Change at the Top of the ApJL

The venerable Astrophysical Journal, Letters has a new editor: Prof. Fred Rasio.

Fred is the 4th editor in the journal's 45 year existence. The Letters are for the publication of rapid, short papers, which are timely, and often somewhat speculative.

Fred takes over from Chris Sneden, who did a fabulous job over the last decade, having replaced Alexander Dalgarno, who reigned over the Letters for three decades, having taken over from the first editor, Don Osterbrock when Don became Director of Lick Observatory.

Fred has published the traditional First Editorial - editorials by actual editors being relatively unusual in the modern astronomical literature.

The main change, for now, is an attempt to increase the speed of publication with more rapid turnaround for reviews and revisions, which are the current rate limiting steps for publications.

As a current Science Editor for the Astrophysical Journal, I am watching the evolution of the Letters with interest.

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