The mission of the Journal of Nonlinear Science is to publish papers that augment the fundamental ways we describe model and predict nonlinear phenomena. Papers should make an original contribution to at least one technical area and should in addition illuminate issues beyond that area's boundaries. Even excellent papers in a narrow field of interest are not appropriate for the journal. Papers can be oriented toward theory experimentation algorithms numerical simulations or applications as long as the work is creative and sound. Excessively theoretical work in which the application to natural phenomena is not apparent (at least through similar techniques) or in which the development of fundamental methodologies is not present is probably not appropriate. In turn papers oriented toward experimentation numerical simulations or applications must not simply report results without an indication of what a theoretical explanation might be.