The discourse on certification captured in this special section of TAP is an amalgam of fact, opinion, perspective, and vision. When it comes to facts, only one set of numbers, statistics, and percentages can be correct. How one interprets these numbers is clearly a matter of opinion. In an organization as complex as ours, it has proven impossible to get our various authors to agree to a uniform set of numbers relevant to certification. We will note discrepancies with editor notes in the text of the articles. We also refer readers to the numbers on this page, obtained March 17 from Mike Singer, chair of the Committee on Certification.

I want to sneak in a “thank you” here to two people who worked extraordinarily hard to put this special section together: Steve Portuges, TAP's associate editor, who put in untold hours of work on this issue, and Francine Krasowska, our extraordinary manuscript and production editor.