This edition of Journal of Molecular Biology represents the first installment of a special edition on “ribosomes and protein synthesis” to coincide with the EMBO Ribosome Structure and Function Meeting that takes place from July 6-10th in Strasbourg, France, 2016. This meeting is part of a long series of ribosome meetings that have occurred triennially over the past 40 years, with previous meetings being held in Cape Cod, USA (2007), Orvieto, Italy (2010) and most recently in Napa Valley, California, USA (2013). This year, we are happy to announce that the ribosome meeting in Strasbourg will be conducted within the framework of an EMBO conference.