Human Factors in the 1990s: sealing transition cracks

This is an account of my 8-year tour as Human Factors editor during the last decade of the past century. I accepted this appointment with the understanding that the journal, although highly successful, was entering a period of transition during which problems were surfacing that would require some strategic redirection. Together with Human Factors and Ergonomics Society staff and my editorial board, which in addition to peer review I relied on heavily for advice on journal policy, we effected a number of changes. In this article, I review those changes along with the issues they were designed to address and the reasoning behind each. It remains for the reader to judge whether the net effect of these changes has been for the better.