An Open Letter to the Informing Science Community from the Editor-in-Chief

On 1 January 2009, I was granted the great privilege of assuming the role of Editor-in-Chief of Informing Science: the International Journal of an Emerging Transdiscipline (InformSciJ). I thank Scott J. Lloyd for his years of stewardship and congratulate him on his promotion to Director of Publications of the Informing Science Institute. In this letter, I intend to identify what I see to be the mission of the journal and to lay out the philosophy that I intend to employ in my dayto-day decision-making for the journal. By doing so, I hope to make it easier for readers, authors, reviewers and editors to understand the special role that the journal plays within the Informing Science research community and, even more importantly, can play in informing the distinct—and often isolated—broader intellectual communities that contribute to the transdiscipline.