The new journal which you are reading, known as JoMMS to its already large circle of friends, is the fruit of a collaboration between an experienced Editorial Board, our authors and referees, and the staff of MSP, an innovative nonprofit publisher. George Herrmann serves as Senior Editorial Advisor, and the journal follows his philosophy of broad coverage and stringent peer review.

As we proudly present this first issue to the world, we can say with confidence that this publication will set a standard for technical publications in the twenty-first century and will provide a wealth of services to readers and libraries. In choosing to publish with MSP, the editoral board acknowledges that while commercial publishers have helped satisfy a need that technical societies were slow to recognize, it is now time for a change. The sole goal of MSP is to keep research publications in the hands of researchers for the benefit of the scientific community, using the full panoply of modern software and networking tools to produce high quality at an affordable price. JoMMS's features include:

• the option of color figures without page charges;
• free universal access after a year of publication, and right away for Volume 1;
• convenient subscriber access by IP range;
• indexing on major search engines and on the journal web site, jomms.org;
• support for optional nonprint material such as sound, movies, animations, source software, and embedded data behind plots and tables;
• downloadable PDF files with full links for cross-references and bibliographical items, including frequently updated links to other publications;
• careful typesetting, copy editing, and figure handling;
• a license-to-publish model rather than a transfer-of-copyright model, so that authors keep control of their creation;
• a low subscription price that will not grow faster than the number of pages and indeed may drop as the subscriber base expands.

Few journals even approach this in terms of benefits to you and the community. We hope you will submit your best work to JoMMS and encourage your library to subscribe. Please feel free to ask questions and offer suggestions and ideas.

Authors