Science Museum Group Journal Prize

The Science Museum Group Journal has now launched a new prize to encourage and reward research articles by talented young scholars. The Journal itself aims to provide open access to peer-reviewed research by international scholars, bringing together ideas across the broad areas of study that inform our work and fascinate our wide readership. This ambition can only be fuelled by the quality and originality of our contributors, now and in the future and the Journal is proud to take a role in encouraging and developing academic excellence.

The SMGJ writing prize of £500 will be awarded annually to the author of the best original research article which addresses research questions around science history, heritage, exhibitions, communications and public engagement.

Submission is open to all researchers in the early stages of their career and it is expected that the winning article will be published in the Journal. We warmly welcome submissions (in English) from international scholars which will deal with previously unpublished research, and the judges (our eminent Editorial Board) will especially look for work which takes advantage of the Journal’s capacity to feature rich imagery and multi-media.

The prize will be launched at the opening of our new Research Centre on 31st March 2016 and the deadline for the inaugural prize is 1st March 2017. For more information, contact the editorial team: richard.nicholls@sciencemuseum.ac.uk. 

The rules are as follows:
  • Articles submitted for the prize must be previously unpublished and it is expected that the winning article will be published in the Journal[1].
  • The prize will be judged by the Journal’s Editorial Board, and the judges will look particularly favourably on articles which make good use of the Journal’s capacity to include images, film and audio as an integral part of the content. The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
  • Submission is open to all researchers in the early stages of their career. Eligibility will be taken to cease after five years in relevant employment (for example a curatorial or other professional position in a museum) or, where relevant, five years after the completion of a PhD. Allowance can be made for periods devoted to family obligations or extended illness, at the discretion of the board.
  • Authors are invited to nominate their own papers and all articles that meet the criteria will be judged entirely on their own merit. Only one submission per author will be considered each year.
  • Submitted articles should be not less than 3000 words and not more than 10,000 words long.
  • Submissions from authors from all countries are warmly welcomed, though all articles must be written in English.
  • The submission deadline is 1 September of each year and articles submitted for the prize will be accepted at any time in the preceding year. The prize will normally be judged by the end of September and announced in October
  • The competition is closed to all staff and fellows from within the SMG Group. However, Collaborative Doctoral Students are not considered as coming from the group and are eligible to apply for the prize.
[1] Although submissions are accepted on the understanding that the author will publish the paper in the Science Museum Group Journal, this is at the discretion of the Editor. The Editor may also accept other excellent papers submitted for the prize as submissions to the Journal and put them forward for publication with the author’s agreement.

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