JRSNZ Call for Papers: Special Issue on the future of precision medicine and precision health in New Zealand

We are calling for contributions to a Special Issue that will explore the future of precision medicine and precision health in New Zealand.

Precision approaches to health and medicine promise an equitable 4P medical (Personalised, Preventive, Predictive, and Participatory) healthcare system in which research, health and data technologies and social systems are integrated to more precisely benefit the health of individuals and their whānau. This requires a partnership between active research programmes that underpin the future of precision health in Aotearoa, and well-resourced clinical infrastructure for delivery of precision health today through genetic services and clinical laboratories.

This Special Issue seeks research papers that expand on the topic (e.g. transdisciplinary research, translational research, implementation studies, data analysis, ethics) and enable (leadership, decision-making and governance at all levels) the emerging field of precision medicine, healthcare and hauora.

Submissions of interdisciplinary, national and international collaborative research, critical narrative and systematic reviews, meta-analyses, methodological papers, historical and theoretical manuscripts are invited. Discussions of how personalised care is/may shape the future of healthcare, addressing the history, opportunities, and challenges within New Zealand’s unique context are also encouraged. We especially encourage discussion about the role of Māori and Pacific precision health leadership in the design, governance, and implementation of the future precision healthcare system in Aotearoa.

This Special Issue of the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand will be edited by Prof. Justin O’Sullivan, Prof. Cristin Print (Auckland), Dr Helen Wihongi (Te Whatu Ora & Te Aka Whai Ora), Dr Peter Tsai, and Dr Denis Nyaga (Auckland).

If you’re affiliated with any of the 42 universities in Australia and New Zealand, or a certain range of global institutions, you may publish your articles Open Access at no cost to yourself in the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand.  

General guidelines for manuscripts to be considered for the special issue are as follows:

Your manuscript must be submitted via the JRSNZ portal on ScholarOne. You will need to select the relevant special issue title from the drop-down menu in the submission process. The due date for formal full-text submissions is 31 March 2024. Early submission is encouraged. A robust peer review process will be employed, and your manuscript will only be published if it successfully navigates the review process. 

It is important that your manuscript is prepared according to the JRSNZ Instructions for Authors. Note that JRSNZ has a limit of 5,000 words (excluding references) for original research papers, but longer articles, including review articles may be accepted provided that the case for the greater length should be presented to the guest editors for approval prior to submission. 

The complete reference style formatting can be found in this reference guide. An EndNote output style is also available to assist you. 

Authors are encouraged to post their research data as well as any supplemental files in a suitable repository, such as Figshare or Zenodo. An informative Data Availability Statement bearing links to the deposited data set in the form of a DOI should be included in your main article in this instance. The statement should describe what data are available and accessible. 

Please direct any queries to Prof. Justin O’Sullivan or to the Publishing Team of Royal Society Te Apārangi.