• sexual health
• infectious diseases
• sexual networks

You will be familiar with the issues. If you are an academic working on STIs, your experience will tell you that obtaining funding for research is increasingly difficult. If you are a healthcare professional already working in sexual health or with a budding interest in sexual health, you will know that service provision is either limited in your region or coming under escalating pressure to meet demand. If you are a trainee or a busy practitioner, you will be searching for educational opportunities that can be accommodated within demanding schedules, offer flexible access and target clinical needs while satisfying scientific curiosity. If you are attending to patient care or perhaps are a patient yourself, you may have first-hand experience of the persistent fears and stigma that surround STIs, creating a psychological burden and influencing testing decisions. At Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI), we are well aware of the challenges. We will strive to contribute to finding solutions.

What can STI do for you? How can the journal best serve its readership?

There is a great deal to do, but we are in an excellent position. Please join me in saying thank you to Professor Cassell for her inspiring leadership. The journal has well-structured content that attracts authors and readers from across the globe. Its publications achieve impact. There are close links and effective partnerships with the clinical and educational community. I am privileged and very much looking forward to follow in her footsteps.

From this position of strength, we will continue to grow together to make STI the home for inspiring research and effective educational activities, fully engaged with its readership, the broad clinical and scientific community, and the public at large. We will foster cross-discipline collaboration and exchange, promote scientific debate and—as a personal commitment—pursue a high degree of rigour and fairness in the peer-review and publication process. We will strive to give your paper immediacy, visibility and impact, and embrace new communication platforms to ensure the research we published has a broad reach, is talked about and can be used widely to the benefit of patient care. We will be committed to serving your educational needs. Importantly, your contribution is important to shape our strategy. Do not hesitate to get in touch and share your views—tell us what STI can do for you.

There are challenges ahead. Let’s work together to help STI be part of the solution.