As the successor to Professor Teruo Kishi, the former Editor-in-Chief of *Science and Technology of Advanced Materials* (STAM), I would like to share some of STAM\'s journal history with our readers. STAM was launched in 2000 with the financial support of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in recognition of a strong need for an international journal that would be distributed and read across the globe. Five years later, the publication of STAM was transferred to the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) under the initiative of Professor Kishi. As a result of his work, STAM is now positioned as a high-impact journal, 3.512 as listed by the ISI 2011 Science Citation Index Journal Citation Report, with a much higher and faster growth than when I was participating as a co-founder in the past. STAM is well known as a successful open-access journal since shifting from the initial subscription model in 2008.

As an editor, I would like to emphasize that STAM will continue to publish with a sense of social mission as an academic journal, allowing space for researchers to contribute to the sustainable development of society and health. However, some contribution from authors would assist us in creating a sustainable journal publishing model, and further enhance services to authors and readers of STAM. With this in mind, I would like to state that STAM\'s editorial board is planning to introduce an article processing charge from July 2013, in addition to NIMS' continuing financial support.

One of our new editorial policies is to aim for reader-oriented publishing. I believe that academic journal publishing can take the role of navigator in advancing the development of materials. Among the many other scientific journals, STAM will lead the rapid growth in materials science, inspiring research into new materials for the future and leading the next generation of materials science and technology.

It is my honor to work with members of the editorial board and regional board for the continuing success of STAM. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my colleagues for their support as authors, reviewers and readers, and for their enthusiasm, cooperation and editorial excellence.
