A year ago, we compared launching Nature Reviews Neuroscience to organizing a dinner party. Twelve months later, with the benefit of hindsight, we can see just as many parallels between the birth of a journal and the arrival of a child. Just like a baby, Nature Reviews Neuroscience has required a lot of attention, and has occasionally kept us awake at night. Exactly as you would a child, we have tried to nourish the journal with only the very best food from the best possible sources, although, depending on your tastes, some articles might have struck you as being more 'nutritious' than others. But above everything else, just as a baby stops being a purely reactive being and starts to develop a personality, Nature Reviews Neuroscience is gradually developing a character of its own — hard to define, but unmistakable — in response to feedback from authors and readers alike.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been involved in taking care of this child during its first year of life. We wish to thank our authors, our advisors, our referees and our readers for all the trust, patience and support that we have received during this period. We also want to express our warmest gratitude to all of our past and present colleagues, most of whom are listed to the left of these words. Their relentless work and commitment to the journal have made raising this baby even more stimulating and gratifying. Last, this issue of Nature Reviews Neuroscience introduces a couple of changes that, we believe, constitute improvements on what we have done so far. We hope you find them useful, and look forward to enjoying your company over the next 12 months and beyond.