Bulletin

Issue: April 2005

News

Professor Duckett edits new health policy journal

The Dean of La Trobe University’s Faculty of Health Sciences, Professor Stephen Duckett, is editor-in-chief of a new online journal Australia and New Zealand Health Policy (ANZHP).

Published by the international online medical publishing company, BioMed Central (BMC), ANZHP is the latest peer reviewed journal to emerge in the world of health policy.

Launched late last year, the journal is aimed at improving interaction between policy practitioners and academics, and promoting debate and understanding about contemporary health policy developments in the region.

Professor Duckett said that although there were other international journals concentrating on health policy, there are no Australian or New Zealand journals with this focus.

‘ANZHP is focused on contemporary critiques and developments, and enables practitioners and academics to track health system and health services reform over time, across policy domains and jurisdictions,’ Professor Duckett said.

The journal is supported by a 19-member international editorial board that includes four other La Trobe Faculty of Health Sciences academic staff members—Dr Heather Gardner, Dr Simon Barraclough, Professor Vivian Lin and Professor Hal Swerissen.

ANZHP is Open Access which means it is freely and universally accessible online, is archived in at least one internationally recognized free access repository, and its authors retain copyright, allowing anyone to reproduce or disseminate articles.

Academics and researchers from member organizations of BMC have the right to publish research articles in journals published by BMC without directly paying any article processing charges. La Trobe University is one of 20 Australian members of BMC, which means its staff has access.

Ten articles have been published already, many by La Trobe University academic staff members.

Professor Duckett is enthusiastic about the future for the journal, and its potential to contribute to health policy debate within Australia and internationally.

‘An online journal has many advantages including speedy publication times and open access making it immediately widely available’, he said.

Further information about ANZHP can be found at www.anzhealthpolicy.com

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