Editorial.

It seems hard to believe, but three years have passed and my term as Editor of Geoscience Canada is drawing to a close at the end of 2004. I have appreciated greatly the opportunity to serve the Geological Association of Canada (GAC) in this role. The wonderful part about being editor of this journal is the continuous learning process that results from reading such a diversity of articles. I trust that the readership has enjoyed the published articles as much as I have. When I first started in this role I was concerned that I might have to beat the bushes for authors willing to write articles. This has proved to be an idle concern because the flow of manuscripts has been sure and steady. You may be surprised to learn that, despite the high number of invited review articles in the special series and the considerable number of less rigorously refereed articles in the series on Issues in Canadian Geoscience, there is still a rejection rate of 24% for all articles submitted to the journal.

There has been much talk in recent months of a plan to make Geoscience Canada available to a much wider audience. The grandest idea is that Geoscience Canada, albeit in a somewhat changed form, should go to all Canadian geoscientists. There is no doubt that Geoscience Canada is the main venue for articles on issues in Canadian geoscience. In my view it is important that all Canadian geoscientists read these articles in order to be informed members of the community. Therefore, I am strongly in favour of a move that will bring Geoscience Canada to the desks, briefcases and backpacks of all Canadian geoscientists. If all members of the community were reading the same journal on a quarterly basis, the community would be much more united than it is now. Defragmentation of the larger Canadian Earth Science community is long overdue. Unification would make the discipline stronger and more highly regarded in the academic, government and industrial sectors and ultimately in court of public opinion. I hope this initiative proceeds over the coming months and that we can use Geoscience Canada for the greater good of Canadian Earth science and Earth scientists.

In parting, I would like to thank all those authors who have submitted articles to Geoscience Canada over the past three years. I would also like to thank those series editors who have provided new articles for the series in the journal. No journal can function well without a good Editorial Board and I am deeply indebted to the Associate Editors for their advice and collective wisdom over the years. It is my pleasure to record the excellent assistance I have received from staff at the Geological Survey of Canada, Calgary office, who provided services under contract to GAC: Jo Monro Gray who did the technical editing, Claudia Thompson who did the layout, and Dave Sargent who assisted with graphics. I would also like to acknowledge the professional help of staff at the GAC Headquarters office in St. John's. Finally, I thank the readership: keep on writing, keep on reading, and keep on thinking.