The next chapter for the Australian Journal of Zoology

New team members

We are delighted to introduce ourselves and to share our vision for the Journal in the years ahead. In our new roles, we will work to ensure that the journal grows in its diversity of submissions, strengthens its place in the national and international zoology community and represents a pillar for best practice in science publishing within the evolving publishing landscape.

Laura is an ARC Future Fellow, Associate Professor and Group Leader of the 3Devo Research Group at the Australian National University, Canberra. Laura’s research interests are centered on how the process of development has shaped morphological evolution on different time scales in mammals. She works in the fields of evolutionary biology and biological anthropology, united through the application of statistical shape analysis and 3D modeling of hard and soft tissues to address questions that relate to adaptation, ecology and function.

Christofer is an Associate Professor in Animal Ecophysiology and Group Leader of the Biomechanics and Biorobotics Lab at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. Christofer’s research interests are in the relationship between form, function and ecology of living and extinct animals, focusing on the different ways that biomechanics of movement can limit the pathways available for evolution.

Short history of the journal

The Australian Journal of Zoology has been a cornerstone of zoological research since its establishment in 1953. Published by CSIRO Publishing, it emerged as part of Australia’s post-war effort to develop robust scientific infrastructure. The journal is rooted in the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation’s (CSIRO) mission to advance science in areas of national importance. Over the decades, it has maintained a focus on evolutionary, molecular, and comparative zoology, emphasizing Australasian fauna while welcoming globally relevant studies that advance theoretical and practical zoological knowledge (Shea 2015).

Initially, the journal served as a venue for foundational zoological studies in Australia’s unique ecological contexts, such as the adaptive behaviors and physiology of endemic species. As it evolved, the journal expanded its scope, incorporating cutting-edge techniques like molecular biology and genetics to understand species diversity and conservation challenges. Today, it plays a pivotal role in disseminating research on environmental changes, invasive species, and animal adaptations (e.g. Taylor et al. 2019; Van Dyke et al. 2021).

The Australian Journal of Zoology is recognised for its rigorous peer-review standards and commitment to scholarly excellence. Its integration of modern ecological challenges with traditional zoological studies continues to make it a respected publication in the field.

Recent topics of interest for the journal

The journal’s 2024 publications highlight a blend of applied and theoretical studies focusing on conservation, ecological dynamics, species adaptations, and behavioral biology. Research spans multiple scales, from specific species case studies to overarching ecological patterns, emphasising the journal’s interdisciplinary scope.

For instance, studies on species like the oriental rat snake (Ptyas mucosa) underline the journal’s engagement with global conservation concerns. The research assessed the sustainability of harvesting practices in Asia, finding that the snake’s reproductive biology supports continued population resilience under current exploitation levels (Hamidy et al. 2024). Closer to home, GPS-based tracking of painted button-quail (Turnix varius) in Queensland examined how these birds adapt their habitat use to seasonal variations, offering insights critical for habitat conservation planning (Webster et al. 2024).

The journal also advances tools for biodiversity research, as demonstrated by work on the brown tree frog (Litoria ewingii) complex. Researchers developed a call-based identification key to differentiate cryptic species, aiding in mapping their distributions and informing conservation priorities (Elliott-Tate and Rowley 2024). Meanwhile, studies on koala feeding preferences, which analyzed their selection of eucalypt species, provide actionable data for habitat restoration and management in New South Wales (Lane et al. 2023).

In addition to species-specific research, broader topics like the impact of climate change on animal behavior highlight the journal’s commitment to addressing global ecological challenges. These papers explore how shifts in environmental conditions affect behaviors such as migration and reproduction, contributing to our understanding of climate resilience in wildlife (Dutton-Regester 2023).

By balancing in-depth studies of iconic Australian species with discussions of global ecological patterns, the Australian Journal of Zoology serves as a critical resource for scientists, conservationists, and policymakers. Its publications reflect a commitment to advancing our understanding of biodiversity and finding solutions to pressing ecological challenges.

Emerging areas of research focus in zoology

Within the mature digital landscape afforded by smart phones and machine learning (Jordan and Mitchell 2015), the opportunity to leverage digital platforms for citizen science is well recognised and represents an area of opportunity for zoological research to instigate community-led data collection at scale. The last decade has seen huge growth in citizen science projects, indeed around 50% of data in Australia’s national biodiversity infrastructure are records provided by citizen scientists (Roger et al. 2023). These data are often collected through platforms such as iNaturalist, a free citizen science mobile phone application that is hosted by the California Academy of Sciences and National Geographic Society, that allow people to record their own observations of animals and plants for subsequent verification by experts. The journal has published research that has used citizen science data to track spread of invasive frog species (Rowley and Callaghan 2022), monitor habitat use by bats (Armstrong et al. 2020) and quantify road mortality of turtles (Santori et al. 2018), for example. Citizen science studies presently comprise a relatively small proportion of our publications. We encourage further submissions in this area, where there is significant potential to tackle projects that, for example, undertake threatened species assessments (e.g. FrogID, Elliott-Tate and Rowley 2024) or document temporal changes in species distributions (e.g. Christmas Beetle Count, Invertebrates Australia).

Like several other fields, zoology supports an interdisciplinary perspective of contemporary crises, yielding micro- and macro-scale data that support understanding of ecosystem function and organismal resilience. Many of these data have direct, applied relevance to stakeholders who are monitoring the ongoing impact of human activity on natural habitats. We would like to encourage submissions that tackle conservation, monitoring and management challenges with direct impact for policy. Around 10% of articles published in the journal over the last 4 years were cited by national and international policy documents, contributing data that were incorporated into state government biodiversity assessment guides and monitoring frameworks, as well as restoration project reports. Broadening the journal scope to encourage submission of interdisciplinary research that delivers impact for non-academic stakeholders will allow us to maintain connection with contemporary issues, and to support additional publication types (see below). We anticipate the collection and analysis of large-scale data that support conservation and management decisions will continue to increase, as machine learning approaches continue to revolutionize scientific data workflows. Such advances are already supporting workflows in research synthesis, for example enabling the synthesis of previously inaccessible data types such as experimental data on ecosystem stressors (Orr et al. 2024). Machine learning offers improvements in the efficiency, accuracy and scale with which zoological data can be collected, and may assist with capture of complex information in data types such as sound recordings and high-resolution images (Shen et al. 2022; Wang et al. 2023). Many avenues for real-time and non-invasive wildlife monitoring will be opened by advances in machine learning and the integration of artificial intelligence into zoological research. These advances will, in turn, support predictive models that may integrate data from other disciplines (e.g. climate science) and build novel frameworks for safeguarding biodiversity at different scales.

Publishing formats for the journal

The journal serves the complete spectrum of subject areas within the zoology community, including anatomy, physiology, molecular biology, wildlife monitoring, genetics, reproductive biology, developmental biology, parasitology, morphology, behaviour, ecology, zoogeography, systematics and evolution. At present, several submission categories are offered, comprising the following article types: Original Research, Review, Opus Review, Short Communication and Perspective articles.

Research articles represent a complete report of an original piece of research, best suited for presentation of novel data, whether empirical or theoretical. Review articles offer a concise, critical overview of a subject with constructive discussion and include both taxonomic-focused reviews and those that highlight an area of significant current interest in the field. Perspective articles may be more selective in their treatment of a topic, taking the form of a review that explores significant questions, examines the validity of current views in the field, and/or offers recommendations for further research. Authors may also use Perspective articles to share their personal insights into challenges and advances in the field. Opus Review articles were introduced in 2012 (Cooper 2012), as an avenue for senior zoologist’s to provide retrospective and prospective assessments of their own research fields, and may be used to identify novel avenues for research, or reflect on factors that have shaped the emergence or growth of research agendas. Lastly, Short Communications are intended to provide rapid dissemination of concise material that does not fall within the extensive scope of a Research article, but which provides scientific insights or makes a major contribution to the scientific debate. As the only article type with a word limit, Short Communications are expected to generally not exceed 3000 words and are accompanied by a shorter abstract (50–100 words) and a maximum of three figures.

The vast majority of articles published by the journal to date have been original research articles, a historic trend that likely reflects a long tradition of empirical data collection in zoology. The journal has published comparatively few review and perspective articles (<10%), the latter offering both taxonomic (e.g. Ng and Baker 2013) and field-focused (e.g. Oliver et al. 2014) overviews. We welcome authors to consider additional avenues to disseminate updates in their subject areas through these article types, and will continue to focus efforts on expanding the number of contributions that we publish in these categories. In particular, Reviews and Perspectives offer flexibility of submission length, and the capacity to draw upon interdisciplinary research agendas that may illuminate novel avenues for further work, such as pathways to overcome present limitations or the identification of knowledge gathering strategies that may inform existing ecological or management challenges. Submissions may also, for example, present novel hypotheses inspired by disciplines that interface with zoology. Likewise, we wish to highlight the utility of the Short Communication format for many outputs, and we welcome submissions of compact research outputs that would benefit from rapid publication, such as documented research protocols, novel tools or data sets.

Future plans

The Australian Journal of Zoology maintains a unique position among zoology journals, owing to its regional focus on mostly Australian fauna, though we also publish articles on species or groups that are distributed outside Australia, or that are related to Australian fauna. In this past, this has included, for example, research on widespread species such as the Asiatic toad (Bufo gargarizans) (Pan et al. 2018) and invasive brine shrimp Artemia (Asem et al. 2018), in addition to species with south-east Asian or Pacific distributions, such as skinks (Scincidae) (Chapple et al. 2022), saltwater crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) (Luck et al. 2012), and sea cucumbers (Holothuria scabra) (Fitch et al. 2012). We would like to highlight that the journal also welcomes research that advances understanding of fauna from regions outside Australasia, and we wish to continue to broaden the avenues for submission as we progress in our term. We encourage authors to contact the editorial team to discuss any potential submissions and their fit for the journal. Under this expanded scope, relevant studies may include, but are not limited to, those that yield novel data on behaviour, community ecology, physiology, management or conservation matters for fauna that inhabit environments such as deserts (or others), where analogous climatic conditions are present in Australia. Studies of the monitoring and management of invasive species, where the findings may be relevant for similar issues in Australasia, represent another example of within-scope study.

The journal is presently supported by extensive coverage of Read and Publish agreements, held across 62 institutions (at time of publication), that support Open Access publishing with no additional cost to the authors. From this platform, supplemented by ‘Green’ and ‘Gold’ access options, we are excited about continuing to build capacity that supports open science initiatives. Especially, as synthetic research (meta-analysis) continues to grow, we would like to develop strategies to ensure that the discoverability and usability of research published in the journal is forefront, including suggested pathways for data archiving and adherence with FAIR (Finable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles. Other additions to support community engagement with the research that the journal publishes will include adoption of best practice for metadata recording guidelines and provision of attention metrics for outputs. These initiatives will maximise use of zoological data published by the journal, meet requirements of research funding bodies, and facilitate their integration into future, global interdisciplinary syntheses, whether tackling short- or long-term challenges. Moreover, like many other areas of science, zoology suffers from publication bias and selective reporting, an issue that can be tackled through continued efforts in open science. For the journal, this may involve support for submissions of registered reports in the future.

In tandem with our vision to enhance open science initiatives and encourage submissions within a broader scope, authors have further advances within the broader family of CSIRO Publishing journals to look forward to. Improvements to the submission workflow will enable authors to submit their manuscript formatted ‘any way’, reducing the amount of time devoted to submission guidelines and facilitating a streamlined submission process. Australian Journal of Zoology will also be part of formal pathways for transfer of manuscripts within the CSIRO publishing family, ensuring that submissions are seamlessly directed to the most appropriate venue. Transfer options will enhance exchange between our journal and Wildlife Research.

It is with great joy that we continue to see many early career researchers submit their work to the journal, often capturing outputs from their postgraduate study, just as we know many (now) senior zoologists who also recall having published some of their earliest work in journal. We plan to continue to expand our engagement with early career researchers. As we explore options to sponsor national conferences, symposia and their proceedings. Against a backdrop of tremendous change in zoological research over the last decades, and an extremely competitive and challenging publishing environment, we are aware that we must continue to adapt and offer authors every opportunity to consider the journal for their best research. With our proposed changes, and others to come, we aspire to continue to serve the next generation of researchers in our field, strengthening a community that continues to grow in number and diversity.

In closing, we wish to acknowledge and thank the current and past editorial team, our authors and reviewers, along with publishing staff at CSIRO, for their outstanding contributions to the journal. We look forward to working with you!