Dear all, A very warm welcome to the first issue of Medical Writing in 2015! This whole issue is dedicated to a subject very close to my heart (as I'm sure you're all well aware of by now) – plain language. Naturally, everyone benefits from text that is clearly constructed and easy to understand. But if English is not your first language, or your general literacy level is not too high, or you're elderly and perhaps in the first stages of a neurodegenerative disease, or you're frightened by anything ‘medical’, or you've just been told some devastating news by a doctor, or one of many, many other reasons…….clear text and clear messaging are not just ‘nice to have' – they are crucial, and can literally be the difference between life and death.