The Australian Meteorological Magazine has become the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Journal from the first 2009 issue. The new name reinforces the publication’s status as the major avenue for peer-reviewed publications in the field in Australia, and for the Southern Hemisphere more generally; we also expect that it will make the publication more attractive for oceanographic papers. We hope to continue to build on the 57 years of history of the Australian Meteorological Magazine and publish a journal which is attractive both to readers and to authors.

There are a number of other changes which are taking place in conjunction with the name change. The most immediately visible is that the format has changed to A4. The main effect of this will be to allow figures to be printed at a larger size; legibility of figures has sometimes been a problem in this publication (although less so since colour publication became the norm) and it is hoped that the increased size will address this.

New papers have been published online since March 2006. Within the next few weeks, we expect that the website will have been completely rebuilt, and will include all back issues back to 1952. As well as making it easier for local readers to access older papers, this will make the journal more accessible to readers outside Australia, thus increasing the visibility (and hopefully citation) of those papers which have already been published. We expect that the website will be accessible through either www.bom.gov.au/amm or www.bom.gov.au/amoj (although the latter is not yet running at the time of writing).

The structure of the editorial board will also be changing. Historically, the Editor-in-Chief of the publication has been the Chief Scientist of the Bureau of Meteorology. With the establishment of the joint Bureau-CSIRO Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research, that position no longer exists, and it has been decided to appoint an Editor-in-Chief as an individual rather than as an ex officio

position. Expressions of interest for this position are sought (see advertisement under the section NEWS). There will also be a policy reference group for the publication on which the Editor-in-Chief and Editor will be joined by representatives from the Journal’s publisher, the Bureau of Meteorology, and its co-sponsor, the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society.

Blair Trewin

Editor