This issue provides news regarding the recent activities of ISBM, many of which have been devoted to preparations for the upcoming International Congress of Behavioral Medicine (ICBM) in Bangkok as well as plans for future Congresses. In his Letter from the President, Antti Uutela reports on the outcomes of the recent ISBM Board meetings held in Oxford, noting the exciting developments in plans for the upcoming Congresses in Tokyo and the UK as well as providing information about the elections of ISBM officers to be held at the Bangkok Governing Council meeting at the Congress this November. Brian Oldenburg and Naiphinich Kotchabhakdi provide the latest update on the ICBM in Bangkok, with important information about the program and registration details. The Scientific Program can be viewed on the Congress Website, and it reveals an exciting and diverse range of topics to be presented by researchers representing many disciplines, professions, and nations. This newsletter issue also includes a report by Ulf Lundberg regarding the continuing success of the International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, and an announcement of the new Behavioral Medicine field within the Cochrane Collaboration.

Please share news from your member society and region with the rest of ISBM by sending in announcements and reports for inclusion in these newsletters. Items, as well as any suggestions and feedback, can be sent to my email address:  L.cameron@auckland.ac.nz
The next newsletters are scheduled for publication in December 2006 and June 2007.

Challenge equals promise

In mid-May ISBM had two meetings (ICBM 2006 Executive Program Committee, and ISBM Board meetings) in Oxford, UK. The main rationale for organizing the meetings in Oxford was that the ICBM 2010 needed site visiting because the UKSBM had designated it as the candidate venue for the International Congress in 2010. Giving you my reflections on the Oxford visit will nicely summarize what has happened since my last Newsletter column.

It has sometimes been said the real task of the ISBM president is to take the Society from one international meeting to the next. Sure enough, the Bangkok congress matters have been very much on the agenda over the Northern hemisphere winter months. Much of the discussions have taken place between the program chairs and the local organization committee via e-mails but sometimes face-to-face interaction of the whole Executive program committee have been needed. In fact three such meetings have been organized during the last six months. First we met during the Thai Forum of Behavioral Medicine in Bangkok, December 4-6, 2005, then during the 27th Annual Meeting of Society of Behavioral Medicine in San Francisco, March 22-25, 2006, and lastly as already indicated in Oxford, UK, May 12, 2006.

Challenges have prompted the above mentioned meetings: There exist different cultural expectations, modern technology though promising has its complications, and soliciting abstract submissions can also be very demanding. I am happy to confirm – based on information from the Oxford meeting - that ISBM is still on its route to an excellent meeting. It is not only that the invited program is of top value, so the submitted program will be as well. The 850 submissions from about 50 countries yielding 40 symposia and an equal number of oral sessions, combined with a great number of posters already and more to come by the rapid communication deadline (September 1, 2006), speak for the most impressive international congress of behavioral medicine yet.

By the time you read this newsletter, information about acceptance of submissions and the place they occupy in the program will already have been sent out. Also the on-line registration should be fully in use. So, contact your travel agent and book your trip, register on-line to the program, make the hotel reservation similarly, and tell those colleagues who have not yet sent in their abstracts that there is one more chance. But be quick in what you do – the travel agent may not have those economic tickets for the trip very long, and the space for the posters may become fully used.

Three ISBM meetings are to take place before the International Congress in Bangkok. November 27 hosts both the Board and the Strategic Planning Committee, and November 28 the Governing Council. The Strategic Planning Committee meeting is a must for all Governing council members plus representative of emerging societies. On December 2, the last day of ICBM 2006, the Asia-Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health (APACH) Congress commences in Bangkok close to the ICBM congress venue.

I am happy to add that ISBM congresses come and go but will not be forgotten. Think about the series: Uppsala, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Washington DC, Copenhagen, Brisbane, Helsinki, and Mainz. After the certainly unforgettable Bangkok congress we set our aim for the Tokyo congress in 2008, and the UK congress in 2010. The Tokyo congress preparations, as we heard from Yuji Sakano in Oxford, are well on the way: The program leader (Theresa Marteau), chair of the local organizing committee (Yuji Sakano), and the venue (Riosshi University in central Tokyo) are identified and we have good reason to believe that both the congress fee and cost of accommodation will not be a hindrance to participation. Redford Williams is, together with the program leader, currently in the process of identifying the co-chairs for the Tokyo congress.

I mentioned the UK congress that has been designated as the Oxford congress. At this writing, the venue in UK is not settled yet and options are being investigated. The site visit on May 12 proved that congress organization in Oxford is possible and certainly would have its benefits. There are few academic locations in the world that can compete with Oxford colleges in prestige and age. Because of their long heritage, the Oxford colleges tend to have small and separated rooms that are furthermore situated in buildings that are old and minimally comfortable. Expectations about participation rates in 2010 are high because of the increasing popularity of the ISBM congresses. 

The site visit group identified three venues in Oxford within five minute walk from each other that would fill the needs the congress: the Examination School (oral sessions, master lectures), the New College (from 14th century) for posters and congress dinner/receptions, and the Sheldonian theatre (for opening and closing ceremonies plus keynotes). As noted above, other options are investigated so that the ad hoc committee (consisting of Redford Williams, Neil Schneiderman, Brian Oldenburg, Victoria Gordillo and I) will be able to fulfil its commission and propose the ISBM Governing the best possible congress venue.

The Board meeting started in the usual way by examining the Mexico City Governing Council minutes and actions arising from decisions made there. I am not going into the details as the minutes will be published shortly. We then heard officer reports (available at the ISBM website) and reports from three future international congresses: ICBM 2006, 2008, and 2010. One of few decision items involved the appointment of Nomination chair for the Bangkok Governing council elections. Joost Dekker of the Netherlands was unanimously appointed to the position – the appointment is yet to be confirmed by the ISBM Governing Council.

There will again be several important officer posts open at the Bangkok Governing Council: the Board needs always a new president elect (2006-2008). A new treasurer (2006-2010) needs to elected too as Ed Fisher has served his four year term by the Bangkok congress time. The Executive Committee is included in the Board. For the rest of the Board positions, Education and Training Committee chair 2006-2010 (current chair Arja R. Aro), Finance Committee chair 2006-2008  (Winfried Rief elected for 2004-2008 has resigned), Membership Committee chair 2006-2010 (position occupied by past president Gunilla  Burell 2004-2006), and Organizational Liaison Committee chair 2006-2010 (current chair Margaret Chesney) need to be filled. At the Council meeting the President will appoint the new Strategic Planning Chair (2006-2010) whose term needs to be confirmed by the Governing council. It is the task of the member societies to identify candidates and make their names and contacts known to the Nomination chair. A letter from the President to the national societies will be sent as soon as possible asking them to get mobilized to find candidates.

ISBM is currently very much aware about the need to make its processes more visible and promote national societies’ participation. Messages recently received, e.g., from Latin America, suggest that Bangkok Governing Council participation even by proxy persons may not be possible for some of the societies because of financial constraints. As it is not feasible to have mail voting at the Governing Council elections, the fact of societies not being able to be represented at the Governing Council meetings sounds threatening to our democracy. After a discussion in Oxford, the Board determined to propose to the Governing Council an electronic vote on an extra sum of up 3000 USD that should be reserved to aid participation of those member societies at the Bangkok Governing Council that could not otherwise take part. Upon this proposal, on the behalf of the Bangkok Local Organizing Committee, Naiphinich Kotchabhakdi decided to waive congress fees for those three persons in question. To this the Board responded by waiving the ISBM congress fee otherwise due to the Local Organizing Committee.

Challenges will make promises if and when we are strongly motivated. In my opinion ISBM officers have done their jobs splendidly and surely will continue the good work. For everybody there are three more months to the rapid communication deadline on September 1 and then three further months to the Bangkok Congress. The six months will be busy but exciting. I hope that I will see and meet as many of you as possible in Bangkok. That is where the action is!

Antti Uutela
President

IJBM Submissions 2000-2005

 The number of submissions               Impact factor

1. 43    Rejection rate: 41%                  .556
2. 62    Rejection rate: 41%                  .744
3. 76    Rejection rate: 58%                  .911
4. 56    Rejection rate: 56%                  .766
5. 81    Rejection rate: 43%                  1.306
6. 78    Rejection rate: 50%                  1.246

Over the years, about 50% of the submissions have been received from European countries, 25% from USA and 25% from the rest of the world. In 2005 the corresponding figures were 53% for Europe, 26% for USA, and 22% from the rest of the world. Submissions have been obtained from all parts of the world.

Material for IJBM 13,3 was submitted to the Publisher by April 1st. Fifteen additional manuscripts have been accepted and are in line for publication.

New Editor of  IJBM from 2007

ISBM has appointed Dr. Joost Dekker as new Editor-in-Chief from 2007 for a period of six years. From 2006, new submissions have been handled by Dr. Dekker. By April 18, 2006, the number of submissions was 19.

Ulf Lundberg
Editor IJBM

Bridging Behavior and Health - Connecting the Hemispheres

Date:  November 29 - December 2, 2006
Location: Sofitel Central Plaza Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand
Program Update

The Congress Scientific Program is now available for viewing at the Congress Website @ http://www.9icbm-2006.org/ and it will be regularly updated over the coming weeks. By now, everyone who submitted an abstract should have received a letter regarding the outcome of the abstract review process. Anyone who has not received such a letter by now, should immediately contact the Program Chair, Brian Oldenburg. With almost 850 abstracts already submitted for the Scientific Program, the Program Committee has aimed to be as inclusive as possible with the final program and to make sure that there is an excellent mix of symposia, oral and poster presentations across all of the 25 Tracks. The Track Chairs and Co-Chairs did a magnificent job of reviewing all the abstracts and making their recommendations. There were more excellent symposia submitted than we could possibly fit into the program as symposia, so a number of these have been recommended by the Track Chairs to become Oral Sessions. The Track Chairs have also recommended a number of abstracts for poster presentations. The two poster sessions on both Thursday and Friday afternoon of the Congress Program are scheduled as plenary events and they have become a very strong feature at recent ICBM conference. We shall have scientific chairs for these poster sessions and all congress attendees will be encouraged to attend. All accepted abstracts of attending congress delegates – including the poster abstracts – will be published in a Supplement of the International Journal of Behavioral Medicine. Finally, we are still keen to receive further Rapid Communication Poster Abstracts up until the final deadline of September 1.

Congress Registration

Everyone presenting at the congress, must formally register for the congress and pay the required registration fee. Indeed, registration for the congress will be a requirement for abstracts being published in the special supplement issue of the International Journal of Behavioral Medicine. "Early Registration" will now be extended until 15 July 2006, after which the "Late Registration" fee will apply. Also, don’t forget to register for the conference workshops to be held on Wednesday, November 29 because it is expected that a number of these will fill up quickly over the coming weeks.
More Information on the Congress
Instructions and details for the preparation and delivery of oral and poster presentations will be made available by the end of July.
More details and advice on how to get to the congress hotels and congress venues (Sofitel) from the airport, including simple travel and road maps, will also be made available in the coming weeks.

Joint registration for Asia Pacific Public Health Conference (38th APACPH Conference)

The 38th APACPH Conference will be hosted by Mahidol University in Bangkok and will take place immediately after 9th ICBM on 3-6 December 2006. The theme for this conference is "Partnership for Human Security and Health", which reflects the need for partnerships at community, institutional and governmental level to enhance the development of human security and health in the world. More information and details of abstract submission for that conference can be found at the conference website - www.apacph2006.org. It has been agreed by the organisers of both the ICBM and APACPH conferences that participants of either conference will be able to attend the other conference for the early/membership fee. So, anyone who wishes to attend both conferences, should indicate this when registering.

Contact details

Please direct any inquires about the ICBM program to Brian Oldenburg and about any local organisation matters to Nick Kotchabhakdi.
We look forward to welcoming everyone to the 9th International Congress of Behavioral Medicine in Bangkok, Thailand at the end of 2006!

Brian Oldenburg, Program Chair
Naiphinich Kotchabhakdi, Local Chair