors and reviewers. I too am both an author and reviewer and thus take these roles very seriously. Thus, if any questions arise, please feel free to contact the editorial office. I have already in the past month alone engaged myself in several enlightening conversations with people and hope that my advice has been helpful to the authors.

With a new editor also comes the question of whether the focus of the journal will change. Yes and no. No, in that we will continue to publish articles across the entire spectrum of prostate cancer from population base/epidemiological studies to large case series, to clinical trials, to basic science. Yes, in that we hope to include more primary novel research. Although confirmatory studies are important, we aim to be a journal for ground-breaking novel observations. Particularly clinical trials and basic science studies/molecular epidemiological studies are strongly encouraged, although again, certainly not to the exclusion of clinical studies using population-based research or large case series. The question I ask myself when considering whether to accept a paper or not is not what the type of study is, but rather whether it will make an impact. Does it present new and exciting data that challenge the way in which we currently think and will it move the field forward?

Finally, I wish to thank the Nature Publishing Group for giving me this opportunity. I promise to try my best and commit myself to the betterment of Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases and the betterment of science as a whole. I will strive to make this journal your journal and I thank you in advance for your support and understanding.