In his first editorial, in January, 1924, Editor Neil Gordon described these goals for JCE: that the Journal be a repository for worthwhile work reported at meetings of the Division of Chemical Education; that the Journal encourage community of effort in chemical education; that the Journal encourage teachers to maintain an "investigational atmosphere" in their classrooms; and that the Journal report opportunities available through ACS and other scientific organizations. He also asked readers for constructive criticisms of the first Journal issues.

In September 1924, after two months of respite from the pressure of putting an issue together each month (the Journal was not published in July and August of 1924), Gordon speculated about the longer-term future. He noted three suggestions that in his words, "seemed to stand out as the most promising." These were that each issue of the Journal would contain abstracts of articles on chemical education that had appeared in other journals; that there be a series of articles on application of educational psychology to the teaching of chemistry; and that the Journal become an international journal of chemical education.

It is now two years since my term as editor began. (It is hard to believe that this is my 25th contribution to this page!) The Journal 's editorial team and I have now had enough experience to make it worthwhile to look beyond each month's issue toward the longer-term future. In addition, the Journal 's 75th-year celebrations have encouraged us to delve into the past, an exercise that yields a variety of insights. Consequently it seems appropriate to state where we think the Journal is and ask for your input regarding where it should be going and how best to move in that direction.

Neil Gordon's goals for JCE have become part of the Journal 's fabric. Many submitted papers indicate that they have been presented at meetings of the Division of Chemical Education. Many other submissions serve to encourage community of effort, and some are from organizations such as 2YC₃ or NEACT that are their own communities. So that teachers will be in touch with the many opportunities available, we report regularly on activities, programs, and meetings of ACS, NSTA, AAAS, NSF, and other scientific organizations and funding agencies. Reports from other journals are a feature of each issue, including journals that report on educational research.

Research in chemical education is an established field that many teachers can contribute to and on which this Journal reports regularly. Applications of educational psychology to teaching are described regularly. Gordon's editorial in September 1924 suggested that the Journal "should have the spirit of research, where such spirit hovers around research in pure chemical education." I think we have such a spirit and have had for some time, publishing a broad range of papers from those who have experimented with different approaches to teaching. Whether or not the results have been confirmed by statistical studies, the spirit of research is manifest in these pages.

The Journal is also international. More than 26% of our subscriptions go outside the U.S., and a significant fraction of our submissions and published papers come from other countries. As a result of efforts of previous editors, in particular J. J. Lagowski, the Journal serves as the foremost international forum for discussion of chemical education. We are quite proud of this and intend that it should continue.

A decade ago, with the help of a grant from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, the Journal started publishing electronically through JCE Software. Recently, with another Dreyfus grant, we established a major presence on the Internet, JCE Online. Full text of every issue that I have edited is now available via JCE Online+ and on our annual CD-ROM. And there is a lot more information in our online features than is in print-especially papers that involve animations and other items that cannot be presented on the printed page. Subscriptions to our online service began this year, and our first annual CD became available in January.

Your Journal is a great success story, but what should we be doing to maintain that success and where should we go from here? These are questions on which I would like to have your input. My primary aim for JCE is that it continue to serve as a focal point for efforts in chemical education in the U.S. and worldwide. As I see it, the best way to do that is to base our efforts and plans on input from as many as possible of our readers and supporters. If you have time, before you get caught up in the beginning of the next school year, please write, email, fax, or communicate with us at a meeting. We look forward to your insights and inputs.