From the editor's desk.

In January, I received the call informing me that I was selected to be the next Editor of the Journal of Research Administration. Thought and emotion collided. How in the world did this happen? Had I taken leave of any form of sanity when I had agreed to be interviewed? After all, there is position and personal life. Like everyone else I know, I have that inner longing to rid myself of the burden of each day's labors. Why in the world take on yet another activity? Strangely and almost as soon as I hung up having given a very, very reluctant "yes," my initial hesitation gave way to a deeper series of shadow questions. "Am I competent? What made someone think that I could really meet the expectations and responsibilities? What if I fail? What if I make a mistake?"

Normal questions. Nothing out of the ordinary.

But after agreeing to my selection, I discovered something else came up from the shadow side of things--something unexpected. I realized in this moment that for once in my life the really central issue was not about my fears or personal insecurities. For once in my career it was not about the changes that this new call to leadership would make in my schedule. Rather it was something different. A different phrase came looming up out of the shadows and arrested my attention:

"Tradition and Legacy"

Over the past weeks since assuming leadership of the Journal, I have become more and more appreciative of the Tradition that is the Journal. Tradition is a curious word. It comes from the root term meaning "to be handed over." It shares the same linguistic origins with the word "betray." My first moments of saying "yes" to being the Editor made me wonder if I had been "handed over" to something for which I was completely unqualified. I wondered if I had been "betrayed" into my inner fear of being a sham, overqualified, an overachiever. However over these last weeks I have come to realize that what I have been handed over to has absolutely nothing to do with my less-than-adult preoccupations and fears. Nothing at all. This new challenge of being Editor of the Journal is about something much bigger. The Legacy of the Journal is its Tradition. The Journal-Tradition is something that predates me. It will last assuredly long after my tenure and my career are over. However at this moment of history, the flame of the Journal-Tradition is briefly mine to tend and stoke. And that flame has much to do with keeping alive and stoking the academic and professional groundwork of who we are and what we do in research administration and management.

This legacy of the Journal-Tradition is hardly new. The flame has been tended exceedingly well by previous Editors in Chief, Associate Editors, and members of the Journal Editorial Board. Beginning with this issue, I am delighted to call your attention to a vastly expanded series of professional review boards made of Society and related research executives who serve us as Associate Editors, members of the Manuscript Editorial Board, and peer reviewers on our Journal Review Board. However, as we enter into unfolding new times, I want to spend a moment to celebrate and give the highest gratitude and praise for my predecessor.

Dr. Peggy Harrel has served the Journal of Research Administration with immense distinction over the last three years. Dr. Harrel brought to the Journal a level of literary scholarship and professional leadership that has been unparalleled. With a doctorate in English language and literature and serving presently as an Assistant Professor of English, Dr. Harrel provided our readership with an outstanding sense of editorial excellence. As Director of Graduate Studies and Research at the University of Southern Indiana, she admirably integrated literary and editorial excellence with a dedication to advancing the ever evolving nature of our profession and the body of knowledge of research administration. In the past three years, the Journal of Research Administration has experienced a renewed sense of professional, scholarly, and literary excellence directly due to the stalwart and insightful leadership provided by Dr. Harrel. Without such leadership, where the Journal might grow in the next three years simply would not be possible. And this is the awkward posture that I have been asked to assume as the next Editor of the Journal. I have been "handed over" to a new Society servant-leadership so that the Journal-Tradition may continue to be handed over as a wellspring of excellence to every member of our profession and its allied disciplines whether as members of the Society or not. It is a daunting task and one that should make anyone wonder if they can take over from anyone so qualified as Dr. Peggy Harrel to serve the needs of those eager to deepen who we are and what we do in research administration.

As the new Editor, I am incredibly heartened. This, my inaugural issue, gives me a personal sense of anticipation. I am delighted by the articles and essays that I hope will enrich you and spur you on to horizons unforeseen. In this issue, we welcome extraordinary articles from colleagues the world over. In this issue, you will be delighted to see how diverse aspects of our profession are critically reflected upon from the widest global perspectives. Our world-wide authors in this issue "hand us over" so that our sense of the profession is stretched in new and challenging ways. In this issue, we obtain a deepened sense of how research administration is coming of age as we celebrate with delight the publication of the first major textbook in research administration and management edited by Lynne Chronister and Elliott Kulakowski and reviewed in the pages to follow.

You see, despite every stereotype, traditions and legacies never stand still. They are living things. They proceed with untamed energy and fill spaces in our lives that we never even knew existed. The Journal, I would suggest, is just one resource among many in which the Energy-Tradition of our profession is harnessed so that we can assist genius to come to birth in the experience that is "research." And it is to this mission that each of us is handed over for the service of those who come to us in all the vast ways that we summarize in that one term, "research administration."

But enough for now. Let me hand you over to the pages to follow. And in that handing over, may you be caught up in an energy and a spark that each of us on the Journal Staff hope will be fanned into something like fire!