JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING Editorial On the ‘Fabric’ of Our Global Science Education Research Community: The Art and Science of Writing for the Journal of Research in Science Teaching Fouad Abd-El-Khalick 1 and Dana L. Zeidler 2 1 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois 2 University of South Florida–Tampa Bay, Tampa, Florida This is the inaugural issue for our editorial team. Its publication is by no means an extraordinary event. Far from it, this issue is simply one more signpost along the journey of JRST , now celebrating its 53 rd birthday, and an embodiment of the unwavering commitment of our organization, journal, and community to improve science teaching and learning for all, through research. The uninterrupted nature of this journey will be manifest in the publication of a substantial number of manuscripts accepted under the outgoing editorial team in this issue and several JRST issues to come. Nonetheless, having now handled JRST submissions and peer review for a full calendar year, we find this an opportune time to share some emergent and significant matters that intertwine with the consequences of the NARST and JRST intentional and strategic move of going ‘global.’ Given the nature of the scientific enterprise and the ubiquity of science in modern society, culture, and economy—especially with the advent of “big science” following the Second World War—the science education community has been global in character and practice for several decades now. Yet, in 2011, NARSTofficially embraced the global nature of our community by adopting the title of “AWorldwide Organization for Improving Science Teaching and Learning through Research” in lieu of the previous, “National Association for Research in Science Teaching.” The data for JRST submissions speak to the wisdom of this decision and its synergy with our community. In the first three quarters (January 1–September 30) of 2006—the year JRST switched to electronic submissions through the ScholarOne Manuscripts TM system that has allowed the retention and analysis of historical data—about 65% of all JRST submissions were US-based, while 35% were non-US based, coming from 30 countries. A short decade later, the same 9-month period of 2015 featured the substantial increase of non-US submissions to about 47% (a 57% increase in percentage of non-US submissions), coming from 44 different countries (a 46% increase in the number of submitting countries). No doubt, JRST now speaks, more than ever, for the global science education community. This shift has surely brought numerous benefits to science teaching and learning, by fostering a global dialogue around issues of significance to science education. This dialogue serves to show, Correspondence to: F. Abd-El-Khalick; E-mail: fouad@illinois.edu or D. L. Zeidler; E-mail: Zeidler@usf.edu DOI 10.1002/tea.21307 Publishedonline in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). # 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.