Those who are familiar with the two volumes of The Year in Endocrinology may, at first glance, fail to recognize their relationship to the present volume, Contemporary Endocrinology. The name is different and the cover design different, but nonetheless the admonition against judging a book by its cover is very well taken in this instance. In fact, Contemporary Endocrinology is not only the direct linear descendant of The Year in Endocrinology, it is a purposeful clone thereof-the topics are unchanged, the talented group of authors is unchanged, and most importantly, both the objective of the work and the manner in which that objective is approached are unchanged. The objective is, of course, to assist the reader in maintaining currency with respect to important developments, both basic and clinical, in the major areas of endocrinology. We are all much too familiar, unfortunately, with the difficulty of maintaining currency these days. Our approach to dealing with the informational inflation that we are suffering is similar to that used by economists in dealing with monetary inflation, that is, to increase interest. This we have attempted to do by providing for the reader an easy-to-read group of essays in which advances in individual areas of endocrinology are re viewed broadly, synthesized, and placed into perspective by a group of authors who are authorities in their individual fields. They serve, not as guest artists, but as members of a stable Editorial Board that provides continuity by contributing to successive volumes.