Each year a call for journal papers is made which are to be presented at the annual conference in the form of an invite to submit an abstract for consideration. The NZSAP committee consider the appropriateness of the abstracts based on scientific merit and relevance to the Journal. If the abstract is accepted you will be invited to submit a paper by a given deadline.

Once abstracts are accepted and journal manuscripts are prepared all editorial correspondence should be addressed to editornzsap@gmail.com. Sharon Woodward is the Journal editor and is supported in this role by an assistant editor. The editor makes final decisions on the publication or rejection of papers, and organises the setting and printing of the Journal.

Upon their receipt, submitted papers will be quickly assessed for suitability by nominated committee members. If initially considered broadly acceptable, each paper will be forwarded to the editor and two reviewers, if unacceptable for peer-review it will be returned to authors for initial revision. If you have not formatted it for NZJAPS, included unjustified opinions, or failed to obey requirement for length, tables, figures and citations, it will be rejected, or returned to you for correction.

Authors are requested to suggest suitable independent reviewers at the time of abstract submission. Ideally these people will be employed outside your department or institution and will, of course, be expert, or at least well-versed, in the topic of your paper. Append the names and contact details of three or more potential reviewers to your abstract. These may or may not be used, at the discretion of the committee.

You will receive anonymous reports from each reviewer and the marked-up document from the editor. If the reviewers recommend rejection of your paper, you will be advised by the editor. If publication of your paper is recommended, you are expected to make all corrections required by the editor and reviewers, and/or to explain to the editor in writing if you disagree with any such expected corrections.

When your corrected typescript is submitted, it will be sent to our setter. The resultant “galley proofs” will be sent to you in PDF form and you can make final corrections on the hard copy. At this stage, only minor or critical changes should be made, such as data corrections, updating “in press” citations, or correcting names of authors. Extensive content-related revisions initiated by authors at this stage are not encouraged. In addition, there is only one more check by the editor (the final read though), therefore any errors that are not corrected may, unfortunately, be published. The corresponding author is expected to check with all the co-authors for their approval on any changes. There is a document regarding copyright that you must submit along with your final corrections. Failure to meet any of the requirements or deadlines may result in your paper not being published. 

Instructions for authors can be found here: Instructions for Authors