A time for thank you and welcome

Abstract

This issue marks the start of the 13th year of the Dementia journal, affectionately called by some people in the dementia care field, as ‘‘the purple journal.’’ That choice of color was selected with much thought, for not only is purple the color associated with Alzheimer’s disease (as pink is with breast cancer), we wanted to select a color that would stand out on book shelves in offices, libraries, and homes. For the journal’s guiding mission, since its conception, has been to provide a major international forum for social-behavioral research and practice that has direct relevance in improving the quality of life and quality of care for people with dementia and their families, and provide a venue for people living with dementia to express their concerns and thoughts (Harris & Keady, 2004, 2011). Keeping this goal in mind, we are always looking for new ways to refresh and add different voices and perspectives to assist in the continuing development of the purple journal. Thus starting with this issue, we have made some structural and personnel changes to our editorial board. The journal will now no longer have an editorial board and a board of associate editors, there will be one editorial board of 40 members, representing 11 countries. This change allows some members of our dedicated editorial board, who have been with us from the beginning, the opportunity to bow out, and for us to invite colleagues, who have been actively involved as contributors and reviewers, to join the board. We especially want to thank our editorial board members who are leaving the board: German Berrios, Andrew Dunning, Kjerstin Ericsson, Jane Gilliard, Jaber Gubrium, Nori Graham, Yukiko Kurokawa, Bere Miesen, Gwyneth Roberts, Margaret Shapiro, Chrisine Swane, Linda Teri, Clare Wenger, Carol Whitlatch, and Elaine Wright. Their willingness to share their knowledge, expertise, and insights helped move the journal forward during our formative years. And as the journal’s editors, we will always be grateful to them. We are also loosing Heather Wilkinson, our outstanding book review editor; however, she has graciously has agreed to join our new editorial board, for which we are very fortunate.