This issue is the first of six which will comprise the journal's 21st volume. In my culture (and some others) it is conventional to celebrate 21st anniversaries, which for a long period were associated with the attainment of an entitlement to enjoy such privileges as the right to vote, to marry without parental consent and to enter into contracts. For International Psychogeriatrics our 21st anniversary represents something of a milestone for what began as a small association journal founded with two annual issues in 1989. To celebrate this achievement we have commissioned a number of commemorative pieces which will appear throughout 2009 and the journal has been completely redesigned in order to emulate the majority of academic journals which now appear in this larger A4 format instead of the quarto size used for our first 20 years. The cover has been changed to give us what I am told is a more attractive and contemporary look and the front of each issue will now feature one or more photographs representing aspects of the diverse discipline of psychogeriatrics. If you have an image which would enhance a future cover, please advise me by email (ipaj-ed@unimelb.edu.au) and we will try to use it.

Commemorative pieces to be published throughout 2009 will include not only editorials from former editors, and one of the world's most eminent gerontologists, but also reflections and commentaries on some of the most cited articles in the journal's history. When planning this 2009 volume late in 2007, I asked the journal's manager, Jamie Hutchins at Cambridge University Press, to advise the details of the top cited papers in the journal's history. Using information from the journal's 2006 impact factor (IF) report he identified eight papers (three of which tied for sixth place) which are listed in Table 1. It is notable that five of them deal with at least some aspect of behavior in some form of dementia. The authors of each paper have been asked to submit a reflection on how their paper came to be written and why they think it has been so highly cited, and then a member of our editorial team has added a commentary giving another perspective on the value and importance of the paper in question. The first of these pieces, celebrating the most cited paper in the journal's history (Grace et al., Reference Grace2001), appears in this issue and we will run at least one such article per issue until all received reflections and commentaries have been published. I would like to extend my congratulations and thanks to the authors of all eight papers both for their contribution to the discipline of psychogeriatrics and for their role in boosting the journal's IF.

Table 1. Top cited papers in the history of International Psychogeriatrics, 1989–2006 (based on 2006 impact factor data)

An anniversary is a time to review performance, reflect on the past and determine how to do even better in the future. Table 2 reveals a steady increase in the number of articles published and the number of pages in successive volumes of the journal over two decades. Table 2 also reflects an erratic but clear rise in the journal's IF since the first one was awarded for 2002. In 2008 we received the happy tidings that International Psychogeriatrics had not only attained an IF above 2 for the first time in its history (2.207), but also had achieved the unprecedented feat of exceeding the IF of our close, slightly older rival (founded 1986), the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, edited for the last 12 years by my close friend and colleague Alistair Burns. Rather than celebrating this overtaking maneuver to excess, perhaps we should instead delight in the fact that both the leading international journals in our discipline now boast IFs above 2, reflecting the ever-growing significance of the field as the world's population continues its inexorable maturation.

Table 2. International Psychogeriatrics: contents and impact factor, 1989–2008

1. IPA research award papers published in supplement (1992).

2. Index abolished 2004.

3. Reviewer list moved from December to March issue (2004–2006).

4. Includes 12 Dementia Outcomes Consensus Conference papers.

5. Includes 4 of 6 MCI conference papers.

6. Includes 2 of 6 MCI conference papers.

7. Impact factor available late June, six months after the end of the year in question annually.

Our expansion in page size will enable us to continue to increase the journal's output of published articles during 2009. The increase in the amount of material we are publishing reflects a rapid and sustained rise in submissions over the past six years, of which we continue to accept around half, as Table 3 demonstrates (though if certain papers which we are obliged to accept, such as the three biennial research award winning papers, as well as some from consensus conferences sponsored by the International Psychogeriatric Association (IPA) were to be excluded the acceptance figure would be slightly lower in most years). I am pleased to report that most of the time we meet our target of advising authors of our decision on their submitted paper within 90 days and, as Table 3 demonstrates, we usually do much better than that.

Table 3. International Psychogeriatrics: submission and acceptance statistics, 2003–2007

a. Nine months' data only, 1 April – 31 December 2003.

The IPA is governed by a well-conceived set of rules and one of these stipulates that no person can hold the position of editor of any of its publications for more than two terms. Editorial terms for International Psychogeriatrics are of four years' duration. I commenced my initial term on 3 January 2003 (the 65th birthday of Robin Eastwood, the previous editor, who chose that particular anniversary to retire from the editorship) and thus my second term will expire on the same date in 2011. Because individual issues must be prepared well in advance I will take responsibility for oversight of the first two issues for 2011, but as of 3 January 2011 the baton will pass to a new editor at the same time as our long-serving editorial assistant, Marilyn Kemp, stands down to enjoy a well earned retirement after many years of loyal and valued service to the University of Melbourne Department of Psychiatry and, latterly, the IPA as well. This, the previous and the next issue of International Psychogeriatrics all carry an advertisement for the post of journal editor. If you have any interest at all in the position please do give serious consideration to applying. There is no pre-selected preferred candidate and the selection committee will give serious consideration to each and every application received. To rewrite a famous sentence first uttered by John F. Kennedy: “Ask not what our journal can do for you, but what you can do for our journal”!