TY - JOUR T1 - Handing over the reins JF - Sexually Transmitted Infections JO - Sex Transm Infect SP - 314 LP - 314 DO - 10.1136/sti.2009.038422 VL - 85 IS - 5 AU - Rob Miller AU - Helen Ward Y1 - 2009/09/01 UR - http://sti.bmj.com/content/85/5/314.abstract N2 - We took over as editors of Sexually Transmitted Infections in late autumn of 2002.1 Both of us had worked on the journal as associate editors with Mo Shahmanesh (the outgoing editor) from 1997 until our appointment. None of this previous interaction prepared us for the sheer volume of work involved. With hindsight Mo had been protecting us! The following 6.5 years have flown past. As editors we have seen a steady increase in the number of submissions from 387 in 2003 to 484 in 2008 (an increase of 25%). As a consequence we now publish seven issues (previously six) per year of Sexually Transmitted Infections, but still only have room for a minority of the articles that are submitted. The result is a lot of difficult decisions, and the current rejection rate is 74%. Our editorial policy has been to try and achieve a balance in the journal of new research findings, clinical and epidemiological reviews and interesting … ER -