# FORWARD

Kunio Aoki

The world of today is called the age of affluent information. However an inundation of published or presented scientific papers have given some puzzles to the scientists how to select and evaluate them under their busy time.

Epidemiology has a wide domains in study fields and various kinds of works have been conducted and conducting in many countries of the world, responding to their specific living conditions and environments. These papers are published on many different journals in different countries which are not so easy for each epidemiologist to access them even by computer aids. On the other hand, rapidly increased international exchanges in person and materials require more broad knowledge and technologies in epidemiological fields for researches, preventing diseases and promoting good quality of human life.

Training programs and the meetings, intranational or international provide good opportunities to learn such information, but they have to raise rather large funding.

The main object of the 14th International Scientific Meeting(ISM) of the International Epidemiological Association(IEA) was to exchange information from their recent achievements of the studies and to discuss them. Talking, tete a tete, at the meeting place may deepen mutual understandings on the findings and ways of thinking efficiently. The program committee of the 14th ISM had provided a series of special lectures or special sessions on newly established scientific findings, and theories and more effective strategies in epidemiology and prevention, asking to the leading epidemiologists in the world for the members participated in the 14th ISM. Two keynote lectures, 18 special lectures and five main symposia, attractive to the audience were selected based on the opinions and advices from the special program committee inviting the eminent epidemiologists in other countries.

However, two or more such special sessions were inevitably placed in the same time on the day by the limitation of time, except keynote lectures.

Considering such background, some staff of the organizing committee had proposed to publish these papers as a monograph before or after the 14th ISM for the convenience of the members, but I could not decide it by financial situation of the 14th ISM. Several persons, including the IEA members, had whispered me that it may feasible to raise fund for such publication even after the meeting. Although such proposal seemed to be unusual in funding, however, I had made up my mind to publish it considering its implication, then I asked Professor Yoshiyuki Ohno, Secretary General of the 14th ISM to organize an independent editorial board to compile a monograph, which is separated from the 14th ISM in funding. Fortunately most of the lecturers have agreed with this proposal and submitted the manuscripts to the secretariat under their very busy time, although the commission to make a paper for the lecturers was late. It was grateful that Professor Hiroshi Yanagawa, Chairman of the Japan Epidemiological Association(JEA) and the Councillors of the JEA have unanimously supported this scheme and the Editorial board has decided to publish it as a Supplement of the Journal of Epidemiology. Fund raising for the publication was done after the 14th ISM by the editors and myself.

I extend my sincere gratitudes and appreciation to all the contributors, the Japan Epidemiological Association and the donators in funding for the publication.

Finally I hope this issue may be of some use for epidemiologists and those who have interests in epidemiology for researches and practices.

President, the 14th International Scientific Meeting of the International Epidemiological Association.

President, International Epidemiological Association.

Professor Emeritus, Nagoya University (Department of Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine).

President Emeritus, Aichi Cancer Center.

Address for correspondence: Kunio Aoki, Aichi Cancer Center, 1-1 Kanokoden Chikusa-ku Nagoya, 464 Japan.