New Zealand Medical Student Journal
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    • NZMSJ Team >
      • Editorial Board
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  • Launch Event May 2018
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    • Issue 27
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    • Issue 23
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History

​The NZMSJ was established by a group of Otago medical students completing studentships in Dunedin over the summer of 2002-2003. They identified the need for students to gain experience in publishing their findings of their own original research, including that which would not necessarily be considered by the established medical journals. This group formed a small editorial board, and, under the leadership of Ayesha Verrall, secured funding through a University of Otago grant for $20,000, which when supplemented by a modest advertising income, allowed them to produce the first issue of the journal in March 2004. A launch function was held in Dunedin and attended by the then Health Minister, Annette King, who agreed to fund a second issue, which was published a year later in March 2005. Access Annette King's NZMSJ launch speech here. A further issue followed in October as the journal made the landmark shift to biannual publication.
 
The core ethos of the journal, as solidified at a strategic planning meeting during the journal’s expansive phase in 2005, is threefold:
 
            1. To support medical student professional development
            2. To be a forum for opinions and discussion
            3. To publish the educational writing of medical students 
 
2006 was another watershed year for the journal as many of the initial executive members moved on to Otago’s satellite clinical schools in Wellington and Christchurch and for the first time an effort was made to recruit students from Auckland.

The journal underwent another phase of development in 2010. A formal constitution was written and the ‘NZ Medical Student Journal Society’ was registered with the Charities Commission. The journal also began to publish regular themed issues and invited commentary from guest editors. The first of these new themed issues, which coincided with the NZMSA’s annual conference in 2010, was the inaugural winner of the NZMSA’s Award for the Best New Student Initiative in 2010. The award was given in recognition of the excellent contributions the NZMSJ has made in furthering and promoting medical student research in New Zealand.
 
The journal structure and operation underwent significant change again in 2011. The ‘Executive Committee’ was restructured to separate the ‘Editorial’ and ‘Commercial’ functions. The former ‘Academic Editorial Board’ and ‘Features Editorial Board’ were merged to enable student reviewers (formerly ‘Editors’) to review a range of articles, not just academic or feature articles in isolation. Names of the leadership roles and positions within the new executive were changed so that they were consistent with the titles and roles used in publishing. With the creation of the Academic Editor and Feature Editor roles, Sub-Editor roles were created to support the section editors; namely in distributing the workload and provide training for potential succession. The role of Deputy Editor was also developed for the same reason
 
The then Editor, Benson Chen, also began negotiations with the New Zealand Medical Association to increase cooperation between the student journal and the ‘parent’ journal, the New Zealand Medical Journal. The journal’s finances were in fairly poor shape, as many of the regular advertisers had pulled out during the economic recession, and the journal itself had to change printers and undertake design work in-house to minimise costs. An agreement was struck with the NZMA through the advertising manager for the NZMJ and the Chief Executive of the NZMA, with the plan for NZMJ and NZMSJ’s advertising to be handled together. Additionally an informal agreement was established which allowed the NZMSJ to republish work published in the NZMJ.
 
In 2012, Mariam Parwaiz consolidated some of the work that Benson Chen had started.  The main focus was to improve the finances of the Journal and financial support from NZMA (Volvo), the Universities of Otago and Auckland, and MAS helped ensure the Journal was able to cover all costs of production.  Joyce Hipolito, a design student from the University of Auckland, was recruited to help with the design of the Journal.  This is an area we have struggled with in recent times.

Past Issues

Year
Issue
Theme
Editor-in-Chief
​2004, March
1
-
Ayesha Verrall
​2005, March
2
-
Ajay Sud
2005, October
3
-
​Rosemary Wyber
2006, May​
4
-
John Scotter
​2006, October
5
-
John Scotter
​2007, October
6
-
​Brian Grainger
2008, ​March
7
-
​Brian Grainger
2008, July
8
Rural
​Brian Grainger
2009, May​
9
-
​Sophie Parker
2009, October
10
-
​Sophie Parker
​2010, May
11
Wellbeing
Benson Chen
​2010, October
12
Medical Student Selection
​Benson Chen
​2011, July
13
Disaster Medicine/Global Health
​Benson Chen
​2011, November
14
Election Year Special
​Benson Chen
​2012, July
15
Professionalism
​Mariam Parwaiz
​2012, November
16
Medical Humanities
​Mariam Parwaiz
2013, May
17
Voluntourism
Amelia Shin​
2014, September
18/19
10 Year Anniversary Issue
Ammar Alsamarra'i
2015, May
20
Medical Student Consent
Ahmed Abdile
2015, September
21
​Bullying & Harassment
​Ahmed Abdile
2016, July
22
-
Ahmed Abdile
2016, November
23
Resident strikes
​Ahmed Abdile
2017, June
24
Waikato Medical School
Cheyaanthan Haran
2017, November
25
Academic Clinician
Cheyaanthan Haran
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© 2017 The New Zealand Medical Student Journal Society.
ISSN: 1179-3597 (online) | 1176-5178 (print)
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New Zealand Medical Student Journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

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NZMSJ Editorial Office
​c/- Medical Education Group
Dunedin School of Medicine
PO Box 56
Dunedin 9054
New Zealand
Picture
  • About
    • Aims
    • NZMSJ Team >
      • Editorial Board
      • Advisory Board
      • Expert Reviewers
      • Student Reviewers
    • Peer-Review
    • Indexing and ISSN
    • History
  • Launch Event May 2018
  • All Issues
    • Issue 27
    • Issue 26
    • Issue 25
    • Issue 24
    • Issue 23
    • Issue 22
    • Issue 21
    • Issue 20
    • More...
  • For Authors
    • General Information
    • Format & Style
    • Ethical Considerations
    • How to submit my Manuscript
  • Get Involved
  • Contact Us