In order to better serve the scientific community, 2017 will bring many new and significant changes to the journal Stem Cell Reviews & Reports. The first of these changes was announced last year when I took on the responsibility as the third Editor-in-Chief in the journal’s history. Taking this position was a challenging responsibility as this stem cell dedicated journal already is very well recognized in the field. The previous editors, both distinguished scientists, will now be listed on the Editorial Board list as “Past Editors”, in recognition of their years of service to this great journal.

It is obvious that stem cells and regenerative medicine have become one of the “hottest” contemporary scientific topic, covered by many scientific journals and public media. Therefore, in order to remain highly competitive and abreast with new developments, our journal has been re-structured to better reflect the broadened scope of the field.

In the second major change, five new Section Editors will cover the most current topics of stem cell research. Brief editorials from each of them follow mine in this issue. They are: Dr. Edward Scott from the University of Florida, Gainesville, USA; Dr. Henning Ulrich from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil; Dr. Giovanni Camussi from the University of Torino, Italy; Dr. Louis Pelus from Indiana University, Indianapolis, USA and finally, Dr. Peter Quesenberry, from Brown University, Providence, USA.

There will be further changes to the Editorial Board as each Section Editor will brings on new members to better intensify the focus on each topic and to help handle submissions. There will be more changes ahead as we rewrite the Aims and Scope and work on continuing and increasing the relevance and impact of our journal.

SCRR will consider for publication i) solicited or unsolicited reviews of topical areas of stem cell biology that highlight, critique and synthesize recent important findings in the field, ii) full length and short reports presenting original experimental work, iii) translational stem cell studies describing results of clinical trials using stem cells as therapeutics, iv) papers focused on diseases of stem cells, v) hypothesis and commentary articles as opinion-based pieces in which authors can propose a new theory, interpretation of a controversial area in stem cell biology, or a stem cell biology question or paradigm. These articles contain more speculation than reviews, but should be based on solid rationale, vi) protocols as peer-reviewed procedures that provide step-by-step descriptions, outlined in sufficient detail, so that both experts and novices can apply them to their own research, and finally vii) letters to the editor and correspondence. For more detailed information please visit our Web page.

With all of this said, Stem Cell Reviews & Reports will be open to new discoveries and challenging ideas. We encourage you to submit your best work so that, if accepted, it will be an immediate and important contribution to your worldwide scientific community.