Strategic changes to the New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics (NZJGG)

Several changes will become apparent to readers of the New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics (NZJGG) through the course of 2024. Firstly, an Early-Career Editorial Board has been created. This comprises researchers within five years of their PhD and is intended to provide New Zealand’s next research generation with an early opportunity to become familiar with the journal via handling articles, reviewing papers and leading special issues. Secondly, the size of the Editorial Board will double due to a suite of Pacific Rim-associated researchers coming onboard. This expansion will result in an editorial team with of approximately 40, of which about 20 will be from New Zealand universities and research institutes. Many of the new editors are based outside of New Zealand but have a research focus that includes the Pacific Rim, Southern Ocean and/or Antarctica. Their addition ensures that NZJGG’s geographical appeal is appropriately represented.

Why are these changes taking place?

This is a strategic vision for the future of the journal. NZJGG has a 2023 Clarivate Analytics Impact Factor of 2.2 (2023 Scopus CiteScore of 4.3), ranking it now in the Q1 category of geology (quartile 1 of 4, with 1 being the highest). Taylor & Francis currently offers, via an agreement with the Council of Australian University Libraries, free Open Access to NZJGG articles with corresponding authors affiliated with any of the 42 universities in Australia and New Zealand university, as well as an increasing range of global institutions. While these properties would seem to make NZJGG an attractive place to publish, the journal has not experienced an increase in manuscript submissions from New Zealand-based researchers in the last several years. This is in part based on a period in which many geoscience departments in New Zealand have faced job losses and restructuring but also is due to the increasing number of competitive high-impact international journals seeking contributions. However, it should be noted that there has exceptional local and global uptake of some NZJGG papers (special mention to the most cited paper, by Hopkins et al. (2021) on the Auckland Volcanic Field, with >45 citations in Scopus already at the time of writing). However, NZJGG needs to ensure that it maintains a healthy pipeline through attracting high-quality and broad interest research papers. Therefore, the purpose of the editorial changes is to leverage the current successful position to increase its international profile.

Ambitions and new strategic directions

While the journal title will remain the same, the editorial board changes will result in content that progressively evolves towards NZJGG’s long-stated goal: that is, being a Pacific Rim, Southern Ocean and Antarctica-oriented geoscience journal. These changes will become more visible in the coming years as we first work through the pipeline of New Zealand-focused research papers. However, with papers accepted in 2023 from authors working in New Caledonia (Le Bayon et al., in press; Maurizot et al., in press), on Lord Howe Island (Williams and Jones 2024), and in Antarctica (dos Santos et al., in press; Elliot 2024), the internationalisation of NZJGG is already in progress. Although we now seek to broaden this regional distribution, contributions from the New Zealand community will remain the essential backbone of the journal. In this context, it is worth noting the recent, globally significant work of Hayward et al. (in press) documenting the occurrence of one of New Zealand’s most incredible and diverse marine fossil suites, and Seebeck et al. (in press) for the presentation of a New Zealand community fault model.

NZJGG publications accepted in 2022–2023 that are online (but not yet assigned to an issue due to the page budget) also highlight the very wide array of aspects of New Zealand geoscience that the journal will consider. This varies from topics such as the 2021 tsunami generated by an earthquake near Raoul Island (Roger, in press), to the geological controls on saline salt formation (Craw et al., in press), to the mantle under central Zealandia (Bonnington et al., in press). There are too many good papers to mention here, but I take this opportunity to state that NZJGG is striving to be a multi-disciplinary geoscience journal. In addition, authors are now being encouraged to consider increasing the appeal of their publications to a more international audience, and the Associate Editors will help them to achieve this. While the journal content has become broader in scope, the rejection of papers before being sent out for review has also increased as we attempt to maintain high editorial standards, minimise the effort for the reviewers, and consider only those publications that fit (the admittedly wide) journal scope. NZJGG’s point of difference with other journals is that publications should be of relevance to the Pacific Rim-Southern Ocean-Antarctica area.

Vibrant Special Issue programme

A flow on effect of the changes will be that there will be more Special Issues. The Sedimentary Systems of the Hikurangi Margin Special Issue (Part 2), being compiled by an international team led by Associate Editor Lorna Strachan, will be published in 2024, and two more special issues have begun to be assembled: Geothermal systems around the Southern Circum-Pacific: Geology, energy resources, and exploration, with the editorial team being led by Associate Editors Gabor Kereszturi and Isabelle Chambefort, and Rainfall-induced landscape change in the SW Pacific: landslides, floods, and multi-hazard inter-relationships being led by Associate Editors Martin Brook and Arishma Ram. These are already drawing papers from inside and outside New Zealand.

Conclusion

The Editorial Board changes will mark the largest shift in NZJGG direction in decades and are intended to result in the journal having an enhanced international profile. The content will retain its New Zealand roots, but the journal is anticipated to now be able to achieve the long-stated goal of being relevant to the Pacific Rim-Southern Ocean-Antarctica. I thank the Associate Editors and reviewers who handled and reviewed papers in 2023 and, of course, the people who chose to publish with the journal. Furthermore, the journal rides on the hard work of Fei He and Ashleigh Hume in managing the production, who I acknowledge with many thanks.