The American College of Nutrition is a 501 charitable non-profit organization established to encourage the scientific investigation of nutrition and metabolism. The ACN publishes the Journal of the American College of Nutrition and hosts scientific conferences in the US and in Europe.
History
The American College of Nutrition was founded in 1959 with the stated purpose of enhancing nutrition and metabolism knowledge among physicians and professionals from all disciplines with a common interest in nutrition, and to promote the application of such knowledge to the maintenance of health and treatment of disease.
The ACN is governed by a member-elected Board of Directors. Committees are charged by the board with the responsibilities for the various operations of the ACN, and report to the Board of Directors.
President (2011)
the president of the ACN was Harry G. Preuss, MD, MACN, CNS.
The European chapter of the American College of Nutrition was established in 2001. In 2011 the ACN said that its European chapter had hosted eight scientific conferences.
Membership
Members of the American College of Nutrition are clinicians, researchers and academicians, medical students, and international nutritionists. Categories of membership include Fellow, Master, Member, Student/Trainee, Emeritus, and Honorary. Two credentials may be granted to ACN members who meet certain criteria:
Fellow of the American College of Nutrition (FACN)
Minimum Requirements for Fellows of the ACN:
Shall hold a doctoral degree from an institution recognized by an accrediting board authorized by the US Department of Education, or from a foreign institution with equivalent standards.
Shall have demonstrated expertise in patient care, research, and/or teaching of nutrition as evidenced by one or more of the following:
# Certification by one or more ACGME recognized specialty boards
# Outstanding experience in nutrition as a practitioner and/or educator, documented by appropriate letters of recommendations
Shall have co-authored five or more publications in peer reviewed medical or scientific journals relevant to nutrition with lead authorship on at least one paper.
Master of the American College of Nutrition (MACN)
This category is reserved for Members/Fellows who have demonstrated, over an extended period, outstanding service to the ACN or have been recognized nationally or internationally for outstanding contribution in the field of nutrition.
Publications
The Journal of the American College of Nutrition is a peer-reviewed journal published every two months by the ACN. It has an impact factor of 2.36. The JACN includes:
Original and innovative research in nutrition with useful application for researchers, physicians, and other healthcare professionals
Critical reviews on pertinent nutrition topics that highlight key teaching points and relevance to nutrition
Letters to the editors and commentaries on important issues in the field of nutrition
Abstracts on nutritional topics with editorial comments
Book reviews
Abstracts from the annual meeting of the American College of Nutrition
According to the Integrity in Science project, the Journal of the American College of Nutrition failed to disclose the ties of the editor and authors of their June 2006 supplement on sodium to the food industry. The Editor in Chief of the JACN subsequently published a letter in the Journal noting the ambiguity in the conflict of interest disclosure process then in place and a new documentation procedure was put in place to remedy this.
By 2011 the ACN had held 51 annual scientific conferences.
Corporate funding
The ACN accepted funding from for-profit corporations until 2011. In 2011 the ACN changed this policy: "The American College of Nutrition accepts no funding from for-profit corporations. This policy fosters our mission and our ability to advance unbiased science without compromise."
