New Zealand Science Review

That's the name of the 'official journal' of the New Zealand Association of Scientists. I have not looked for the unofficial journal yet, but that might be interesting too.

Journal byline: 'a forum for the exchange of views on science and science policy'

The association is an independent organisation, and members come from:

• universities
• technical institutes
• Crown research institutes
• government departments
• industry
• museums
• other science institutions
• independent researchers
• physical, natural, mathematical, and social sciences

As an organisation, NZAS works to:

• promote science for the good of all New Zealanders
• increase public awareness of science
• debate and influence government science policy
• promote free exchange of knowledge
• advance international co-operation
• encourage excellence in science

The journal is published twice a year and is part of what you receive (as a print edition) in return for your membership fee, which is less than $100 per year for all categories of human except 'corporate'.

I joined recently, and received my first copy of the journal in Osaka: Vol. 69, Issue 1, 2012. Its a fairly slim issue, despite the fairly wide range of subjects and article styles that the journal accepts. These include:

• science and technology in their broadest sense
• impacts of the above on society and environment, favourable and adverse
• science education
• science planning
• freedom of information
• full papers
• short contributions
• reports on new developments and conferences
• reviews of books

The target audience includes:

• all scientists
• all decision makers
• the interested public

Manuscripts (of any sort) should not exceed 2500 words, and the anonymous review system seems to aimed at a double blind approach: the author should not know who the reviewer is, and the reviewer should not know who the author is.

At submission, author names and the acknowledgments section should be separated from the text, so that the latter can be sent to the reviewers separately.

This is the first journal I know using this approach.

New Zealand is a small country, so I guess the aim is to let reviewers see papers without being biased too much from their personal knowledge of the contributors... who are quite likely to be known to them.

The current issue consists mainly of biographies of various kinds, and a press release entitled 'Super-ministry not good for health or the environment'. The articles are all well-written. I would like to see 'science communication' as a recognised topic in the journal topics list. This subject - which is the central concern of our Research Cooperative - goes beyond science education, and is relevant to all areas of science and science policy.