Essay competition announcement and updates.
Short title: Cooperate to Compete 2015
To promote interest in the Research Cooperative, and to encourage cooperation among our members, I am herewith offering a small prize of NZD 200 (equivalent to approx. USD 150) for the best short essay submitted by members for publication by the Research Cooperative.
One or two runner-up essays will also be published, by invitation, if the authors concerned wish their essays to be published.
Who can submit an essay?
Any person who has joined the Research Cooperative before the essay deadline, and who has no close personal or family relationship with the judge(s) or Research Cooperative administrator.
Further conditions are noted below (1-10). Ammendments or additional information will be added if needed (before the deadline for submission).
1. Only one essay may be submitted by each author, and the essay topic will be one of the following:
(a) Autobiographical account of the author's first academic publication, research job, editing job, translation job, or scientific illustrating job.
(b) Historical account introducing any academic journal, newsletter, or other series (regardless of whether it is still being produced).
2. Essay language should be English.
3. Minimum essay length is 600 words, maximum length is 1200 words. An essay title is required, followed by author name and affiliation(s). One image can be included, if wanted (jpg file). The quality and relevance of the image will also be assessed as part of the judging process. All content of the essay,including the image, must be original work of the author (single author only), and should not have been published elsewhere previously in any language. The essay should be submitted as an email text or as an attached document with minimum text formatting (no full caps, and no centering), in any standard English font. Please state the essay word count at top of the essay (the word count should include the text and acknowledgments, image legend if an image is included, and references if included).
4. Deadlines
The deadline for submission is 10th February, 2015.
The deadline for informing submitters of results is 10th March, 2015.
5. The essay must be reviewed, edited or translated by at least one other person (not necessarily a member of the Research Cooperative). Each reviewer, editor, or translator should be chosen by the author and should be acknowledged at the end of the essay. This cooperation requirement is a key part of the essay contest.
6.The acknowledged reviewers, editors, or translators should not include the author. Authors who translate their own work into English should seek the help of a reviewer or editor for the English version. The reviewer, editor or translator must not be the essay judge or judges (see 8 below).
7. If the essay is accepted for publication, as award-receiving or runner-up, it will not be reviewed or edited by the contest judge, before publication. The Research Cooperative and judge(s) reserve the right to not give any award, for any reason (e.g. insufficient number of acceptable entries). Essays will be judged on content, writing style, clarity of expression, and appropriateness for the audience of members of the Research Cooperative. Construction, grammar and spelling will be assessed as part of 'clarity of expression'.
8. For the 2015 contest (our first), the judge will be the founder and current administrator of the Research Cooperative (Dr Peter Matthews). All submitters can expect to receive: (i) acknowledgment that their essay has been received, and (ii) a report of their own result before award and runner-up essays are made public.
9. Decisions of the essay judge will be final and non-contestable.
10. The Research Cooperative requests a license from each submitting author to publish her or his essay in any format, electronic or print, if the essay is award-receiving or runner-up (under the Creative Commons license that applies to all content of our network). Each author will retain full copyright, translation rights, transmission rights, and other author rights for the published work. Submission of an essay for consideration in the competition will be understood as agreement with this and the preceding conditions.
For essay contest enquiries, or to suggest ammendments and additional information needed, please use the subject line "Cooperate to Compete 2015" and contact the organiser, Dr Peter Matthews (email: researchcooperative@gmail.com).
Thank you!
No submissions were received.
This contest was not adequately prepared or promoted, but the concept may be useful in some way for others in the future.
PJM (2021)