Outstanding Paper Awards for Earthquake Spectra are awarded to authors of papers judged to be outstanding contributions to earthquake hazard mitigation. Papers of recipients must be judged to have made a significant impact on the profession, to provide a significant advance in the state-of-the-art or understanding of a particular topic, to be of exceptional technical quality with concise and informative illustrations and to be well written for a broad audience. Only papers published in issues of Earthquake Spectra during the preceding calendar year shall be eligible for consideration.
Nomination and Selection Procedures
All nominations for the awards shall be reviewed and recommended by the Editorial Board of Earthquake Spectra. Recommendations shall be made through the Honors Committee in confidence to the Board of Directors. Award(s) shall be presented to recipients as appropriate at the Annual Meeting of the Institute. The number of awards per year is to depend on the quality of papers and shall not exceed two. In some years, when no paper is deemed exceptional, no award shall be granted. Each author of papers chosen for the award shall receive a framed citation.
- Nomination Protocol
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- Nominations shall be requested from the membership via the EERI Newsletter. Suggestions for nominations for the Outstanding Paper ward shall also be solicited using a check box on the manuscript review form. Nominations shall be requested in the time interval determined by the Annual Meeting and the third Board Meeting, which usually occurs in August.
- All nominations shall be submitted in written format to the Executive Director and chair of the Honors Committee with the understanding that if nominees are selected for recommendation to the Board then written citations (~ 1/2 page) will be requested. Nominations shall be forwarded to the Editor of Earthquake Spectra
- Candidates for these awards are to be selected for recommendation by the Honors Committee from nominations submitted by the membership or the Editorial Board of Earthquake Spectra. Activities of the Editorial Board pertaining to submission of the nominations shall be chaired by the journal’s editor, unless a paper affiliated with the editor has been nominated, in which case, the board activities shall be chaired by an ad hoc chairperson. Each nomination for an outstanding paper award shall be accompanied with a succinct written justification of 1/2 to 1 page in length. Each justification, not submitted by a member of the Editorial Board, shall be reviewed by a member of the Board most familiar with the technical field. All nominations together with justifications and reviews shall be submitted to the Honors Committee. The Distinguished Lecture published annually in Earthquake Spectra shall not be eligible for the Outstanding Paper Award. Written recommendations for the Outstanding Paper Awards shall be submitted to the Honors Committee by August 31. If no candidates are recommended in any calendar year, then the editor of Earthquake Spectra should so indicate in writing.
- Upon receipt of nominations, nominators shall receive a letter of appreciation from the Institute, but nominees shall remain confidential pending formal selection and award of the honor.
Selection Protocol
- Candidates shall be reviewed and selected annually by the Honors Committee for recommendation in confidence to the Board of Directors. The Honors Committee shall meet bi-annually, once at the Annual Meeting of the Institute, and once in September or October, following the third annual Board Meeting in August.
- Conflict of interest and bias in the selection of awardees shall be avoided with the utmost of care. Nominees for any of the awards that are also serving as members of the Board of Directors, the Honors Committee, or the Editorial Board for Spectra, shall be precluded from all deliberations concerning the selection of candidates for the award for which they have been nominated. Should preclusion of a Board Member or Committee Chair be required, Board and Committee activities required to nominate and select candidates for the award shall be chaired by an ad hoc chairperson selected by other members of the Board or committee. All oral and written deliberations concerning selection of the ad hoc chairperson and candidates for the corresponding award shall be kept in the strictest of confidence from award nominees.
- Written justifications for one nominee and one alternate may be recommended to the Board each calendar year. Citations for each candidate will be prepared prior to consideration by the Board by prominent and well-qualified members of the Institute. If no candidates are recommended by the Honors Committee, the Board should be so notified in writing.
Award Protocol
- The recipient shall be notified prior to the Annual Meeting by the President of the Institute.
- The award shall be announced and presented at the EERI Annual Meeting.
- The award together with pictures of the recipient shall be announced in the Newsletter.
- The recipient shall receive a framed citation
- Citation materials for recipients selected by the Board at their last meeting of the year shall be reviewed immediately by the Executive Director in order that they might be resubmitted to the original authors, if necessary, for improvement in time for printing, framing, and presentation at the EERI Annual Meeting.
