On August 18th 2000, during the dinner of the Joint Congress of the American and Scandinavian Physiological Societies (SPS) in Stockholm several speeches were held. One of the speakers was Harald Aars, the legendary long-term SPS General Secretary, the recipient of his speech being Börje Uvnäs, the Chief Editor of Acta Physiologica Scandinavica during the years 1983–2000. The occasion was Uvnäs’s step-down as Chief Editor on the day before. Harald Aars′s words were ‘Dear Börje, without the changes initiated by you, Acta now would have been dead and the Society half-dead’. This was indeed true because Uvnäs had modernized the journal in several ways and in addition built an exceptionally solid economical base for the future of the journal. One of the things that Uvnäs anticipated in time was the end of the old publishing habits whereby ‘Scandinavians publish in Acta, Germans in Pflügers and Americans in AJP’ (Persson 2012). Uvnäs therefore opened up the journal for manuscripts from outside the Nordic area in 1988. This change turned out to have been absolutely necessary, because during the period 1993–1999, the number of Scandinavian (including Finnish) manuscripts decreased from a level of 270/year to merely 85/year. In handing over the responsibility of the journal in 2000, Uvnäs wished me good luck but also indicated that my future Editor-period could be troublesome both economically and technically. Now, when I am getting close to the end of my third and last 4-year period as Acta Physiologica Chief Editor, I realize that I was fortunate to inherit a well-run journal from my predecessor. Had not Uvnäs left an Editorial Board with such a high quality and dedication, my task of administering an independent physiology journal might really have become troublesome. Nevertheless, I have during my time as Chief Editor witnessed the continuation of dramatic changes in the world of journal Publishing. When I started, manuscripts were being sent to referees in thick letters and the average handling time to first decision was 75 days. ScholarOne’s Manuscriptcentral system for online manuscript review handling was adopted in Acta in April of 2002, a change which immediately cut the handling time by 50%. Other important developments in Acta Physiologica have been the instant web-publishing of Accepted articles and the rapid publishing of EarlyView articles (2005), the Acta Physiologica data depository system (2006), the possibility to publish articles with open access (Acta Physiologica OnlineOpen) and the digitization of all previous Acta Physiologica Scandinavica content (from 1940 with ongoing work 1889–1939). Although these changes have been highly favourable, they have enforced considerably higher standards, e.g. with respect to editorial efficiency, time keeping and general journal management. To meet this challenge, the collaboration with the Federation of European Physiological Societies (FEPS) has been important. In January 2006 the journal shifted its name from Acta Physiologica Scandinavica to Acta Physiologica as part of the agreement with FEPS, whereby Acta Physiologica became the official journal of FEPS. This name shift would have pleased Börje Uvnäs, who in the 1990s at two consecutive Editorial board meetings suggested this change without achieving majority for his idea. The collaboration with FEPS has greatly facilitated several developments, including an important broadening of the Editorial board and of Journal scope. In order to host abstracts from all SPS, FEPS and FEPS member society meetings, a website ‘Acta Physiologica Congress’ was created in 2006. Together with FEPS and the publisher Wiley-Blackwell it has also been possible to implement a realistic and promising long-term development plan for the journal, the Acta Physiologica Quality Programme. I am deeply indebted to the excellent Section Editors and Editorial board members, who have made it possible to maintain a high quality of the journal in so many different subdisciplines. I am also very grateful to the Chairmen and General Secretaries of the SPS, and from 2006 to the FEPS leadership, who have given never failing support for the journal. I have been impressed by the highly effective and talented Editorial Assistants Margareta Fästh, Dawn Barnes and Sue Chin Lwee, who have also been able to create such a stimulating working environment for the whole Editorial board. Finally, I want to acknowledge the Wiley-Blackwell Journal Publishers and Senior Editors, Allen Stevens, Elizabeth Whelan, Gavin Sharrock and Martin Vinding along with their Production Editors, who all have demonstrated how an optimal Publisher-Society collaboration can work. In concluding this Editorial, I wish to say that I am both happy and proud to be succeeded by Pontus Persson, Berlin. During the years that I have worked with Pontus as the Acta Physiologica Review Editor I have become convinced that he is the person that can pilot the journal through an ever more challenging future.