We have now almost completed our third year as editors – which will be our last full year as we will be handing over to new editors at some point in 2017. As observant readers will note, we have had a slight change of editorial team. Carina Girvan joined the new editorial team of BJET (the British Journal of Educational Technology), which is also in the BERA portfolio. In her place, we have been lucky enough to be joined by two colleagues – William Baker (a sociologist of education whose work focuses broadly on educational inequality, culture, social class and aspirations) and Peter Hemming (a sociologist and human geographer with interests in schooling, faith-based education, childhood/youth, identity and citizenship and qualitative research methods).

We have really enjoyed editing BERJ – it gives a wonderful opportunity to appreciate and shape (albeit in a small way) the wide field of educational research. We continue to be impressed by the scholarship and imagination of many of the articles submitted and hope we have provided you with an interesting diet. We have tried to ensure that we have included a spectrum of excellent research which covers different phases (from pre-school to higher and adult education), different disciplines and methodological approaches. We also try to ensure that every article speaks to issues that are of international concern.

One of the issues that is facing the educational research community is the ongoing debate about the ‘usefulness’ of our research for policy-makers and practitioners. Last year's volume of BERJ concluded with Professor Gemma Moss's excellent BERA Presidential Address. Through a compelling analysis of the development of literacy policy in England, she maps out the complex terrain of the ‘knowledge landscape’. She argues that we need to find more profitable ways of working across the current division of labour epitomised by the policy-research-practice relationship – but in ways which do not compromise the complexity of the research process and research findings.

We believe that BERJ (and BERA) has an important role to play in contributing to debates in this areas – and are confident that the research we disseminate in this Journal is both complex and ?useful'. As the following sections outlines, BERJ continues to increase its influence and reach.