This is the first issue of Language in Society for which I have been completely responsible. Earlier issues this year had been compiled by the previous editor, Barbara Johnstone, so I simply saw them through the production process. I would like to thank the many people who have given me their expert advice during this period; they include Daphne Carr, Morrell Gillette, Melissa Good, Danniella Samos, Audra Starcheus, D. Kalaivani, and, of course, Barbara Johnstone. All of these people have been unfailingly generous with their time, patience, and good humour.

I also want to thank the members of the editorial board for their advice and support so far. About half of the board stepped down in January 2014 because their period of appointment had come to an end. They have been replaced by ‘new blood’. I am especially grateful to Angela Reyes, Jack Sidnell, and Deborah Tannen, who have agreed to take on the role of Associate Editor for the journal. The work of the Associate Editors has changed, so that they are now responsible for the reviewing process for submissions in their fields. This will ensure that the journal maintains the high standards for which it is known, publishing papers of outstanding quality from all of the overlapping fields that together make up our discipline.

I am very conscious of my responsibilities as Editor, since I follow in the distinguished footsteps of Barbara Johnstone, Jane Hill, William Bright and, of course, the founding editor Dell Hymes. Many of the aims that Hymes set out in his opening editorial in 1972 are just as relevant for the journal today as they were then. Like Hymes, I expect published articles to make a strong contribution to the development of the empirical, methodological and theoretical means by which to describe and explain language as a social phenomenon. The journal will continue to be open to a range of methodological and theoretical approaches. I welcome interdisciplinary research. However, an important, and welcome, difference between 1972 and today is that far more research on sociolinguistics is carried out today. My aim as Editor is to ensure that Language in Society publishes only the very best of this research, characterized by its importance for the discipline, intellectual rigour, high standards of scholarship and originality, as well as good writing. I look forward very much to receiving your submissions.