New Developments Ageing Research Online (ARO) For over 20 years, the Australasian Journal on Ageing’s objective has been to inform professionals on ageing issues, providing a balance of research papers, opinion articles, professional practice updates, innovations in aged care and book reviews. Since its inception as a modest soft cover in-house production of COTA National Seniors Partnership (formerly Council on the Ageing (Australia)), it has developed in a variety of ways- a more stylish publication, substantially thicker issues, the bringing o n board of the partner organisations (Aged and Community Services Australia, the Australian Association of Gerontology, the Australian Society for Geriatric Medicine) and an Associate Partner (Alzheimer’s Australia), the extension of the geographic focus reflected in the name change to the Australasian Journal on Ageing, and the creation of a journal web-site. As we move further into the electronic age, the Journal itself is going to electronic as well as paper-based copy - but more of that in the March edition.

As the content and reach of the journal grows, the amount of work required of the editorial team inevitably grows as well. Earlier this year, we advertised an additional position of Associate Editor with the explicit aim of distributing the workload and thus speeding the progress of manuscripts through the editorial system. The Management Committee has asked me to announce the result, arid I do so with great pleasure. The position will be filled by Prof. Len Gray and Prof. Helen Bartlett from Queensland University, who, in keeping with the modern era of flexibility in the workplace, proposed to us a joint candidature as a job-share arrangement.

Another substantial innovation worthy of note by journal readers was the launch in September by the then Minister for Ageing, Kevin Andrews MP of Ageing Research Online (or ARO). The ARO is an interactive web-based directory of ageing research activity in Australia and as such, is an innovative companion tool which I would commend to the attention of AJA subscribers.

Since 1984, with the financial support of the Australian Government., Australian ageing researchers have had access to the Australian Ageing Research Directory. In all, six paper based editions of the Directory have been produced, providing an indexed listing of ageing-related research projects being undertaken in Australia. The most recent version, published in 2000, included information on 731 research projects spanning 379 research organisations and 1,192 different principal or

co-researchers. The work involved in putting together this volume was huge and the result, while a good reference text, was somewhat awkward to search and was quickly out-of-date. As a result, the Office for an Ageing Australia elected to move to a more user-friendly online directory. The project was conducted under the auspices of the Building Ageing Research Capacity (BARC) Project, a collaborative project between the Australian Government’s Office for an Ageing Australia and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

Ageing Research Online is information architecture; the content of the ARO is, however, largely determined by its members - comprising people who have registered with the ARO as being active in the ageing research field. Beneath the user-interface - an easy to use search engine - lies a large database of ageing research projects, courses of education and grants and awards related to ageing.

All users including the general public can search the material in the database to find out by whom and where research on dementia is being carried out, what courses on gero-psychology are available in Australia, or what grants might be available for post-graduate aged care nursing research.

Registered members are able to develop a personal profile and load and edit information on their own research activities, thus establishing a national research profile for others to read and search. This is the essence of the ARO - you can enter your own material into the Directory at any time thereby updating your national research profile, and at the same time check the site for your colleagues’ recent activities, or for other researchers working in a field of particular interest whom you d o not (as yet) know. The ARO is a significant step toward facilitating the visibility of and potential for communication and collaboration benveen researchers. The responsibility for keeping your information up-to-date lies with you- but the payoff is a database that is always current and relevant, easily searchable, and where you can quickly email a researcher with whom you wish to exchange information.

I strongly encourage you to populate, promote and make use of the ARO. Visit http:Nwww.aro.gov.au

Regards and best wishes for 2004 to all.

Diane Gibson Editor

7 70 Australasian Journal on Ageing, Vol22 No 4 December 2003