The Journal of Neurochemistry celebrates its half century of publication in 2006. It started life in 1956 under the Chief Editors Heinrich Waelsch (Western) and Derek Richter (Eastern) and was published by Pergamon Press, chaired by Robert Maxwell. In 1970 the Journal became the property of ISN and this was followed (1980) by some rather acrimonious interactions with Robert Maxwell which resulted in litigation and movement of the Journal to Raven Press (details are to be found: J Neurochemistry 61:S287-S370 (1993). Since that time, relationships with our publishers have been uniformly excellent.

Several activities are planned for 2006 to celebrate the Journal's 50th - a special issue containing reviews of topical subjects across Neurochemistry by recognised experts: the possibility of archiving the entire Journal is being explored and there will be a special 50th Anniversary Symposia at the ASN and APSN meetings in 2006. Other Journal news - Brian Collier (Chief Editor - Western) has decided to retire as of the end of this year and we are pleased to announce that Sean Murphy, who is relocating from Nottingham (UK) to Seattle (USA), has agreed to take over from him.

John B. Clark
Chairman of the Publication Committee