The first meeting of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Asia-Pacific Population Journal, that took place on 4 June at Bangkok, provided endorsement of the long-standing publication prepared by ESCAP with financial support from UNFPA.

“Over the past two decades, the Journal has succeeded in creating a brand name and image for itself”, commented the Board in its meeting report. “The Board highly recommends that the format and style of the Journal be preserved. Like the newly designed Population Headliners, it should be regarded as a successful venture to be replicated”, the report stated.

Composed of leading experts in the field of population and development from the region (see Headliners No. 299), the Board was meeting for the first time ever after being established in early March. It discussed the Journal’s scope and editorial policy and made several recommendations regarding the Journal’s outreach and promotion.

“The uniqueness of the Journal should be preserved in that, although it is not an academic publication, it brings about high quality papers, easily readable and accessible, extensively covering the region”, the Board noted. It suggested that awareness of the Journal’s existence be raised, including its popular website (over 35,000 visitors a month), as well as the new method of subscription to the e-version of the Journal. Among the means to increase such exposure, the Board suggested that outreach be expanded to various organizations and national population associations whose members are likely to be interested in the Journal.

The Board also suggested ways to enhance the Journal, in particular through increased peer-review by experts both inside and outside ESCAP. Members of the Board shared experiences of the impact of the Journal, on highly-placed government officials and politicians and concluded that the Journal represented the best possible form of evidence-based advocacy.

The Board also touched on the rather precarious financial situation of the publication and suggested that the current one-year funding approval made the work and long-term planning for the Journal particularly difficult.

The Asia-Pacific Population Journal is a quarterly publication published since 1986. The Journal’s web site allows users to search through the entire collection of the Journal, and a system of e-alerts has recently been established to provide the most up-to-date access (http://www.unescap.org/index.asp).