About the Journal

Focus And Scope

From 2024, Rangahau Aranga will publish three issues annually, forming one complete volume per year. The three issues will be a themed issue, a methodology issue and a third issue of abstracts from AUT’s postgraduate research forum. 

Themed issues will be cross-disciplinary, focusing on a theme or issue relevant to our communities. The Rangahau Aranga team will work alongside faculty members who will provide guidance and advice. 

Methodology issues will invite submissions on the research approach, not conclusions. We believe this will be a valuable resource for students to widen their knowledge and understandings of different research methodologies. 

AUT’s Graduate Research School will share the peer reviewed abstracts from that year’s postgraduate research forum. Publication is optional for students. 

Submissions include research articles, research summaries, abstracts relating to existing or forthcoming theses and dissertations, editorials, reviews, commentary, and creative writing. 

Equity, Diversity And Inclusion 

Rangahau Aranga is supported by a diverse group of postgraduate student editors with emerging insight of scholarly and cultural expertise. The editors are particularly dedicated to supporting and encouraging new scholarship through detailed, and constructive refereeing. We are committed to publishing work that supports efforts to transform institutions and inspires students to actively contribute to a collective voice which is reflective of an equitable, diverse and inclusive scholarly culture.

The Name Of The Journal - Rangahau Aranga

The Māori words Rangahau (from the verb to seek or search and the noun research) Aranga (from the verb to emerge, ensue or arise) speak to the emerging and arising voices in our academic community. The naming of this journal was agreed through a consensual process of kōrero (or conversation and consultation) with the AUT Library Māori Engagement Group and the Office of Māori Advancement.

In honouring the words, Rangahau Aranga seeks to centre hitherto marginalised, less visible postgraduate researchers. Submissions from Māori and Pacific postgraduate academics are particularly welcomed. The journal will enable those at the beginning of their publication journey a unique, supportive opportunity to develop new skills, hone their academic writing skills and add to their profiles with citable, quality publication credits.  

Open Access

Rangahau Aranga is a fully open access journal with content shared under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.  Rangahau Aranga does not charge any fees for submission, publication or access to articles. Authors retain full copyright over their articles.

Although Rangahau Aranga is fully open access, authors may share pre-print and post-print versions at any time. Rangahau Aranga considers papers posted as preprints prior to submission.

Where appropriate, the journal will utilise the Local Contexts labels for indigenous research. 

Publication Frequency And Submissions 

From 2024, Rangahau Aranga will publish three issues annually, forming one complete volume per year. The three issues will be a themed issue, a methodology issue and a third issue of abstracts from AUT’s postgraduate research forum. 

Peer Review 

Submissions are reviewed on a collaborative basis by the editorial team with advice from academic subject specialists and faculty, incorporating the mentoring practice of the Tuakana-Teina model. The journal team is open to volunteers from the AUT postgraduate student community to contribute to peer review. This will provide valuable experience to emerging academics. 

AI Policy

Authors

Authors are required to follow  COPE’s guidance on the use of AI which states that AI tools cannot be listed as an author of a paper.

Authors are fully responsible for the content of their manuscript, including those parts produced by an AI tool, and are thus liable for any breach of publication ethics.

On manuscript submission, authors are required to provide the full name of any AI tools used (with version number), how they were used, and the reason for use. 

 Submissions must not include AI-generated content that has not been critically reviewed, edited, and fact-checked by the authors.

Plagiarism or paraphrasing via AI tools without proper citation is a serious violation and will be treated accordingly.

The use of tools for spelling and grammar checking is not included in this policy but must be declared on submission. 

Editors

Editors will not feed manuscripts into AI tools as to evaluate materials as the critical thinking and decision making required is outside the scope of these tools.  

AI generated visualisations may require additional checks to ensure their validity, as well as steps to ensure their reproducibility. 

Editors must not use Generative AI to generate decision letters, or summaries of unpublished research to ensure author confidentially. 

Peer Reviewers

Feeding manuscripts into AI checker or style formatting tools can violate author confidentiality. Ensure that these do not store data.  

If the editor finds that the reviewer’s use of an AI checker has breached the confidentiality of the review process, then the author will be informed.

If reviewers suspect undeclared AI use in a paper, they should consult the editor.

Journal Management 

The management of submissions will be handled by members of the editorial team with guidance and support and training from The Te Mātāpuna, AUT Library Research Services Team. Copy-editing, proof reading and formatting duties will be carried out by a combination of the editorial team and other volunteers recruited from the AUT postgraduate community.  

Each item published on Rangahau Aranga will be given a DOI, be indexed by CrossRef and preserved through CLOCKSS.