The main responsibilities of this Committee are to evaluate member applications, manage the membership list, and manage the Academy office. In managing the membership list, the Committee is subject to the Personal Information Protection Law, so the Academy has established an Information Security Policy and a Privacy Policy. From the viewpoint of protecting the privacy of all our Academy members, the Academy makes every effort for appropriate handling of personal information in our operations. The General Affairs Committee manages the Academy office in close cooperation with the office staff. The often unacknowledged task of running the office is important for the smooth operation of the Academy’s activities.
Journal of Japan Academy of Nursing Science Editorial Board
The Editorial Board edits the Journal of Japan Academy of Nursing Science (in Japanese), issued quarterly. The Board promotes submissions to the Academy Journal, receives the submitted manuscripts and requests reviews, and decides whether or not to accept the submission. The Board also invites special submissions and includes Academy articles (General Assembly minutes, reports from Representatives meetings and Board of Directors meetings, etc). Accompanying the introduction of on-line submission of manuscripts in 2010, instructions for authors and the manuscript review system were also changed. 12 months after publication, it is possible for authors to upload published manuscripts in an indexed repository of authors’ institutions. Effort is being devoted to promoting the on-line Journal and speeding up the manuscript review process.
The Japan Academy of Nursing Science has been publishing the hard-copy Japan Journal of Nursing Science in English twice a year since 2004 in order to disseminate academic information from Japan worldwide and to contribute to people’s health and welfare through the Academy’s objectives of “development of nursing science” and “broad exchange of knowledge”. Toward its aim of consistent production of high quality issues of the Japan Journal of Nursing Science, the Editorial Board works to increase submission of manuscripts, and to provide a smoother review process and systemic improvement of the editing process. The Board also conducts seminars about writing manuscripts in English with the aim of disseminating information that conforms to international standards.
The Committee is working to promote appropriate reflection of research results in medical treatment fees. It is also a member of the Social Insurance Union Societies Related to Nursing, with the chairperson of the committee participating. Establishment of specialist associations is increasing in the nursing world, and in view of the continuing increase of published research, the Japan Academy of Nursing Science, which is not limited to a specific specialist field, is aiming to have a say in what directions research should be aiming for. Also, as a new issue, policy is being developed concerning the responsibilities and increased duties of specialist nurses.
The World Academy of Nursing Science, whose establishment was proposed by the Japan Academy of Nursing Science, was established at Kobe in September, 2009 when the 1st Academic Conference was held under Chairperson Aiko Yamamoto. With Hiroko Minami as WANS Chairperson and the International Activity Promotion Committee acting as the Secretariat, preparation is under way to hold the 2nd WANS Academic Conference in Mexico in 2011 under the auspices of Sigma Theta Tau International, and representatives are being sent to international conferences. Following on from its last term, this Committee is updating its “transcultural nursing database”, and at an exchange session of the 30th JANS Academic Conference is planning a discussion on the topic of training nursing researchers from the viewpoint of global standards. A study of global nursing research institutions is in progress.
Steering Committee for Scientific Nursing Terminology
This Committee was formed with the aim of conceptual standardization of nursing specialist terminology. So far, “Scientific Terminology for Nursing” and “Nursing Conduct Terminology Categories” have been selected and defined. Since the 9th term after its inception, the Committee has selected and defined 100 words as “important terminology of nursing science” out of more than 5,200 terms currently used in the field of nursing science (terminology from nursing science dictionaries, and keywords from papers in the Journal of Japan Academy of Nursing Science), with the aim of conceptual standardization of important terminology forming the foundation of nursing science. The next step is to continue evaluating and refining these 100 words as important terminology describing nursing practice and phenomena handled by nursing.
This Committee has created guidelines for an ethical evaluation system relating to nursing research, and created guidelines for clinical research in nursing science based on literature search, with the aims of: 1) Conducting activities to improve ethics of researchers, 2) Monitoring and timely response to ethical issues arising in research, education and clinical practice relating to nursing science, 3) Information collection and provision concerning ethical social phenomena relating to nursing science, and consideration of appropriate response by the Japan Academy of Nursing Science.
The Committee will continue to provide a timely response to ethical issues arising in society, and publicize the Academy’s viewpoint to society. Together with guidelines on ethical evaluation systems and guidelines for clinical research in nursing science, the Committee will propose response measures and handling procedure in cases where research ethics is contravened, and consider assistance in cases where there is no ethics review board at the institution attended by the researcher
.
Based on the Academy’s vision of “promoting social contributions taking into account benefit to all people (stakeholders) in order to fulfill responsibility to society as specialists involved in nursing science”, this Committee conducts activities that contribute to society through nursing science. At the Academic Conference, a People’s Forum and Nursing Techniques Experience Corner are conducted for all people to participate in. As a corporation training the next generation, the Academy provides a Nursing Science Café for high school students, providing opportunities to gain information about nursing science. After these activities, it is planned to make the contents available on the Academy’s website.
Selection Committee for Outstanding Manuscript Awards
What is nursing science, what form of scholarship is it? Through commendation of manuscripts, this Committee endeavors to answer these questions. Specifically, from manuscripts published in the Journal of Japan Academy of Nursing Science and the Japan Journal of Nursing Science, the Committee selects outstanding manuscripts eligible for the Outstanding Paper Award and Manuscript Recognition Award. In the selection process, each Committee member carefully reads the manuscripts and the Committee selects the candidate manuscripts. The opinions of Academy Representatives and officers are also consulted in the deliberation process. The Committee proposes policy for the discovery and nurture of young researchers through manuscript selection, evaluates the award system for persons contributing to nursing science, and evaluates methods for recommending candidates suitable for awards from other organizations. The Committee hopes that manuscripts contributed to the Academy journals will increase, and that awards for manuscripts will contribute to improving the quality of nursing research and development of nursing science.
This Committee was formed following discussion at the 27th JANS Academic Conference (December 2007). The Committee publicizes the activities of the Academy to promote understanding and trust of the Academy by society. Specifically, in addition to producing the Academy’s pamphlets and meeting posters, it is responsible for management, maintenance and improvement of the Japanese and English versions of the Academy website. This Committee also works with the Conference Planning Committee and the Social Contribution Committee to publicize the Academy’s activities to society and the public, such as producing press releases of contents to be presented at Academic Conferences, and publicity for the People’s Forum and Nursing Science Café etc. The Committee also manages the website of the World Academy of Nursing Science (WANS), for which the Japan Academy of Nursing Science acts as the secretariat, thus contributing to dissemination of international information.
JANS now has over 6,000 registered members, and this number is likely to rise if nursing universities continue to increase. As an Academy encompassing research activities in all fields of nursing, it is necessary to consider future paths the Academy should pursue. As an Academy for people researching widely in the field of nursing, discussion is necessary about what role the Academy should fulfill among nursing academies, whether the Academy should further increase its members and widen Academy interests, or steer the Academy towards researchers deeply pursuing academia. This Committee acts to stir up such debate and create proposals to the Board of Directors.
This Committee reviews whether or not nursing research by Academy members involving human subjects is conducted following ethical considerations taking into account “Ethical guidelines relating to clinical research (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare)” and “Ethical guidelines for nursing research (Japanese Nursing Association)”.
