Guest Editorial

This issue of Laser and Particle Beams contains a selection of papers presented at the International Workshop on Laser and Plasma Accelerators held at Portovenere, Italy, from September 29 to October 3, 2003. The papers were subjected to the regular refereeing procedure, in conformity with the publication standards concerning originality and quality of presentation for articles in this journal. The papers published here do not cover the full workshop program and therefore do not constitute proceedings in the normal sense. The Workshop was the last in a series sponsored by the International Committee for Future Accelerators to promote international collaboration in the study, development, and exploitation of advanced and novel accelerators