Looking back over the year, one series of events has had a marked impact on the content of volume 55 of the New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics: the sequence of damaging earthquakes in Christchurch and the surrounding area. These events have dominated the journal which has published an editorial (54:2), a preliminary report (55:1) and a special issue (55:3), all focused on reporting on these earthquakes and understanding their causes and impacts. Pilar Villamor and Mark Quigley joined John Townend as guest editors for the special issue, entitled ‘The 2010–2011 Canterbury Earthquake Sequence’. Their efforts in bringing together a timely and broad-ranging assessment of the cause and effects of the earthquakes is to be commended. The journal sees an important role for special issues and the senior editor welcomes proposals for special issues on appropriate topics from members of the research community. The concept of an immediate report documenting what happened in a major geological event is also one that the journal would strongly support, enabling initial information on geological events to be delivered quickly to the community.
The final issue of the journal for 2012 is also an appropriate time to acknowledge and thank the many people that have contributed to the production of the journal during the past year. The associate editors carry out the important task of seeing a manuscript through the editorial process. This would not be possible without the vital input of the scientific reviewers for each paper and I thank them all for their considered and timely responses. The support, help and, sometimes, direction of the Royal Society of New Zealand publishing team has been invaluable. The team has changed during the year and I would like to thank all, past and present. The final part of the process is the copy editing and production which has been very competently carried out by the team at Taylor & Francis (who have been supportive in producing a timely and professional product). Finally, I would like to thank all authors who have submitted their research results to the journal for publication. It is their contributions that set the standards and contribute to the success of the journal.
Several developments occurred during the year. One new associate editor has been engaged: Andrew Gorman from the University of Otago. The journal is now available electronically back to volume 1:1 and the role and handling of supplementary files has been clarified. Surveys indicate that the full text downloads of journal papers have increased dramatically. Looking ahead, we would like to see a steady improvement in our international ranking. This can only be achieved by the publication of quality papers on topics that are of international as well as local, New Zealand, interest. We look forward to receiving interesting high-quality research papers in the future, and also see an important role for review papers on the current status of research in a topical area.