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Information For Authors

Interested in submitting to this journal? We recommend that you review the About the Journal page for the journal's section policies, as well as the Author Guidelines. Authors need to register with the journal prior to submitting or, if already registered, can simply log in and begin the five-step process.

We have three classes of article with expected maximum lengths:

  • Normal article 5000 words
  • Short articles are 2500
  • Media review is 800

Article types or lengths outside this are possible - get in touch with the Editorial Board. There are no costs paid by the author for publication, but voluntary page charges to help offset costs are appreciated.

Full manuscripts (with author’s name removed) will be sent for peer review, and authors will be sent copies of the reviewer’s comments and a decision on publication. 

Articles may be submitted in MS Office Word, rich text format, or plain text. Diagrams and photographs should be on separate files (preferably eps, tif, jpg or png at 300 dpi), not embedded in the text. All tables and illustrations should be numbered separately – Tables 1, 2, 3, 4, etc., and Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. – and be referred to in the text. Footnotes should be eliminated as far as possible. Diagrams and photographs will be printed in black and white, so symbols should be readily distinguishable without colour, and hatching should be used rather than block shading. The online version of an article will be typeset in  full colour.

References should preferably be cited by the author–date (Harvard) system as described in the Lincoln University Press Write Edit Print: Style Manual for Aotearoa New Zealand (1997), which is also used as the standard for other editorial conventions. This system entails citing each author’s surname and the year of publication in the text and an alphabetical listing of all authors cited at the end. Alternative systems may be accepted if used accurately and consistently. Provision of a reference library export in *.bibtex or *.ris format is appreciated. 

*Where an issue is highly contentious or likely to do harm to members of the community the Editorial Board reserves the right to not publish, defer publication or solicit a counter-opinion. See: Nature Editorial “Research must do no harm: new guidance addresses all studies relating to people” Nature, 606, 434 (2022), doi: 10.1038/d41586-022-01607-0

There is no charge for publishing in NZSR although a voluntary Article Processing Charges (APC) option helps support the journal (contact the Editor).