Gear Technology was founded 22 years ago on a very simple principle: to provide the best possible educational articles and information for the gear industry. Since 1984, Gear Technology has provided you with relevant and practical information about the design, manufacturing, processing, inspection and use of gears.

Because of that focus--educating our readers--we place an extremely high value on our editorial integrity. Our job is to help you understand the technology of gears so that you can make informed decisions that will help your company become more productive, produce higher quality or deliver greater value to your customers--how to make better gears, faster, and at a lower cost.

Editorial integrity means we don’t kowtow to our advertisers. It means we apply our own experience in the industry, and we have our own voice. It means I can ask questions like "Is Gear Expo Worth It?" as I did two issues ago. Judging by the amount of response that has been generated, it was a question worth asking.

Also, we spend a lot of effort to make sure our articles are both accurate and useful. Did you know that all of our technical articles are reviewed by experts not affiliated with the authors before they can be accepted in Gear Technology? Each article is rated by an expert for its technical merit, contribution to gear knowledge and practicality or usefulness. Usually, our reviewers request changes, edits and rewrites that make the articles better for you.

Very often, this process forces us to reject articles, even when they’ve been submitted by advertisers.

Some magazines make very little--if any--effort to separate editorial from advertising. You’ll often find articles in other publications that feature a company on the same page as an advertisement for the company, making the reader unsure where the article ends and the advertising begins.

We have a much greater respect for our readers than that. That’s why you’ll find no advertising on the pages that include technical articles. These articles stand on their own, and their inclusion hasn’t been influenced by anything other than their merit.

Our focus on serving the reader also means we keep in touch with our audience. We ask what you want, and we do our best to deliver it. Last fall we conducted a survey, to which more than 200 of you responded. In the survey, we asked what kinds of articles you’d most like to read about in 2006.

One of the hottest topics revealed in the survey was gear manufacturing in the Far East, and last issue’s special focus on that subject was the result. This issue we’re covering growing markets for gear manufacturers, with articles about gear manufacturing for aerospace, medical devices and wind turbines.

On our cover, we call ourselves "The Gear Industry’s Information Source," and we like to think of the extra efforts we put in as fulfilling that promise.

But we also believe you can’t rest on your laurels. Like a modern, lean manufacturer, we have to invest in continuous improvement, so I’d like to take this opportunity to make sure you’re aware of some of the things we’re doing in 2006 to keep that promise and expand upon it.

Late in 2005, we redesigned the Gear Technology website. We did so to make all the articles from the current issue available to our readers, right from the home page. You don’t need a password, you don’t need to register. You just have to know that if you need information about gears, you should come to Gear Technology and geartechnology.com, where we receive more than 35,000 visitors every month.

Also, we’ve always offered free subscriptions to the printed version of the magazine in the United States, but this year, we’ve expanded that offer to qualified readers in Canada and Mexico as well. Of course, we’ll be asking for your help with this, because we can only offer free subscriptions to qualified individuals. To become qualified, you have to fill out a subscription card.

Throughout the rest of 2006, we’ll continue to expand our efforts to bring you the information you need. We hope that you’ll continue to give us feedback to let us know if we’ve hit the mark, if there’s something else you’d like to see covered or if you disagree with something we’ve written.

publisher@geartechnology.com

Michael Goldstein, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief

P.S.--Please help us by making sure your subscription is up-to-date. You can get Gear Technology absolutely free, no matter where you are (free electronic subscriptions are available anywhere in the world, and we send you an e-mail when a new issue has been uploaded to the website). There’s a subscription card bound in the magazine. Fill it out and send it in, or go to http://www.geartechnology.com/subscribe2.htm (USA/CAN/MEX) or http://www.geartechnology.com/subscribenon.htm (Outside North America)