The International Association of Maritime Universities (IAMU) is the global network of leading maritime universities providing the Maritime Education and Training (MET) of seafarers for the global shipping industry. The IAMU was founded in 1999 and is composed, as of January 2020, of sixty-seven (67) universities/academies/faculties from thirty-five (35) countries from all parts of the world (Europe, Africa, Asia, Pacific and Oceania, and Americas), together with two special members, the World Maritime University and Nippon Foundation.

The IAMU Section is a part of the JOMA dedicated to the activities of IAMU. While it covers the same subject areas as the JOMA, the IAMU Section gives a special emphasis on MET and its related subject domains. The IAMU Section is aiming at serving as a platform for sharing relevant research findings, current thinking, and evidence-based arguments on MET, making the JOMA unique for the maritime community.

The IAMU Section accepts a range of papers for publication in the forms of articles, issues of contemporary interest, reports and comments, and book reviews. Articles, in principle, should present genuine research findings. Review articles summarizing the status of knowledge in a specific research area may be also considered for publication. Issues of contemporary interest are not always covered by traditional research, and valuable lessons can be learnt through reports on best practices or critical discussions from practitioners’ point of view. This is why IAMU encourages experts to express their views on issues of contemporary interest. Reports and comments can be publishable in a way to facilitate research activities within the scope of the IAMU Section. This line of publications allows the members to express their reasoned opinions on published manuscripts and to stimulate discussions on areas that require further research. Finally, the book reviews relevant to the scope of the IAMU Section can also be considered.

The IAMU Section will consider papers that present original, unpublished research findings and materials and that are not being submitted for publication elsewhere, for publications. Papers are peer-reviewed to ensure both accuracy and relevance. The Section follows the same editorial review procedure as indicated in the previous editorial (Song 2020).

This provides the IAMU members with a great opportunity not only to publish high-quality peer reviewed articles based on research but also to have their articles abstracted/indexed in the Web of Science, SCOPUS, EBSCO Discovery Service, OCLC, and Transport Research International Documentation, among others. It is understood that the editorial office, under the guidance and leadership of our editor-in-chief, works towards having JOMA fully included into the Web of Science indexing domain in the next few years. The IAMU community is also expected to make a contribution to such a direction by producing an impact-bearing quality research output at the journal.

It is hoped the IAMU Section of the JOMA will become the primary platform for academics and researchers of IAMU members to share findings and discuss all aspects of maritime affairs in the development of future innovations that will benefit the international maritime community.

My sincere thanks to all (current, forthcoming and prospective) contributors for their interest and support. I would once again invite all academician and researchers of IAMU members to share their knowledge, experience, and research with a wide readership by having their works published at the IAMU Section of the WMU Journal of Maritime Affairs.

Your IAMU Section Editor,

Boris Svilicic