© 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Learning in Health and Social Care

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Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Announcement

Jo Atkins

Jo Atkins was one of a small group of people who

met with Blackwells to plan this journal and became

our first Managing Editor. She has recently resigned

from this post as a result of ill health, and I would

like to record my appreciation of her enormous

contribution to the journal. She started up all the

systems we needed to get the journal off the ground,

and remained at the hub of the process of receiving

submissions, distributing them to reviewers, sending

papers and reviews to the editor, and keeping track

of all the papers and related correspondence. In

addition to this administrative task, she was the eyes

and ears of the editor. She kept me informed about

people who were unhappy for some reason or other

with how we had dealt with their papers, told me

when she thought a review process was taking too

long and needed some intervention, kept authors

aware of the progress of their papers and answered

questions from more authors and prospective authors

than I dare to imagine. I picked up many clues about

the exceptional care and interest that she gave to

authors and reviewers, and experienced it first hand

myself on many occasions. She was always

sympathetic when my day job caused some delay,

and we worked our way together through many

crisis situations when we had to go to press in more

of a hurry than we might have wished. I knew I

could rely on her for useful and insightful feedback

on my editorials, and if this one is a little below par,

you will know the reason why. The members of our

Board join me in expressing a large thank you to Jo

for getting us launched and being an endlessly

helpful and caring human being at the centre of

our activity.

Learning in Health and Social Care

owes

a lot to Jo’s dedication and energy. We wish her a

rapid recovery and a happy and more peaceful

future.

Michael Eraut

on behalf of the Editorial Board