The editors of AFP have had the pleasure of observing the births of two sister publications: Family Practice Management, whose first issue was delivered almost 10 years ago in the fall of 1993, and now Annals of Family Medicine, whose first issue just crossed our desks this week. The American Academy of Family Physicians has joined with five other family medicine organizations to produce this new peer-reviewed research journal, which will be published in print and online six times per year beginning with the May/June 2003 issue. You can access the journal online at www.annfammed.org.

The five other organizations behind the Annals of Family Medicine are the American Board of Family Practice, the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, the Association of Departments of Family Medicine, the Association of Family Practice Residency Directors, and the North American Primary Care Research Group.

The mission of the journal is to advance knowledge essential to understanding and improving health and primary care and to support a learning community of those who generate and use information about health and generalist health care. The editor of the Annals of Family Medicine is Kurt C. Stange, M.D., Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland. Dr. Stange is looking for contributions from authors with new knowledge to add to understanding and improving health and primary care, in the form of original research, papers on methodology or theory, selected nonclinical reviews, and essays.

If you have questions about manuscript submissions, contact Robin S. Gotler, M.A., editorial coordinator, Annals of Family Medicine, Department of Family Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, 11001 Cedar Ave., Suite 306, Cleveland, OH 44106 (216-368-0837); annfammed@po.cwru.edu.

We encourage you to read the debut issue of the Annals and visit the journal's Web site. The first issue offers an introductory editorial by Dr. Stange and colleagues that you won't want to miss, in addition to five original research articles, an article on methodology, and updates on family medicine from the sponsoring organizations. A major focus of the first Annals issue is the primary care problem of co-morbid illness.

Our congratulations and encouragement go to Dr. Stange and his editorial staff on the first issue of Annals.