Congressus Numerantium: A new beginning

Congressus Numerantium (CN) is an esteemed international journal with a long history of publishing high-quality papers in combinatorics and related areas. Founded by the late Professor Ralph Gordon Stanton and with its first volume appeared in 1970, CN began with a series of conference proceedings in mathematics, but later it also published regular contributions directly submitted to the journal. In the past over 50 years, a large number of conferences published their proceedings in CN. Among them the first ones include: Southeastern Conference on Combinatorics, Graph Theory, and Computing; Louisiana Conference on Combinatorics, Graph Theory, and Computing; West Coast Conference on Combinatorics, Graph Theory, and Computing; Manitoba Conference on Numerical Mathematics and Computing; British Combinatorial Conference; Canadian Workshop on the Design and Development of Computer Systems; Conference on Algebraic Aspects of Combinatorics; International Conference on ALGOL 68 Implementation; Sundance Conference.

Over the years CN has gained wide recognition in the academic community and is indexed in renowned databases such as Zentralblatt MATH (zbMATH Open) and Mathematical Reviews (MathSciNet). From 1970 to 2019 the journal published 234 volumes, all of which except for the first a few volumes are indexed by zbMATH Open. In MathSciNet, all volumes of CN from volume 28 onwards are listed and all 4,450 papers published in volumes 28–234 are reviewed individually. Together with the papers that appeared in volumes 1–27, it is estimated that about 5,000 refereed papers that jointly cover many aspects of combinatorics have been published in CN since 1970. Despite its subtitle “A Conference Journal on Numerical Themes”, CN has focused on publishing research articles and survey papers in combinatorics and related areas; in fact, among the 4,450 papers in volumes 28–234, 3,247 have primary code 05 (Combinatorics) and 264 have primary code 68 (Computer Science) in 2020 Mathematics Subject Classification. In this regard, CN could be considered as one of the oldest journals in combinatorial mathematics. The recognition and popularity of the journal is evidenced by the fact that many prominent researchers chose to publish their papers in CN, including Paul Erdős who published 28 papers in CN during 1980–1998. And the wide and long-lasting influence of the journal is attested by its large citation counts: at the time of writing, 8,781 citations to CN papers from 6,885 publications are recorded in the MathSciNet citation database.

I am pleased to inform that, after a pause in four years from 2020 to 2023, CN embarked on a transformative journey in 2024, reemerging in both print and online formats published by Combinatorial Press. It is a great privilege for me to accept the appointment to serve as Editor-in-Chief of CN in a new beginning of this well-recognized journal. I take this position as a service to the community of combinatorics. As the first step towards reviving this historical journal, we have built a strong Editorial Board which consists of 17 prominent researchers whose collective expertise covers a broad area of combinatorics. It is notable that many members of the board bring a wealth of experience in editing mathematics journals. I would like to explicitly acknowledge all members of the CN Editorial Board for their enthusiastic support to the journal and voluntary service to the community. The strength of our Editorial Board provides a guarantee of high standards of the journal.

It is our aspiration to enhance the quality of CN in years to come, aiming for an even better journal with upgraded standing and visibility in the community. Of course, the realization of this goal depends on the high-quality research published in the journal in a timely fashion. To this end, on behalf of the Editorial Board, I would like to extend my warm invitation to researchers in the broad field of combinatorics to consider submitting your papers to CN. Both original research articles and survey papers are welcome, and significant contributions to either pure or applied aspects of combinatorics will be considered. The scope of CN embraces all areas of combinatorics, including graph theory, algebraic graph theory, enumerative combinatorics, extremal combinatorics, design theory, coding theory, combinatorial number theory, to mention only a few. As mentioned above, CN published special issues for many conferences since its inception. We will carry on this tradition in future. In addition to regular papers, conferences and workshops in combinatorics and related areas are welcome to publish special issues in CN. Special issues on themes of current interest to the community of combinatorics are also welcome. I am confident that, with support from our authors, referees, readers and editors, CN will continue to be an important forum for communicating high-quality research in the broad field of combinatorics.

Sanming Zhou

Editor-in-Chief, Congressus Numerantium

The University of Melbourne, Australia