Returning to a New Home

Abstract

This issue of Cognitive Science marks the start of our partnership with Lawrence Erlbaum Associates (LEA). The journal has never been published by LEA before, but in many ways, our relocation feels like a homecoming. In 1976 Roger Schank approached Larry Erlbaum with the idea of forming a cognitive science journal. Mr. Erlbaum was highly receptive, and together with his partner Walter Johnson began publishing Cognitive Science in 1977 at the newly established Ablex Publishing Company. The first editors were Eugene Charniak, Allan Collins, and Roger Schank. The first Cognitive Science Society conference was chaired by Donald Norman at University of California, San Diego in 1978. In the intervening years, LEA has published the Annual Proceedings of the Cognitive Science Conference. Beyond this, LEA has been a major force for the advancement of cognitive science through the impressive collection of books and journals they have published in cognitive science. We are honored and delighted to be working with LEA. Lawrence Erlbaum, both the man and the company, has been exceptionally generous with their time, expertise, and support. Indeed, his contributions to cognitive science have been recognized twice by the Cognitive Science Society, as two independent governing boards have made him an honorary member of the society. He is the only two-lifetime member of the society, but this is fitting in light of his redoubled efforts to promote cognitive science. We have every expectation that the journal will flourish with LEA. Through resources provided by LEA, the Cognitive Science Society will be able to significantly grow, offering its members new services for reasonable dues. LEA is also committed to the timely production of issues, Cognitive Science Society’s continued retention of copyrights, authors’ right to disseminate their articles on their own Web sites, and continued growth of the journal. Even though our publisher has changed, our central mission has not. Our aim is to provide an outlet for significant developments in the study of minds and other intelligent systems. This mission inherently involves interdisciplinary collaboration, and so we will continue our efforts to serve as a home to research that spans anthropology, computer science, education, linguistics, Cognitive Science 29 (2005) 1–4 Copyright © 2005 Cognitive Science Society, Inc. All rights reserved.