The following information is based on the newsletter published by the Ecological Society of Japan in September 2013. The information will be updated in this page and the top page.

Last updated: 07 October 2013

61st Annual Meeting of Ecological Society of Japan (ESJ61)

The 61st Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of Japan (ESJ61) will be held by the organizing committee and annual meeting planning committee as follows. The content below may be updated as needed. Please refer to the latest information on the official website (http://www.esj.ne.jp/meeting/61/index_english/).

Contacts

Organizing Committee of the 61th Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of Japan
Nobukazu NAKAGOSHI, Chair of Organizing Committee
Takayuki NAKATSUBO, Secretary General of Organizing Committee
Faculty of Integrated Arts and Sciences,
Hiroshima University, 1-7-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, 739-8521, Japan

Official web site of ESJ61 (Japanese): http://www.esj.ne.jp/meeting/61/
Official web site of ESJ61 (English): http://www.esj.ne.jp/meeting/61/index_english/

For correspondence on any subjects, please enter your questions in the inquiry form.

Venue and Date

Venue: International Conference Center Hiroshima, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, Nakajimatyou 1-5, Naka-ku, Hiroshima 739-8521, Japan.

Date: Friday, March 14 to Tuesday, March 18, 2014.

Schedule

ESJ61 includes public lecture, symposia, forums, contributed oral and poster presentations, organized oral sessions, workshops, poster presentation by high school students, general meeting, award recipient lectures and banquet. Main events are planned as follows. However, the schedule may be altered depending on the numbers of proposals of symposia, organized sessions, and workshops. Details will be announced on the official web site.

Friday, March 14: Business meetings, Workshops
Saturday, March 15: Symposia, Organized sessions, Oral and poster sessions, Forums, Poster sessions for high school students
Sunday, March 16: Symposia, Organized sessions, Oral and poster sessions, Forums, Public lecture
Monday, March 17: General meeting, Award ceremony, Award recipient lectures, Oral and poster sessions, Banquet
Tuesday, March 18: Oral sessions, Forums, Workshops

Please refer to Call for organized sessions and workshops for instructions on how to propose a session.

Deadlines

Membership application for presenters and organizers who are currently not an ESJ member:

Membership application deadline: Wednesday, 23 October 2013, 17:00 (JST). Please refer to the society website for further details.
Payment of membership fee for 2014: Wednesday, 23 October 2013, 17:00 (JST)

For presenters and session organizers:

Applications for oral and poster presentation: Thursday, 7 November 2013, 17:00 (JST)
Proposals for organized session: Thursday, 7 November 2013, 17:00 (JST)
Proposals for workshop: Thursday, 7 November 2013, 17:00 (JST)
Abstract submission: Tuesday, 4 February 2014, 17:00 (JST)
Presentation file submission: Few days before the meeting.

These deadlines are subjected to change. Please refer to the official website for latest information. No changes and additions will be accepted after deadlines.

Fees and payment

Registration fees

By Tuesday, 4 February 2014:

Regular attendees (including non-member) 10,000 yen
Students (including non-member) 6,000 yen

By Friday, 28 February 2014

Regular attendees (including non-member) 11,000 yen
Students (including non-member) 6,500 yen

On site:

Regular attendees (including non-member) 12,000 yen
Students (including non-member) 7,000 yen
Undergraduate and high school students: No fee, but student ID should be presented.

Banquet fees

Regular member and non-member (except for students) 7,500 yen
Students (including non-member) 5,500 yen

Advance payment discount is not applicable for banquet fee.

Payment

Please complete your payment before 28 February 2014 through the online payment system provided by JTB AMARYS (https://amarys-jtb.jp/esj61/). After 28 February 2014, payments should be made on site (venue) during the meeting. The early registration fee is applicable to those who complete the online payment by each due date. Please refer to our official website on cancellation policy.

If you wish to contribute talks or organize a session, please also register at the online system linked from the ESJ61 official web site (http://www.esj.ne.jp/meeting/61/) at the same time. Registered data will be used for the book of program and abstract.

Student rates will be applied to participation and banquet fees for those who are young members without regular income. Please state that you are a young member without regular income when applying for registration.

Membership dues

Please refer to ESJ61 official website for payment details.

Those who wish to contribute talks or propose sessions at the meeting should have a membership by Wednesday, 23 October 2013. Those who are currently non-members should apply and pay for 2014 membership, and current members should have paid the 2013 membership by this date. For those who have submitted your membership withdrawal to be effective at the end of 2013, please cancel your withdrawal instead of rejoining as a member.

Please do not confuse the membership dues with the participation fee.

Oral and poster sessions

Speaker (or main contributor at poster sessions) of each presentation has to be a member of ESJ. ESJ members should pay for membership due for 2013 by 23 October 2013. If you are not an ESJ member, but would like to give a presentation, please apply for an ESJ membership before 23 October 2013.
Speakers of each presentation should register on the official website before the deadline.
The registration number issued in the procedure of registration is necessary for submission of the abstract of your presentation. Please be careful in managing it as well as your password set by yourself.
Please apply for the online participation system on the JTB AMARYS (https://amarys-jtb.jp/esj61/).

Symposia

Symposium speakers should complete the procedure under organizer’s instruction.
Symposium speakers as well as oral and poster presenters are limited only to ESJ members who have paid for ESJ membership fee by 23 October 2013, except for invited non-member speakers approved by ESJ61 organizing committee.
The registration number issued in the procedure of registration is necessary for submission of the abstract of your presentation. Please apply for the registration on ESJ61 official website by the deadline and obtain your registration number.
Please apply for the participation and complete payment on the JTB AMARYS (https://amarys-jtb.jp/esj61/). Registration is not necessary for invited speakers.

Organized sessions

Organized session speakers should complete the procedure under organizer’s instruction.
Organized session speakers as well as oral and poster presenters are limited only to ESJ members who have paid for ESJ membership fee by 23 October 2013, except for non-member speakers approved by the organizing committee.
The registration number issued in the procedure of registration is necessary for submission of proposals. Please apply for the registration on ESJ61 official website and obtain your registration number by the deadline.
Applying for the participation and payment of participation fee on the JTB AMARYS (https://amarys-jtb.jp/esj61/) are necessary for both ESJ members and non-members. Registration and payment system will be available from the beginning of October.

Workshops

Workshops are conducted by workshop organizers who are ESJ members. It is not necessary for a workshop speaker to have an ESJ membership.
No participation fee is required for those participating as presenter or audience ONLY in workshops.

Participating as audience

Non-members can attend the meeting as audience by paying the participation fee.
Please apply for the participation and pay for participation fee on the JTB AMARYS (https://amarys-jtb.jp/esj61/). On-site participation is also available.
Participation fee will be waived for undergraduate, high school and junior high school students if you attend the meeting as audience. Online registration is not necessary, but student ID should be presented at the reception on site. If you wish to give an oral or a poster presentation, normal registration is required.

Qualifications for applications

Presenters＼membership	ESJ member	Non-member or member only subscribed to Japanese Journal of Conservation Ecology
Contributed oral and Poster presenter	o
Symposium organizer	o
Symposium presenter	o	o
Commentator for symposium, organized sessions and workshops*1	o	o
Organized session organizer	o
Organized session presenter	o	o*2
Workshop organizer	o

*1: Commentators without abstract registration. Commentators with abstract follow the same qualification rules as presenters.
*2: Only one speaker in each organized session is allowed to be a non-member and requires an approval from the organizing committee.

How to join ESJ

Please apply for ESJ membership on the following website and follow the instruction sent to you by e-mail to complete the payment by 23 October 2013. For joining the Ecological Society of Japan, refer to http://www.esj.ne.jp/esj/e_member.html or contact:

The Ecological Society of Japan
1-8 Koyama Nishihanaike-cho, Kita-ku, Kyoto, 606-8148, Japan
TEL/FAX: +81-75-384-0250

Important notice

The registration number issued in the procedure of registration is necessary for registration of abstract. Please be careful in managing it as well as your password set by yourself.
If you are planned to talk at a symposium, organized session, workshop or forum, application for presentation is not necessary, because the session organizer will register your presentation on your behalf. Notice that if you are a speaker of symposium or organized session, please apply for the registration on ESJ61 official website (http://www.esj.ne.jp/meeting/61/) and obtain a registration number. Non-members who are giving a presentation also should get a registration number.
No changes and additions due to improper input or garbled characters will be accepted.
The Program Book will be available on the official website around February 2014.
The Program Book of the meeting will be sent around February 2014 to all ESJ members except for those in arrears with the membership dues. Please pay the dues in advance by the end of December 2013 to receive the book.
Non-member participants will receive the Program Book on-site.
The book of abstract for both printed edition and PDF will not be provided in ESJ61. HTML version will be available both on the official website (http://www.esj.ne.jp/meeting/61/) and web-surfing mobile phone in February 2014. All abstracts will be available on the ESJ official website (http://www.esj.ne.jp/meeting/abst/index.html) as compressed ZIP files. After decompression, you will be able to browse and search for schedule, presenters and keywords.

Call for organized session and workshop

We invite proposals for organized sessions and workshop in ESJ61 (proposals for symposia have been closed). The following points should be confirmed when submitting your proposals. An ESJ membership is required to be an organizer of either an organized session or a workshop. Both sessions are less than 2 hours long. The organizing committee will not intervene in the content of proposals except that slander exists against any individual and/or organizations.

Organized sessions

Individual abstracts in each session will appear in the abstract page of the official website of ESJ61. Session introduction and summary will appear in both the abstract page of the above website and the printed program.
An organizer or a speaker of an organized session may not serve as an organizer or a speaker in a symposium or a workshop.
An organizer or a speaker of an organized session may not serve as a contributed oral or poster presenter.
In general, a speaker for an organized session is limited only to ESJ members. As an exception, one non-ESJ member can be a speaker in each organized session, but justification for the exception should be included in the session proposal. The exception does not apply for an individual who serves as the session speaker for two consecutive years.
If the introduction or comment for an organized session has an abstract, the speaker will be considered as a regular speaker and one presentation rule will be enforced.
For efficient use of time and space available, an organized oral session should consist of at least 3 speakers.

Workshop

Workshops have traditionally been valued in ESJ annual meetings as a means to promote free discussions on innovative topics, some of which can even step beyond the framework of ecology. However, workshops are not considered as official function of the meeting, and those who only attend a workshop would not be considered as the participants of ESJ meeting.
The introduction and summary of a workshop will appear in both the printed program and the abstract web page, but individual abstract from the speakers will not be accepted.
A speaker in a workshop may present in other sessions or contributed talks/posters. However, the organizing committee will not, in principle, make arrangement of the schedules.
Since workshops are not considered as official function of the meeting, we kindly ask you to manage the site with responsibility.
Workshops are likely held concurrently with business meetings on the first day of ESJ61. The organizing committee will not, in principle, make arrangement of the schedules for those who are members of these meetings.

Proposal submission

Proposals for organized sessions and workshops must be received at the official web site on or before Thursday, 7 November 2013, 17:00 (JST). A proposal for an organized session must include session summary, a full list of speakers and their co-authors, and presentation title. Session or workshop organizers and all speakers in organized session should register as participants and obtain a registration number before submitting a proposal. All the deadlines for above registration are Thursday, 7 November 2013, 17:00 (JST). No changes and additions will be accepted to the summary of proposals after the deadline.

Non-member speakers at organized sessions

Organizers should enter the name of non-ESJ member presenter and the reasons for the presentation in the space provided for “presentation proposals by non-members” on the registration system. Non-ESJ member presenters should obtain their registration number through the procedure same as other presenters. All the deadlines for above are Thursday, 7 November 2013, 17:00 (JST). Organizers will receive e-mail notifying a decision on non-ESJ member presentation by Monday, 18 November 2013.

Evaluation and decision

Proposals for organized session will receive higher priority over workshop proposals. In case that meeting rooms are not enough for proposed organized sessions even after cancelling all workshops, we will decide the proposals for organized session by drawing lots.
If the number of workshop proposals exceeds capacity of the venue, we will first decline workshop proposals from proposers who submit more than one session and/or workshop proposals, and then those from proposers who submit a symposium proposal. If the space is still not enough, decisions will be made by drawing lots.
To make best use of limited resource in the meeting, those who have submitted proposals for symposium and other sessions as an organizer are requested to not apply for a workshop. An individual should not be allowed to submit more than two proposals.
Decisions on approved workshop will be made by November 18, 2013.

Comparison of symposium, organized oral session and workshop

	Symposium	Organized oral session	Workshop
Feature	Centerpiece, core topics and official functions	High-lighted topics and official functions	Various topics and unofficial functions
Time limitation	ca. 3 hours	ca. 2 hours	ca. 2 hours
Priority in the meeting	Top	Middle	Low
Involvement by the organizing committee	Yes	No (only in case of any slander)	No (only in case of any slander)
Organizer qualification	ESJ member	ESJ member	ESJ member
Presentation by non-ESJ member	Encouraged (participation fee may be waived for invited speakers)	One speaker per session but not allowed for two consecutive years, participation fee needed.	Possible, participation fee not needed if participating only in workshop
Waived participation fee for invited speakers abroad	Yes, but only limited individual	No	No
Presentation in contributed oral/poster sessions	No	No	Yes
Presentations in other sessions	Allowed only in workshop or forum	Allowed only in workshop or forum	Yes
Deadline for proposal	Jul. 31, 2013	Nov. 7, 2013	Nov. 7, 2013
Deadline for registration including summary, titles and speaker information	Nov. 7, 2013	Nov. 7, 2013	Nov. 7, 2013
Session summary and individual abstracts	Summary in both printed program and abstract page, and individual abstracts in the abstract page.	Summary in both printed program and abstract page, and individual abstracts in the abstract page.	Only summary appear in the printed program and abstract page

Forums

Forums are organized by committee of ESJ and are aimed at inviting opinions on issues related to ecology ESJ is addressing, promoting and sharing information among ESJ members and developing agreement in ESJ by widespread discussion. Organizing and providing topics are exempt from one presentation rule. Representatives for each committee of ESJ should make application.

Oral and poster sessions

ESJ members are invited to give a presentation in either oral or poster sessions. Please choose your preference for the presentation style (oral or poster). However, due to limitation in space and time, we may ask you to change your presentation style (oral or poster).
For assigning rooms and times for oral presentations and sorting poster presentations appropriately by topic, we ask you to choose sections from the below list that matches your presentation when applying for presentation. Due to application numbers and limitation in space, we may ask you to change your topic. The Following is the list of presentation topics.

1. Plant community / 2. Plant population / 3. Plant ecophysiology / 4. Plant reproduction / 5. Life history of plants / 6. Pollination / 7. Seed dispersal / 8. Mycologial ecology / 9. Microbial ecology / 10. Landscape ecology / 11. Succession/Regeneration / 12. Phenology / 13. Animal-plant interactions / 14. Evolution / 15. Species diversity / 16. Mathematical ecology / 17. Animal community / 18. Animal reproduction / 19. Animal population / 20. Life history of animals / 21. Behavior / 22. Socioecology / 23. Molecular ecology / 24. Paleoecology / 25. Conservation / 26. Ecosystem management / 27. Invasive species / 28. Urban community / 29. Production ecology / 30. Material cycling / 31. Education and popularization of ecology

Notice

Speaker (or main contributor at poster sessions) of each presentation has to be a member of ESJ (co-authors need not be ESJ members).
Each ESJ member is allowed to represent only one oral or poster presentation as a presenter (she/he can co-present more than one).
Oral and poster presentations are closed to organizers and speakers in symposia and organized sessions. These restrictions are imposed for sharing limited resources (space and time).

Preparing oral presentations

Oral presentations are made by devices equipped in the room in either Microsoft Power Point or PDF format. The use of your own PC is not acceptable. Procedures on how to register files for presentation will be announced in due course. Details will be posted on the official website.

Preparing poster presentations

Each poster will be mounted on a 90 cm width by 210 cm height poster board. Poster session will be conducted in two or three sections. About 1200 posters are expected to be acceptable. We may ask you to move to oral presentation if the applications for poster presentation exceed the capacity. To improve the exchange with participants from abroad who does not understand Japanese, we encourage you to prepare your poster all or partly in English or have English offprints.

Poster Award

The Ecological Society of Japan (ESJ) will award young researchers presenting excellent posters. Please refer to the following qualification requirements. Details for poster presentations will be posted on the official website. Please prepare your poster, taking care of the points shown on the website.

Poster award qualifications

Each winner must be the principal author of the poster presentation.
Undergraduate, graduate students, or those young scientists without doctoral degree before November 7, 2013 are eligible to apply for Poster Award ESJ61.
Award winners in an earlier ESJ annual meeting (including the joint annual meeting with EAFES) cannot apply for the award.

Poster award criteria

Below are the criteria used to select excellent posters. Please prepare your poster, taking care of the points below.

(A) Clarity of the poster

In poster presentation it is important to show the contents of your research clearly. For example, 1) good title, 2) simple abstract, 3) making efforts to draw attention, 4) making efforts to convey the outline, will be necessary. Easy-to-read figures and tables from a distance, avoidance of information overload and understandable outline without explanation will be also important.

(B) Quality of the study

1) Originality and innovativeness, 2) quality and quantity of data, 3) validity of analyzing methods, 4) validity of discussion and conclusion, are evaluated.

We decided to except “presentation technique” which had been a criterion for judgment, from evaluation, since excellent posters are often understandable just by reading them. Increased burden for reviewing due to the large number of applications is one of the reasons. For items which are difficult to assess by just seeing, judges might evaluate them by listening to the presentation and asking questions.

ESJ is promoting international communication. Thus, we put an emphasis on posters that make consideration to those who do not understand Japanese.

During the review process, only the contents of posters are evaluated. However, if two or more posters have tie scores, those that promote international communication will be given priority.

Posters understandable in English means at least the title, introduction and conclusion are written in English and the outline of research is understood by reading them, or preparing English offprints.

English Presentation Award

ESJ61 has initiated the English Presentation Award to promote scientific communication in English in the meeting and provide more opportunities among international students, scientists from abroad and Japan. We are paying particular attention to increase opportunities for young scientists to strengthen their communication ability in English. Please refer to the official website on English Presentation Award (https://sites.google.com/site/esj61engpresenawarden/) for latest information.

Award policy

This award is aimed to promote “science communication” in English at ESJ annual meeting. The English Presentation Award is not an English speech competition. Each speaker should not aim to demonstrate his/her proficiency in English. Instead, he/she is expected to pay serious effort to give a presentation effectively communicating the science to the audience. It is assumed that most of audience members are not native speakers of English, and that they have diverse scientific backgrounds. The efforts should be made to make it easy for such an audience to clearly understand the research content and its significance. Even when the communication between a speaker and the audience is not perfect, the effort to communicate will be positively evaluated.

Public Lecture

How to inherit Satoyama landscape into the future and specific activities need to be addressed. In order to do that, we need to share the value of Satoyama landscape and basic knowledge on ecological and social characteristic necessary to create and maintain the value. History of Satoyama landscape and its current status, and new structure of society to practice its conservation and regeneration activities will be introduced at the Public Lecture.

The 17th ESJ Public Lecture
Venue: International Conference Center Hiroshima
Date and Time: Sunday, March 16, 2014. 13:30-17:00
Program
Opening remarks and outline of purpose: Nobukazu NAKAGOSHI, Chair of Organizing Committee
Lectures:
Mahito KAMADA (Tokushima University)
Satoshi ITO (Miyazaki University)
Minoru ISHII (Osaka Prefecture University)
Katsue FUKAMACHI (Kyoto University)
Yoshitaka TAKAHASHI (National Agriculture and Food Research Organization),
Moderator: Katsunobu SHIRAKAWA (Natural History Museum of Geihoku)

Banquet

Enjoy the banquet at ANA Crowne Plaza Hiroshima (10-minute walk from the site) on Monday, March 17, 2014. The banquet will start from 18:30. We are planning to serve local sake of Hiroshima, a famous microbrewery, and can’t-miss events. We welcome many participants.

Day-care

A day-care center will be open in International Conference Center Hiroshima. Details on available time and application will appear on the official website of the ESJ61.

Ecocup 2014

A competition of futsal games (five on five soccer game), Ecocup 2014 is planned as a satellite program. It is managed by an independent organizing committee for Ecocup 2014. Details will be posted on this website: https://sites.google.com/site/ecocup2014/

Access to the venue

You are encouraged to use public transport system to reach the venue, International Conference Center Hiroshima. The closest station to the center is JR Hiroshima station. It is 20-25 minutes from the Hiroshima station to the center by streetcar or by bus. From Hiroshima Airport to Hiroshima Bus Center, the limousine bus service is provided. It is about 10 minutes on foot from the Hiroshima Bus Center to the Conference Center.

There are a lot of restaurants along the main street (ten minutes on foot) near the venue and we will also take lunch order. Detailed information can be found in the homepage of the meeting.

Comments

Organizing Committee of ESJ61 always accept your opinions on running the meeting. Please enter your opinions in the inquiry form on the official website.