The first edition of the Australian Journal of Emergency Management (AJEM) for 2025 features Natural Hazards Research Australia’s (the Centre) program to support and guide researchers in storing and sharing qualitative social research data.
The report, from the project Storing and sharing qualitative social data, explores the benefits, concerns and challenges associated with the sharing and storage of qualitative and sensitive data in the context of disaster research and outlines guidelines to overcome these challenges.
Authors Deanne Bird (Altometer, Monash University and the Centre), Lyndsey Wright (Altometer, Central Queensland University and the Centre) and Don Sharples (Altometer and the Centre) provide a brief overview of the research methods, findings and guidelines for future consideration.
Also in this edition, Centre Associate Student Dr Russell Dippy (Charles Sturt University, the Centre) highlights the need to define emergency management in the ongoing professionalisation of Australian emergency management.
His article Professionalism: defining the Emergency Manager, Response Manager and Recovery Manager identifies the term ‘emergency manager’ as undefined, conflated and confused in its current use across literature, emergency event inquiry reports and when used to recruit, train and deploy staff.
Russell's paper proposes the separation of the undefined ‘emergency manager’ into the three new roles of Emergency Manager, Response Manager and Recovery Manager, with a definition for each role and a comparison of the new roles to support the broad understanding and implementation of the terms and their roles.
The cover of this edition features the winning photo of the 2024 Resilient Australia National Photography Award, titled Carinbundi Clients Complete Emergency and Disaster Management Training taken by Tina Marshall.
Read the full edition here.