From the Editor

I think the book written by Dr. Scott Peck called The Road Less Traveled is worth reading. The first sentence in the book is "Life is difficult." The theory is that once we accept that life is difficult, we can quit trying to avoid the difficulties and get on with living life to the best of our abilities. Perhaps I would add that change is difficult.

This journal has gone through evolutionary change. Our latest change is the addition of the words "Journal of" before the previous official name, "Swine Health and Production". You will remember that this journal evolved from the AASP newsletter. Over the past 12 months, I have had three people infer that our journal is still a newsletter. Those of you who have published in the journal or acted as referees will certainly agree that our referee process is as stringent as for any other scientific journal publishing applied swine research. Perhaps the perception is that without the word "journal" in the title, this is not a refereed publication. Hopefully, the new name will change the opinion of scientists and academicians who doubt the quality of our journal. Like the change of the association name "AASP" to "AASV", the change from "Swine Health and Production" to "Journal of Swine Health and Production" has been made in an effort to adapt the name to fit reality.

Abrupt change is much more difficult to cope with than evolutionary change. Unfortunately, the journal has recently undergone an abrupt change in staff. In the long term, I think moving the journal offices to Perry, Iowa, will be very positive. However, running this journal with staff in three locations, particularly when three of the four are relatively new at their jobs, is a challenge. To add to the difficulties, I was in Australia for a month, trying to provide leadership from down under. Judi Bell, Kim Smith, Tina Smith, and Dave Brown are all working very hard to complete their respective duties for the journal on schedule. I apologize for the delay in the publication of the November issue and ask that you bear with us as we endeavor to produce a quality journal in a timely manner. Life is difficult -- change makes life more difficult -- welcome to the year 2001 with its new challenges and opportunities.

Erratum

We apologize to Dr. Kelly Lager, who is a member of the AASV but was listed as a non-member referee in the last issue.

--Cate Dewey