As the JBI’s second full year draws to a close, a series of important changes are taking place behind the scenes. These include new editorial staff, re-constitution of the editorial board, an online system for managing submissions, and a new regular section within the pages of the journal.

Readers will note the addition of four associate editors to our team. We welcome Colin Thomson (Associate Editor, research ethics), Malcolm Parker (Associate Editor, clinical ethics), Rachel Ankeny (Associate Editor, feminist approaches to bioethics) and Samantha Thomas (Associate Editor, book reviews). Cameron Stewart will remain Associate Editor for legal content. John McPhee has resigned from his position as Associate Editor, but he will continue to contribute to our regular New Developments section. We also welcome Bronwen Morrell to the editorial team. She will provide the editors and the editorial board with much-needed administrative assistance. The expanded editorial team brings in new expertise and increased capacity to fulfill the JBI’s main aim: to provide an interdisciplinary forum for contemporary bioethics.

The Editorial Board of the JBI has been reconstituted so there are now two representatives from each of the organisations associated with the journal. The Board now consists of: Donald Evans and Neil Pickering (Otago Bioethics Centre), Paul Komesaroff and Ian Kerridge (Australasian Bioethics Association) and Margaret Otlowski and Thomas Faunce (Australian and New Zealand Institute of Health, Law and Ethics). The editors acknowledge the ongoing commitment of continuing board members, and welcome Drs Otlowski and Faunce to the team. We would also like to thank Andrew Moore who is leaving the team, and who has provided wise counsel over the last 2 years on numerous matters.

The JBI will soon shift to Springer’s online manuscript management system (URL: http://www.editorialmanager.com/jbin/). A trial is currently underway, and we expect to have made the transition by the time this issue is published. The new system will enable management of the peer review process by a larger editorial team, and relieve the editors of much administrative work. The change has prompted interesting discussion and debate about the peer review process itself, some of which may soon be aired in these pages.

This issue also ushers in a new regular section which sets aside space for critical responses to original research that is published in the current issue of the JBI, or in previous issues. Critiques are sent out for review, and authors of the criticised article will be invited to submit a rejoinder. In this issue, Malcolm Parker presents a critique of a recent contribution from health economics [1], and the authors have responded. To readers who are particularly incensed – or perhaps moved, troubled, inspired or outraged – by the articles we publish, we invite you to take up the pen and help us make the journal more dialogic.

This issue contains six original articles. The reader will find a mix of empirical research, theorising, opinion and reflection. This is a fair sample of the variety of submissions the JBI is now receiving. Given that the journal aims to represent the range of discourse and method that constitutes contemporary bioethics, this is surely a promising sign.

We conclude this issue with a disturbing case scenario set in Australia’s hostile and increasingly punitive system of immigration detention. Four respondents to the case reflect on the question of what the role of health care workers should be in settings where – as a direct consequence of state policy – mental health problems are both exacerbated and generated anew among people seeking asylum from war, poverty and oppression. The case for discussion in the next issue concerns the balance between patient safety and cultural security in obstetric care for indigenous women in remote areas of Australia.

Christopher Jordens

Sydney, September 2006

Corrections

In the previous issue (Vol 3 nos. 1–2), the Editors-in-Chief were incorrectly listed as Lynley Anderson and Chris Jordens. They should have been listed as Christopher Jordens and Jing-Bao Nie. Also, Jing-Bao Nie was incorrectly listed as a member of the International Advisory Board.

The title page incorrectly listed the Volume number as “Volume 2, 2006.” This should have been Volume 3, 2006.”