Editorial

The editorship of Sydowia has changed in spring 2004. The previous Editors Dr. Liliane E. Petrini, Dr. Orlando Petrini and Dr. Egon Horak deserve recognition and respect for both their scientific merits as mycologists and their unfailing efforts to maintain and improve the reputation of Sydowia through more than twenty years. Now, we have taken up this time-consuming, truly non-profit, but honourable job. We, Dr. Reinhold Pöder, Dr. Ursula Peintner, and Dr. Martin Kirchmair, are working in the department "Systematics, Taxonomy and Evolutionary Biology"" of the Institute of Microbiology at the University of Innsbruck. The institute was founded in 1972 by the well-known mycologist Dr. Dr.h.c. Meinhard M. Moser (1924-2002) as the first microbiological institute in Austria. Dr. Dr.h.c. Meinhard M. Moser was also editor of Sydowia, thus, the editorial of this honourable journal is now returning not only to Austria, but also to our institute, a place of long tradition. After one year of work and after publishing our first two issues, it is now the moment to thank all the authors, and to apologise for any inconvenience we may have caused in processing manuscripts at the beginning of our editorial activity. Yet, we have learned that many readers of scientific journals - and even some contributing authors and reviewers - are not aware of the manifold duties and responsibilities of an "executive"" editor: it is a multi-level task ranging from formal corrections of manuscripts - like setting and removing full stops - to more crucial points, such as evaluating the scientific content of a manuscript. Our main and idealistic aim is to maintain and increase the quality of the journal. The general policy of Sydowia will not change: contributions relevant to fungal taxonomy and systematics, evolution, structure, development, ecology, pathology (plants, animals, humans), and biotechnological application of fungi are welcome. For the convenience of authors, reviewers, and readers, we are revising the author-guidelines, which will be supplemented with a template-manuscript. The latter should make it much easier to follow the layout requirements of Sydowia. Both documents are available upon request. Moreover, together with our experienced publisher Ferdinand Berger & Söhne, we are working on a homepage for Sydowia, which will provide basic and easily accessible information on the journal. Last not least, we hope that you like our new cover, which looks friendlier and more up to date, and should help to easily find Sydowia on your bookshelf. But, most importantly, we are looking forward to many interesting and exciting mycological papers from the international mycological community.

Reinhold Pöder Ursula Peintner Martin Kirchmair