Yet another year has flown by and as 2016 draws to a close, I would like to take a moment to reflect on our accomplishments, extend a sincere thank you to the Frontiers community and congratulate our authors, editors and reviewers on their stellar achievements.

It’s been an exciting year of growth and we have achieved (and surpassed!) some remarkable milestones:

• > 50,000 published articles since 2008, with more than 15,000 articles published in 2016 alone

• > 200 million article views and downloads from around the world

• > 3,000 Research Topics organised on interdisciplinary themes

• > 65,000 editors

• 31 Frontiers journals indexed in the Web of Science (including 19 with an official Impact Factor)

We are especially proud of the launch of the Digital Editorial Office, our virtual office for editors, accessible 24-7 and specifically designed to enhance efficiency, oversight and quality control in the peer-review process.

By working together we have reached new heights – Frontiers is currently the 6th largest open-access publisher worldwide (Open Access Journal Publishing 2016-2020, Simba Information, 2016), the 2nd largest in Germany, and numerous Frontiers journals are the most–cited journals in their fields. This is a truly fantastic achievement, which we attribute to the dedication of our stellar editorial boards and the technological innovations and advancements our IT team turns out month after month.

In 2017 we will continue our mission to empower scientists with innovative Open Science technology solutions that ensure rapid and open access to high quality research. This includes branching out into new areas of academia, a new Open Science for Sustainability initiative and our continued support and financial commitment to open access & innovation. This includes the first Frontiers Spotlight Award for an outstanding Research Topic that we are particularly excited about. The Topic winners will be awarded with the organisation of a conference in Switzerland around their Research Topic and the results will be announced in March 2017.

I could not be more excited about what’s in store and for the opportunity to work with all of you to make it happen .

Thank you again and Happy Holidays from all of us at Frontiers.

Kamila Markram, PhD