Preface：

National Ilan University (NIU), which celebrated its 85th anniversary in 2011, is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in Taiwan. Founded on May 12, 1926, Taiwan Provincial Ilan School of Agriculture and Forestry was a five-year school providing two areas of study: agronomy and forestry. Since its inception, the school has undergone a number of changes due to changes in social and political environments. More recently, after years of preparation and repeated calls by school administration, the local government and its people, the school has evolved from a five-year junior college (National Ilan Institute of Agriculture and Technology) to a polytechnic college (National Ilan Institute of Technology), and now a comprehensive university (since 2003) offering BA, BS, MA, MS and PhD degrees in four schools. In the spirit of the university motto of studying diligently, practicing with earnestness, respect for professionalism and being gregarious, NIU strives to nurture and develop students' potential in research and academics, raise students' appreciation of culture, serve the society, and contribute to national development. NIU should also adhere to several national expected ideas. These ideas are: (1) to assume the responsibilities of a national university in accordance with the government’s policies; (2) to utilize local resources to undertake planning for departments and institutes with distinguishing features; (3) to strive for scientific and technological research so as to promote overall construction of the Yilan region; (4) to solidify various disciplines on campus to cultivate people of talent with international perspective; and (5) to enrich extension education for the purpose of enhancing quality of life and hastening the overall development of NIU. After years’ painstaking efforts, a relatively sound foundation has been laid by NIU in terms of campus transformation and university administration, teaching and academic research, training of local people of scientific and technological talent, and assistance and guidance given to speed up the growth of small-scale and medium-sized enterprises.

In addition, in order to render assistance to the development of local industries and to coordinate with the Executive Yuan’s policy of accelerating the development of industries in the Yilan region, NIU has founded the Incubation Center for Innovation especially for Biotechnology. It has also started to make plans for collaborating closely with the future NSC Yilan Science Park by discussing and approving of several coordinating measures in Meetings on University Administration. According to the plan for Yilan Science Park, after attracting information software industries and biotechnological industries, NIU is responsible for providing them with such supports as assistance and guidance concerning scientific and technological research and development, planning for enterprise development, training of professional talents, introduction and exchange of technologies, and related information from books and periodicals.

Of all the tasks undertaken by information software industries, to provide perfect technological exchange as well as guidance and assistance regarding research and development plays a pivotal role in achieving the whole plan. Consequently, NIU has speedily completed basic construction of high-speed information campus network, become the Yilan regional center (GigaPoP) of MOE TANet (Taiwan Academic Network) and NSC TWAREN (Taiwan Advanced Research and Education Network) , enhanced research and teaching capabilities of the College of Computer Science, and cultivated numerous talented people with sophisticated technological skills. NIU has also been in charge of the publication of Journal of Internet Technology (JIT) since 2012. The Journal has already proved itself as an international recognized periodical where new knowledge of information, communications, and network can be published and where industries and academic community can exchange their ideas.

Since JIT’s initial publication 13 years ago, the Journal has already contributed greatly to uplifting technology of network communications, helping promote the development of information software industry, laying the ICT foundation for Taiwan. The journal has been indexed in SCIE since 2008 and its 2011 impact factor is 0.448 but NIU knows that there is no time for complacence. In the future, JIT must still work harder, strive to make continuous progress on impact factor, try to promote its international attention, and seek perfection in both quality and quantity of the content of the Journal. Only by doing so, JIT can not only last for another 13 years or more but also set up as a soundly and perfectly Taiwanese technical journal model.