I hope that over the last three years of my editorship, our agenda has helped to provide a platform for geographers and other researchers to publish and promote work that is publicly engaged and impactful in a variety of ways. Reflecting back on what we have published in 2012, I remain cheered by the diversity of contributions from scholars in the UK and the wider world. In the first issue alone, we published articles and commentaries addressing trading networks in sub-Saharan Africa, water management in the Middle East, rural livelihoods in Mexico, Arctic geopolitics, health geographies in the USA and UK policy debates on development and health. It has also been a good year, from my point of view, in terms of Themed Sections. I am delighted to record my thanks to Brian Ilbery for working with us on the topic of food security and infectious animal and plant diseases, which followed on from a series of presentations originally delivered to the 2010 British Festival of Science (Ilbery 2012). Apart from the academic interventions, it was a real pleasure to publish a reflection by Alick Simmons (2012), the Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer of the relevant UK government department (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Defra). This kind of interaction addresses the journal's agenda. Without tempting too greatly the writing/review/publishing fates, we expect to have Themed Sections on environmental security, climate change, security and surveillance, the geographies of devolution and wellbeing. We should have some great collections over the next couple of years – so much so that I have had to impose a temporary moratorium on Themed Section proposals from potential guest editors. This should not be taken to suggest, however, that we do not continue to welcome relevant individual articles and commentaries. The Geographical Journal's breadth and volume of readership and authorship makes the open access (OA) agenda developing in the UK and elsewhere an important consideration going forward. As Editor, I am committed to working alongside the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) with authors, reviewers, readers and the editorial board to do all we can to ensure the journal maintains its relevance in this context. The Society's summary of the current situation and online resources for the community are available online at www.rgs.org/OpenAccess I remain eternally grateful to our editorial board members and independent reviewers for being so willing to offer peer review. The journal's Managing Editor continues to offer essential support and insights, and Wiley-Blackwell colleagues are a pleasure to work with.