[From Arfon]

Earlier this year I announced that I was stepping down as Editor-in-Chief of JOSS after ten years in the role, and we put out a call for a new EiC. Today I’m delighted to announce that Daniel S. Katz is taking over as Editor-in-Chief, effective 18 September 2026.

Dan was one of the people who helped shape JOSS before it even existed. He was part of the small group who helped refine what JOSS should be (and shouldn’t be) in the months before we launched in May 2016. He went on to become one of our most active Associate Editors-in-Chief, and has been deeply involved in every significant editorial decision the journal has made over the past decade. I can’t think of anyone better placed to lead JOSS into its next chapter.

Dan and I will be working together over the coming weeks to transition EiC responsibilities.

[From Dan]

When Arfon first told me he was thinking of stepping down, back in 2019 while we were at Murrayfield Rugby Stadium (for a conference of course), I wondered if and how JOSS would survive. Fortunately, in the seven years since then, JOSS continued to thrive and grow, overcoming obstacles like the initial Covid period and then the increased impact of generative AI.

By the time Arfon started talking about stepping down again last year, I had become confident that the JOSS community of associate-editors-in-chief (AEiCs) and editors would be able to keep the journal going. So when I applied to be EiC, I had a mix of feelings that included satisfaction about what we have done so far, confidence about the future and that our community could handle it, and some remaining fear about what I didn’t know and wouldn’t find out until I started.

Now, on the cusp of this transition, I’m really looking forward to working with the full JOSS community, including AEiCs and editors who have ideas about how we can improve the journal and its processes, other community members who continue to submit software and papers and to review them, and of course, Arfon, who we will continue to rely on as both the past/founding EiC and the continuing JOSS tech lead.

JOSS, as a developer-friendly diamond open access journal for research software packages that itself runs like an open source project and is a member of the open source community, isn’t changing, and we’ll continue to work collectively to improve research software and its recognition, and to provide scholarly credit for its developers and maintainers. Please join us by submitting or volunteering to review, and keep an eye out for other opportunities to contribute.