I would like to welcome all readers to the first issue of this new not-for-profit open access journal: the Leibniz Transactions on Embedded Systems (LITES). Unless you have come across this journal by accident then you will already understand the key role that embedded systems have in modern life. One can hardly think of a single human activity that is not underpinned by such systems; transport, entertainment, supply lines for supermarkets, health care and drug production, energy production and

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... transmission, robotic manufacturing, control systems and communication media of all kinds are now dependent on the fusion of embedded hardware and software. For researchers in this domain this provides great opportunities but also responsibilities. We need to make sure that society can justifiable rely on technology that is increasing beyond the understanding of most ordinary people. Computer-based technologies have been described as modern magic; it follows that we are therefore magicians. But the spells we cast must be based on sound principles, solid theory and demonstrable performance. One of the influences that embedded and other IT technology has had in the last decade is in publishing itself. Online services are now the norm. And early and open access to publicly funded research is now rightly demanded by Government bodies and related funding councils. This new journal has been created to meet this challenge. All papers are open access, with copyright being retained by the authors. Moreover, only a small fee is charged to authors due to low operational overheads and the support of Google and the Klaus Tschira Stiftung. But the lack of a physical page limit in an online-only journal does not mean that quality is undermined. All papers are thoroughly reviewed, with only the best work, in terms of originality and rigour, being accepted. Our aim is to evolve an excellent and effective venue for publish scholarly articles. To help achieve this aim LITES benefits greatly from having the name and reputation of Schloss Dag [...]