So where do we go from here?

i First, I would like to thank Bernd Carsten Stahl for the opportunity to write this editorial, and for his vision, hard work, and dedication. It also has been a privilege to work with the editorial team, the reviewers, and, of course, the authors. IJTHI is off to a good start. It has been exciting for me to be part of a new journal and to see it go from just a concept to its fourth issue. Although many processes had to be defined (i.e., made up) as we went along, papers have been submitted and reviewed , and a number of those papers have even made it into print. This has been my first real experience in being part of the review process from the editor's side, and I have found it to be very rewarding. I am pleased to report that the whole process seems to be settling in. In short, we now have an ongoing journal. So where do we go from here? The true test of IJTHI's success will be whether the journal outlives us or we outlive the journal. I truly hope that we are part of something that will become a legacy for future generations of researchers long after we all retire. I believe that two critical and interdependent factors are necessary for IJTHI to become a legacy: quality and relevance. I am going to go out on a limb here and say that most, if not all, of us aspire to publish quality research in quality journals. We derive satisfaction from the intrinsic feeling that we not only produced our best work, but that the quality of our work has been validated externally. This external validation comes from reviewers, editors, citations of our work by other authors, and, most notably, from our promotion and tenure committees. The principle of incremental improvement associated with total quality management may provide an effective approach to improve continually the quality of our journal. Although the quality (and to a certain degree, quantity) of paper submission is important , the quality of the reviews and the editorial process will help make IJTHI a journal to which authors want to submit their best work. For the most part, I have been impressed with the quality of reviews for the papers that have been assigned to me as an associate editor; however, there is still opportunity for improvement. First, IJTHI …