Kotuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online is an international, open-access journal that publishes original research papers across all social science disciplines and aims to showcase the increasing number of collaborative research endeavours across the social sciences. The Maori name ‘Kotuitui' means ‘interweaving', and reflects the interdisciplinary nature of the journal.

The subject matter is of worldwide relevance and interest to researchers in universities, research institutes, and other centres. It includes contributions from long-established fields (like psychology, economics, human geography, sociology, education, political science, anthropology, social work, population studies and history) as well as more recent disciplinary and inter-disciplinary fields such as public policy, development studies, conflict resolution, gender studies, international relations, security studies, human rights, cultural and ethnic studies, ethics, criminology, health, sustainability, communications and media studies.