First, a bit about the Editors-in-Chief backgrounds in Mathematics:

After receiving his Ph.D. in 1973 from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (India) Ravi P. Agarwal served at REC Tiruchirapalli, MATSCIENCE (Madras), National University of Singapore, Florida Institute of Technology, and now currently working as Professor and Chairman of the Mathematics Department (Texas A&M University-Kingsville). He has spent 2 years at der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat as an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellow, and 1 year at Universita degli Studi, Florence (Italy) as a Visiting Professor of Mathematics. His research interests mainly focus on Differential and Difference Equations, Numerical Analysis, Fixed Point Theory, and General Inequalities. He has published almost 1,400 research papers in leading Journals of Mathematics and has 42 monographs/books to his credit. He serves as Editor or member of the editorial board of almost 40 International Journals.

Martin Bohner is the Curators’ Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, Missouri, USA. He received the BS (1989) and MS (1993) in Econo-mathematics and Ph.D. (1995) from University Ulm, Germany, and MS (1992) in Applied Mathematics from San Diego State University. He was a Postdoc, sponsored by the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation, at National University of Singapore (1997) and at San Diego State University (1998). Martin Bohner is the former President and current Vice President of ISDE, the International Society of Difference Equations. His research interests center around differential, difference, and dynamic equations as well as their applications to economics, finance, biology, physics, and engineering. He is the author of six textbooks and more than 250 publications, Editor-in-Chief of five international journals, and Associate Editor for more than 60 international journals. His work has been cited more than 12,000 times in the literature, including more than 3,000 citations of his book Dynamic Equations on Time Scales: An Introduction with Applications co-authored with Professor Allan Peterson. Professor Bohner’s honors at Missouri S&T include five Faculty Excellence Awards, one Faculty Research Award, and eight Teaching Awards.

Elena Braverman got her Ph.D. in Russia (former Soviet Union) in 1990, after the postdoctoral and other research experience at the Technion (Israel) and a visiting 1-year position at Yale University, accepted a position at the University of Calgary, Canada where she is now a professor. Her mathematical background is in the theory of delay differential equations but later experience is in numerical analysis, difference equations, mathematical biology.  She is an author of more than 150 scientific publications and is also an Associate Editor of Applied Mathematics and Computation and Nonlinear Analysis: Real World Applications.

Tell us about what you feel the strengths of Advances in Difference Equations.

Now, the strengths of Advances in Difference Equations are (and we are definitely ready to work in this direction) the wide range of topics covered, a combination of the rigor of the review process, attention to every paper submitted, fast and efficient processing, and quick response to author queries.

What are your ambitions for Advances in Difference Equations going forward?

I would like to see the quality, impact factor, author and reviewer experience of the journal improving, with the goal to enter the A-category of ICI journals (top 15% of ICI journals by the classification of the Australian Mathematical Society). In additional to the development of the open access model, I suggest adopting the best practices of other journals.

How do you see open access developing in Mathematics in the future?

There is already no doubt that open access model is the future of publishing. For example, starting May 2015, the main Canadian grant agencies introduced mandatory public access to all publications supported by their grants within 12 months after publication. The main problem now is the publication fees which may be negligible compared to huge subscription fees paid by universities but now still make a problem for many authors. I believe that agreement with most research universities in the world can be achieved in the nearest future that would allow us to attract high-quality manuscripts to the journal.

We offer a warm welcome to the new Editors-in-Chief and are looking forward to working with them on this incredible journal! In addition to the new Editors-in-Chief, we would like to welcome the newest members of the Editorial Board: Jinde Cao, Tomás Caraballo, Galina Filipuk, Basak Karpuz, Eduardo Liz, Agnieszka B. Malinowska, Pavel Rehak, and Abdul-Aziz Yakubu.

Check out the new Advances in Difference Equations cover image!