The tenth anniversaryLast year we celebrated the tenth anniversary of the launch of theJournal of Environmental Monitoring, and we marked this special milestone with a series of special editorials, anniversary reviews, and anniversary lectures. We had much to celebrate about the past ten years, as well as celebrate our increasingly significant position in the field of environmental science publishing and the potential for greater success in the future. This particular milestone represents a coming-of-age for the journal, as our audience has broadened, our citations have increased, our articles and reviews are of ever-increasing quality, and our promise of fast publication times has been met. We are ready for and look forward to the challenges of the next ten years with a very positive outlook!Our special contributions in 2008 demonstrate the success and draw ofJEMas we were able to include Editorials, Perspectives and Critical Reviews from a wide variety of esteemed policy leaders and preeminent scientists. For example, Eduardo de Mulder, Director of the UN International Year of Planet Earth Secretariat,1and Robert T. Watson, Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs2and Richard Pike, Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Chemistry.3These Editorials offered a broad view of our world and its environmental challenges, as well as opportunities and potential solutions for the future.The tenth year issues also featured a number of critical reviews dealing with some of our most pressing global environmental challenges. Subjects that were covered included: climate change impacts on coral reef condition;4natural disasters and their impacts on the health of communities;5dryland agricultural regions, and implications for sustainable management;6food safety and public health;7and laboratory applications of mineral dust aerosols and their impacts on global climate.8The final issue contained a timely review of naturally occurring asbestos and implications for health risk.9These 10th anniversary articles and reviews have been very successful forJEM, thus we intend to continue publishing reviews and papers that deal with major issues of public and scientific concern under the title of ‘JEMSpotlight Articles’. Critical reviews addressing such broad issues are welcome and encouraged.Finally, we celebrated with two Anniversary Lectures, the first given at AIRMON 2008, (held in Geilo, Norway, 27th–31st January, 2008) by Albert Gilmutdinov, Kazan State University, Russia10and the second at Dioxin 2008 (Birmingham, UK, 17th–22nd October 2008), given by Kevin Jones, University of Lancaster, UK.11For full details of all our 10th Anniversary Celebrations please visitwww.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/em/News/celebrating_10_years.asp.We are no longer a new publication, but an established high quality international journal of environmental sciences. This maturity is reflected in our publication statistics—we have published reviews and papers from authors residing in 62 countries. We have doubled the number of reviews being published and our submissions continue to grow reflecting the increase in scientific quality. Our impact factor has improved steadily, and our average times to publication remain the fastest in the field at just under four months from receipt.We look forward to the coming decade, to new achievements and further milestones, and thank you, our readers, authors and reviewers for joining us on this journey.