Editor

Dr Kate Buchanan

Birds Australia and CSIRO PUBLISHING are delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Kate Buchanan as Editor of Emu.

Kate is a senior lecturer in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at Deakin University, having recently moved to Australia from Cardiff University in the UK. Her research interests are in avian sexual selection and signalling, with a primary focus on the effects of physiological stress on acoustic signalling, but with ongoing interests in the cost of producing visual sexual signals and the endocrine control of begging behaviour. Her most recent research has shown that male starlings dosed with environmentally relevant levels of chemicals known to act as endocrine disrupters sing more and produce more complex songs.

In her new role as Editor of Emu, Kate has stated that in taking on the editorship, she sees an exciting opportunity to build on Emu´s existing strength in publishing high quality science, with the backing of Australian and international ornithologists. Kate will seek to highlight the position of Emu as the premier journal of austral ornithological research. Initially she aims to focus on:

decreasing significantly the handling times of manuscripts,

undertaking a range of measures designed to increase the range and quality of papers published in the journal, and

raising the international profile of the journal through her research networks and the targeted use of media releases.

Kate will be supported in these aims by a new Editorial Board made up of 20 Associate Editors appointed from a broad spectrum of subject areas. The Associate Editors will help Kate in the selection of referees, provide her with recommendations on manuscripts, assist in the development of editorial policy and attract new authors to Emu.