EDITORIAL

Note from the editor

Plus ca change, plus cest la mime chose
(The more things change, the more they are the same)
Alphonse Karr (1808-1890)
French critic, journalist, and novelist

The quote by Alphonse Karr has been copied and paraphrased many times by authors, journalists and even musicians in the modern era. It is also extremely appropriate in the case of the South African Journal of Industrial Engineering. This year, 2012, represents a milestone in the history of the Journal: it has been published since 1987, hence a celebration of 25 years of academic publishing is appropriate. Although it may seem that the Journal has changed over these 25 years, the raison d'itre of the Journal remains unchanged. The exterior image of the Journal has changed, the scope of the content has changed, but the objectives of the Journal remain as they have ever been.

To celebrate 25 years of academic publishing, Prof Paul Kruger, founding editor of the Journal was invited to contribute by writing the guest editorial. Prof Kruger chronicles the journey of the Journal over the 25 years in his inimitable style.

This edition of the Journal includes 18 articles on varied topics. As feature article, the entrepreneurial orientation of engineers is investigated. It has always been a feature of industrial engineers to show an above average inclination for entrepreneurial endeavour. It would be interesting if this research could be repeated using a focus group of industrial engineers to possibly confirm this long-held belief. The rest of this edition provides an interesting mix of articles, some academic in nature and some extremely applied. As ever, the articles were submitted from a number of countries, confirming the Journal's current global reach.

A new development in the life of the Journal is the move to open access publishing. SAJIE will soon become an open access journal. This will further increase the visibility and accessibility of the Journal to a global audience. The model used in the past for submission, review, payment of page fees and subscription is also being changed. Article submission will henceforth be done on-line via a system known as Open Journal Systems (OJS). More detail on the changes is provided in the last section of the Journal. Furthermore, consideration is being given to reducing the number of hard copies of the Journal printed - members of SAIIE will have the option to read the Journal on-line or to receive a hard copy. Not only will this reduce the cost of producing the Journal, it will be an environmentally sound decision to move to electronic publishing.

We trust you will enjoy the first edition of the Journal for 2012. A special edition will be published in July 2012 to coincide with the upcoming conference in Cape Town (see outside back cover for details). The November edition will appear as usual. This will mark the first year in which three editions of SAJIE have been published.

Susan Adendorff
Editor