Bylaws of the Ecological Society of Japan Award (ESJ Award)

Article 1: The Ecological Society of Japan Award (ESJ Award) will be granted to a member of the Ecological Society of Japan (ESJ) who has played a leading role in ecology, developing novel research with remarkable achievements, and who is recommended by ESJ members through the following selection process. In principle, one Award will be granted each year.

Article 2: An ESJ Awards Committee (hereinafter referred to as “Committee”) is established to select candidates for the ESJ Award.

Article 3: Members of the Committee will be selected on the recommendation of ESJ representatives. To avoid bias, nine members will be selected to consider different fields of ecology. A Chairman will be annually determined by election among members. Each member is appointed for a term of 3 years, with three members newly selected each year. However, members cannot be reappointed for 2 years after their term expires.

Article 4: Candidates for the ESJ Award will be nominated by members of the ESJ, stating reasons for the nomination and submitting additional materials as may be requested by the Committee.

Article 5: The Committee will review prospective candidates by evaluating reasons for nomination and materials submitted by nominators, and select more limited number of candidates. The Committee will report reasons for nomination of selected candidates to the President; if no candidates for the Award are selected, the President will be notified to this effect. In addition to original papers, publications such as books (and their domestic and international influence) will be considered by the Committee in the selection process of candidates.

Article 6: If a Committee member becomes a nominee and remains a candidate in the final stage of selection, they will be removed from the Committee.

Article 7: The President will consult the board of directors regarding the pros and cons of a candidate selected by the Committee and, if more than two-thirds of the votes are in favor, a candidate will be determined the recipient of the award and notified immediately. If no recipient is selected, with approval of the board of directors, the President will announce this fact to ESJ members.

Article 8: The successful recipient will be decided at least 3 months prior to the award ceremony.

Article 9: The award ceremony will be held at the ESJ Annual Meeting, at which time an award certificate and souvenirs will be presented to the recipient.

Article 10: In principle, the Award recipient will give an Award lecture at the Annual Meeting where the award ceremony is held, and submit the contents as a review in a journal of the ESJ.

Article 11: Amendments to these bylaws must be approved by the board of directors.

Article 12: This list of rules is made in Japanese and translated into English. The Japanese text is the original and the English text is for reference purposes. If any conflict or inconsistency exists between these two texts, the Japanese text shall prevail.

Supplementary Provisions:
1. Rules came into effect on February 23, 2014.
2. Amendment of these rules came into effect on June 22, 2014.
3. Amendment of these rules came into effect on December 26, 2015.