Foreword from the Editor-in-Chief

The year 2000 marks an important step forward for this journal, as we are moving to 12 issues a year - a tribute to the steadily increasing number of manuscripts being submitted. This fortunate situation will continue to allow selection of the best original papers and technical reports, better serving readers' interests in endoscopy both as a clinically useful method and as a topic of research.

There will also be an increased emphasis on review articles - another valuable service to readers. The “state of the art” issue will focus more on the highlights of the previous year, and will be appearing in issues 2 and 3. The Digestive Diseases Week report will concentrate on the most important of the abstracts presented at the conference, and will appear in a series of shorter articles, due to the overwhelming numbers of presentations - some of them may need detailed reporting. Furthermore, we have been publishing the abstracts of the European Gastroenterology Meeting (UEGW) in a combined supplement with GUT to strengthen the promotion of endoscopy and gastroenterology in Europe.

A new series on clinical management was introduced at the end of last year by our friend John Baillie; we expect a great deal of interesting discussion on this, and would encourage readers to participate by contributing letters. There will also be further development of the journal's Internet page to complement our activities.

Thanks are once again due to the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy for its continuing support, as well as to all the affiliated societies in Europe and throughout the world, which have contributed immensely to the journal's success. Our thanks also go to our readers, who I hope are excited as we are in carrying the journal forward into the next millenium.

M. Classen