European Association of Science Editors
The European Association of Science Editors (EASE /ˈiːz/) is a non-profit membership organisation for people interested in science communication and editing. Founded in 1982, in France, EASE now has an international membership.
Members
EASE has nearly 500 members (July 2020) who live in about 50 countries, not only in Europe but also in other parts of the world.
Members work in many disciplines and occupations: commissioning editors, academics, science translators, publishers, web and multi-media staff, indexers, statistical editors, science and technical writers, authors' editors, journalists, corporate communicators, proofreaders, production personnel, managing editors, etc. Just less than 10% of members claim to be chief editors of science journals.
Major conferences
EASE holds a conference every 3 or 2 years.[1] The next EASE conference will take place in 2021 in Valencia, Spain. Previous conferences:
- 2020 First virtual conference
- 2018 Bucharest, Romania
- 2016 Strasbourg, France[2]
- 2014 Split, Croatia[3]
- 2012 Tallinn, Estonia[4]
- 2009 Pisa, Italy[5]
- 2006 Krakow, Poland[6]
- 2003 Bath, United Kingdom
- 2003 Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada (joint meeting with AESE)
- 2000 Tours, France
- 1998 Washington, D.C., United States (joint meeting with CBE and AESE)
- 1997 Helsinki, Finland
- 1994 Budapest, Hungary
- 1991 Oxford, United Kingdom
- 1989 Ottawa, Canada (joint meeting with CBE and AESE)
- 1988 Basel, Switzerland
- 1985 Holmenkollen, Norway
- 1982 Pau, France
History
EASE was formed in May 1982 in Pau, France, from the European Life Science Editors' Association (ELSE) and the European Association of Earth Science Editors (Editerra). The history of these organizations goes further back:
The European Association of Editors of Biological Periodicals (EAEBP) was formed in April 1967 in Amsterdam by Miriam Balaban and others.[7] EAEBP was renamed European Life Science Editors (ELSE) at its first General Assembly, held at the Royal Society in London in 1970.[8]
The European Association of Earth Science Editors (Editerra) was formed at a meeting of the Constituent Assembly of the European Association of Earth Science Editors, held in Paris from December 2–4, 1968, under the sponsorship of Unesco and the International Union of Geological Sciences.[9][8]
ELSE joined with Editerra to form the European Association of Science Editors (EASE) in 1982.[7] Concerns of the organization included the development of international standards for science journals, guidelines for authors whose first language was not English, republishing of articles in multiple languages, and the improvement of science communication generally.[10][11]
Gender Policy Committee
At its Congress in Tallin in 2012, upon the initiative of Shirin Heidari, EASE Council established the EASE Gender Policy Committee, the first international initiative to address the gender bias in the reporting of scholarly articles in scientific journals. The EASE Gender Policy Committee works to advance gender- and sex-sensitive reporting and communication in science. Its vision is greater gender diversity in science and publishing practices for enhanced quality, diversity and transparency for science to remain at the forefront of innovation and discovery. EASE Gender Policy Committee strives to realize its vision by addressing the gender gap in scientific research and publishing, advancing sex and gender reporting, and enhancing gender diversity in editorial management on a global level and across disciplines.
Following a consultative process, the EASE Gender Policy Committee developed and published the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) Guidelines, as the first reporting guidelines to encourage systematic reporting of sex and gender dimensions in scholarly publication. The SAGER guidelines are listed in EQUATOR. They have also been translated into Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, and Vietnamese, and adopted by a number of journals.
Affiliations
EASE is affiliated to the International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS), and the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), has category A liaison status with the International Organization for Standardization (Technical Committee 46/subcommittee 9) (ISO) and is represented on committees of the British Standards Institution. Through its affiliation to IUBS and IUGS the Association is also affiliated to the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) and is thereby in formal associate relations with UNESCO.[12]
EASE cooperates actively with Mediterranean Editors and Translators (MET), the Council of Science Editors (CSE), and the Association of Earth Science Editors (AESE). Its other links include the African Association of Science Editors, the European Medical Writers Association (EMWA), the Finnish Association of Science Editors and Journalists (FASEJ), the Society of English-Native-Speaking Editors (Netherlands) (SENSE), AuthorAID, and, in the UK, the Association for Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) and the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP).
See also
- American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
- American Medical Writers Association (AMWA)
- Board of Editors in the Life Sciences (BELS)
- Council of Science Editors (CSE)
- Editors' Association of Canada (EAC)
- European Medical Writers Association (EMWA)
- European Science Editing (journal)
- European Science Foundation
- Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators
- Mediterranean Editors and Translators (MET)
- Office of Research Integrity
- Pharmaceutical publication planning
- Society for Technical Communication (STC)
- Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals
References
- "Past EASE Conferences 1982-2003 : EASE". www.ease.org.uk.
- "13th EASE Conference, 10-12 June 2016, Strasbourg, France : EASE". www.ease.org.uk.
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-07-23. Retrieved 2012-07-31.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-10-04. Retrieved 2012-07-31.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2012-07-31.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- O’Connor, Maeve (18 February 2012). "The origins of EASE" (PDF). European Science Editing. Association of Research Libraries. 38 (1): 39. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
- O'Connor, Maeve. "Editerra/EAEBP/ELSE/EASE history 1975 - 2012" (PDF). European Association of Science Editors (EASE). Retrieved 28 November 2017.
- "New Organizations : European Association of Earth Science Editors". FID News Bulletin. 19. General Secretariat of the International Federation for Documentation. 1969.
- Balaban, Miriam (September 1975). "Cooperation among journals: A European vantage point". IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication. PC-18 (3): 116–120. doi:10.1109/TPC.1975.6591169.
- O'Connor, Maeve (July 27, 1987). "Third World Seeks Place for lts Journals". The Scientist. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
- NGOs maintaining official relations with UNESCO
Further reading
- Law C, Piqueras M. Help for editors: EASE makes things easier. European Association of Science Editors. Int Microbiol. 2000 Dec;3(4):253-8.
- Hunt R. Advancing European Protocols for Science Communication. Chapter 14 in: Michel Claessens ed, Communicating European Research 2005. Netherlands: Springer, 2007.
- Interview with Dr. Joan Marsh, EASE President, about EASE's mission and activities