This is the fifth issue of BMJ Military Health since its transition from the Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps, and now formally incorporates the former Journal of the Royal Naval Medical Service. BMJ Military Health continues to adapt to its new role, and we are soon to hold interviews for new board members for the first time in the journal’s history, following open advertisement and competitive selection. Although the board remains dominated by serving members of the Defence Medical Services, we have appointed a number of civilian colleagues with special interests that complement the board structure. Despite conflicting pressures in terms of increasing rejection rates to further increase quality, I still feel strongly that there continues to be a role in supporting junior military clinicians, despite the increased workload that this entails. We have forged links with the Royal Society of Medicine, and one of the prizes for the annual military day will be renamed in honour of the journal and the essay will be published within an issue.

The transition to the new journal brought a great deal of trepidation to me, as I had banked a great deal on its success without being quite sure what might happen. I had commissioned articles heavily for the previous two years in anticipation; this was in my mind to make the journal look like a better deal to BMJ during the negotiations, as well as to have articles in reserve should submissions dry up as authors were faced with an unfamiliar title? Would this affect quality, and potentially the impact factor (IF), that flawed metric that is …