The Health Sociology Review (previously the Annual Review of the Heath Social Sciences) is one of two official, peer-reviewed academic journals of The Australian Sociological Association (TASA). [link to history of the thematic groups, in 8]. First published in 1991 by health sociologists at La Trobe University, the founding editors Jeanne Daly and Allan Kellehear set two primary goals for the journal: first, the journal should reflect the richness and soundness of health sociological research, helping to persuade health workers and funding bodies in Australia and New Zealand of the importance of the social sciences in researching problems in health care; and secondly, to build a comprehensive network of health social scientists from within associated disciplines – in particular sociology, psychology and anthropology – so as to build understanding and respect for each other’s methodological preferences. (List of editors of HSR).
From 2001 (volume 10, issue 2), whilst under the editorship of Jane Shoebridge and Eileen Willis of Flinders University, the name of the journal was changed to the Health Sociology Review in order to widen its appeal to academic audiences outside Australia and New Zealand, and enable several issues to be produced each year. In 2003, the journal began to be published by eContent Managment,
a local publishing house. The journal was given a new format, with a glossy cover, and its editors sought to take it in a new direction. It was to be more explicitly sociological in content, and more international, with the editors inviting contributions from the Asia-Pacific region (Editorial 2003, volume 12, issue 1). Although the Health Sociology Review had officially been adopted as a journal of TASA in 2001, produced under its auspices and increasingly given some financial support by the Association, it was not until December of 2009 that the Health Sociology Review was finally recognised in TASA’s constitution (Collyer 2012a:161).
Eileen Willis Jane Shoebridge Stephanie Short
