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Call for SCIFORCE Young Scientist Award Nomination

Definition and Guidelines; Last Updated: February 15, 2021

The SCIFORCE Young Scientist Awards (YSA) recognize the highest quality papers that are first authored by young scientists at the SCIFORCE publications. The authors are requested to submit the manuscript in respective journals and a letter of nomination, to participate in the SCIFORCE Young Scientist Award competition. The monetary value of the YSA is $500 USD, along with SCIFORCE Young Scientist Awards Certificate.

SCIFORCE Young Scientist is someone who is or was a student at a recognized university at most two years prior to the paper submission deadline.

The submitted articles with nomination are adjudicated by senior editors and will be short listed. The shortlisted articles are called for virtual presentation  

If a paper is accepted to the editorial board and the first author is a Young Scientist, then the author should be automatically considered for SCIFORCE Young Scientist Award. There is no need for a separate application process. However, it required nomination letter stating that the author is participating the competition

Written proof of eligibility under the above definition will be requested if the status of the author is challenged. The final decision of eligibility will be decided by the Editorial board Chair in consultation with the Award Coordinator and/or SCIFORCE President.

The Award Coordinator is appointed by the SCIFORCE Board; should be a member of the Board or a senior member of the SCIFORCE community. The role of the Award Coordinator in the process is administrative, he/she does not vote and refrains from influencing the result. If the Award Coordinator has a conflict of interest with any of the candidate papers, the coordinator is replaced by the SCIFORCE Board with someone who is free of conflict.

Program chairs select ~25 papers, by review score and recommendations from reviewers and program committee members. The Award Coordinator invites preferably 5 committee members from the editorial board Program committee or senior members of the SCIFORCE community. None of the committee members shall have conflict of interest with any of the candidate papers. The committee shall be balanced in areas of expertise, to cover the topical range of the candidate papers. The committee is assembled well in advance before the deadline, to leave sufficient time for deliberation.

The committee reduces the long list to the top 15 or so papers. Each committee member is expected to read each paper, but not expected to provide in-depth review. The committee members have access to the final papers with author names and affiliations, reviews, discussions, and review scores. The committee members are not required to rank the papers. Each committee member gives each paper a score of 0 or 1. Each committee member can select more than 15 papers with a score of 0, however, no more than 15 with a score of 1. The committee members submit their short lists to the Award Coordinator in advance of the deadline, leaving time for discussion of occasional ties of score. The Award Coordinator sums up the binary scores for each paper. The highest scoring papers constitute the short list. If there is a tie between candidate papers, the Award Coordinator holds a discussion via email or in situ before presentation of the first candidate paper, in order to finalize the short list.

The committee members receive the short list of papers and the presentation schedule. Usually, there are some poster-only papers among the candidates. In order to provide an equal chance for all papers, the committee considers only the poster presentation. The committee members attend the poster presentation of all candidate papers. If for any reason, a committee member misses the poster presentation, the Coordinator arranges for a make-up poster viewing. The committee members may choose to attend the oral presentation too, but that is not necessary. The committee members evaluate the quality of scientific contribution made by the Young Scientist author and his/her understanding of the contributions, therefore the poster presentation and discussion is critically important to judge the Young Scientist author’s competence and understanding. No topical balancing is done, only the scientific quality of the paper matters and the committee members use their expertise and best judgment to select the best papers. Each committee member enters the rank number for each paper.

The Award Coordinator sums up the rank numbers for each paper. The highest scores are the winners. During the editorial board, the Award Coordinator calls a meeting, the committee discusses the outcome and resolves any tie. If and only if there is a tie, secondary considerations, such as topical balance may be considered.

The award coordinator ensures ethical integrity for the process. Should a potential conflict of interest be discovered during the process, the conflict shall be resolved without affliction to the chances of the competing authors and papers, by making appropriate changes within the committee , such as removing the conflicted committee  member.

The awardees, with their institutional affiliation, should be announced individually during an award ceremony of the editorial board. The shortlist should also be presented at the award ceremony of the editorial board and on the editorial board’s websites.

The SCIFORCE Society provides $500 USD for the YSA annually.

The awards are sponsored by the SCIFORCE Society and are made by SCIFORCE cheque

The call for nominations is throughout the the year preceding the award (e.g. 12/2021 for the 1/2022 award)

 

Further details will be given yearly with the call for award nominations.

Queries should be directed to the SCIFORCE Society Awards Coordinator.