It is with some excitement and great enthusiasm that I assume the role of Editor-in-Chief of Nephron, a publication of long-standing tradition. Its history was vividly outlined by my predecessor last year on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Nephron Foundation and it was started by two outstanding Editors-in-Chief, Gabriel Richet and George Schreiner, better referred to as the founding fathers of modern nephrology whose cultural heritage is per se a monumental challenge to take on and continue. This issue of Nephron not only marks the beginning of a new editorial team in place but also carries with it some changes to best serve the evolving interests of the scientific community. Nephron will encompass three sections, namely, Clinical Practice, ExperimentalNephrology and Physiology. They will be headed by David Warnock (Birmingham, Ala., USA), Fabiola Terzi (Paris, France) and Florian Lang (Tübingen, Germany), respectively, helped by internationally recognized Associate Editors for each section.

ClinicalPractice aims to contribute to fostering innovation by encouraging the efficient translation of laboratory findings into clinical studies as well as highlighting the path from discovery to clinical application. Translational studies that have the potential of promising clinical application, and clinical studies aimed at unraveling pathophysiology mechanisms, as well as helping physicians in their daily clinical practice, will be published. From now on, clinical trial protocols including phase II trials and methodology studies will also be considered. ClinicalPractice will feature a new section titled SecondOpinion, which will be managed by Chih-Wei Yang (Tao Yuan, Taiwan) together with an Advisory Board of leading international experts and opinion leaders. SecondOpinion aims to be a platform for independent scientists to discuss all aspects of nephrology through an open and hopefully unbiased approach. To this purpose, Second Opinion will solicit critical evaluations of published papers dealing with hot topics in clinical and experimental nephrology, commissioned to imaginative (and possibly young) experts in the field who are specifically asked to offer readers their own interpretation of controversial findings.

ExperimentalNephrology will publish insights into the working of the kidney, the pathogenesis of kidney disease, and novel therapeutic strategies, including cell therapy and attempts to regenerate the diseased kidney. Innovatively, cutting edge results in the genetics of renal and rare diseases - which will be scrutinized by Nine Knoers (Utrecht, The Netherlands) as Co-Editor of ExperimentalNephrology - will be considered.

On the occasion of assuming the role of Editor-in-Chief and appointing a new, highly motivated and competent editorial team, I would like to highlight the Journal's mission and outline how we plan to achieve it. Science has been advancing so quickly in the last few years that the interests of the scientific community are best served by offering authors the opportunity to publish their best findings in the most efficient way without undue delay. Editors and Associate Editors will ask reviewers to specifically look at any serious shortcomings either in the design or execution of experimental/clinical work. However, Nephron Editors oppose the current attitude of reviewers who demand experiments that would be better addressed in follow-up papers and require extra months (or years!) of work that rarely contributes to changes in the conclusions. Helping authors to ameliorate their pieces via a constant and constructive dialogue between them and the reviewers is part of the mission of the new editorial team, which demands dedication and enthusiasm that the Editors are prepared to offer. The editorial team pledges to provide a fair assessment of reviewers' requests to improve the robustness and significance of data while curtailing excessive demands in terms of the effort, time and cost that would be required by additional work.

To accomplish all these tasks, we rely on our readers to submit their most interesting work to Nephron and to be the judges of our conduct. All that remains now is for us to set to work, maintaining the Journal's traditions and striving to make Nephron a place where authors and readers gather to inform themselves and each other of the latest news in the field of nephrology.

With this in mind, I wish the editorial team great success in its endeavor and also hope that readers will enjoy and benefit out of this Journal.

Ariela Benigni, Bergamo

2015
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