During the 4th Board Meeting on 24th September 2020, President of ISEAPT Ah-Cheng Goh suggested that he would like to initiate a working group to investigate and report the feasibility of publishing an official journal for ISEAPT. He tasked the Secretary, Katsuhiro Furukawa to form a working group and to submit a report and proposal at the next meeting.
At the 5th Board Meeting on 17th December 2020, chairman of the ISEAPT journal working group, Katsuhiro Furukawa reported the following:
- ISEAPT International Journal working group members: Katsuhiro Furukawa (Secretary), Abe Yuichi (Board Member), Yoshiki Saimon (co-opted), Atsushi Sato (co-opted) and Satomi Okano (co-opted).
- Furukawa updated the board members regarding the proposal for the ISEAPT journal. He suggested that ISEAPT has a responsibility to provide an international definition of EPA, standardize the terminologies, and publish an international journal that is peer reviewed by EPA specialists. The vision is to provide a journal that will educate clinicians on the proper selection and use of EPA in the short term, and strive to be the gold-standard for EPA research in the long term.
- Journal name: Electrophysical Agents (an official journal of ISEAPT)
- A new email account was registered (journal.iseapt@gmail.com) for correspondence purposes.
- There was a need to establish an international editorial board with a good understanding of the publication process and governance. There will be 3 rounds of an open call for nominations, to begin in March 2022. Editorial board members should comprise of appointees from 3 different WCPT regions.
- Publication platform: The initial platform will be on J-STAGE which is a free publication system for electronic journals administered by the Science and Technology Innovation organization under the direct control of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan.
- Publication schedule: The short term objective is to publish 2 issues per year. The working group will be responsible for Vol 1, Issue 1 and 2. The editorial board, once appointment will be responsible for all subsequent issues.