Editorial

Abstract

It is a great pleasure for us to take over the editorship of the Australian Journal of International Affairs (AJIA) and to have the opportunity to express public thanks to the outgoing editor-in-chief, Professor Nick Bisley. His work in making the AJIA the pre-eminent outlet for the best research and analysis of Australia’s foreign policy and the international relations of our region is well known to members of the Australian Institute of International Affairs, the academic community, and policymakers in Canberra and beyond. A cursory glance at the metrics, of course, bears this out. Under Nick, the numbers of readers and citations of AJIA articles have both increased. So too have submissions. The all-important impact factor has also gone up, and the turnaround time for decisions has gone down. But these figures do not tell the full story. Those who have worked with Nick over the past few years, as a member of the editorial board, as an author or as a reviewer, will know he has also brought to AJIA just the right mix of judiciousness and good humour that running a journal demands.