Doctoral Dissertation Award

Purpose of the Award

This award recognizes the most outstanding doctoral dissertation/thesis in information science the preceding twelve months.

Eligibility

The nominee must meet the following qualifications:

For this award, “information science” is considered to include all the communication activities and information science and technology fields noted in the first paragraph of Article II, “Purpose,” of the ASIS&T Constitution and Bylaws, published on the ASIS&T website.
Authors must have completed their doctorates in the time period between April 1, 2022 and March 31, 2023.
Author must be a current member in good standing of ASIS&T.
Prior award winners, current members of the Awards & Honors Committee and current members of the Board of Directors are not eligible.

Criteria

Submissions will be judged on the following criteria:

Importance of the topic to theory development and/or practical applications in information science
Soundness of methodology
Organization and clarity of the presentation
Quality of data (when applicable)

Nominations Process

Nominations must be submitted by 11:59 pm US Pacific Time on the deadline date via the designated online portal.

Nominations must include the following only:

Name, affiliation, and contact information of the dissertation author;
The final, submitted version of the entire dissertation
A letter of endorsement from the nominee’s dissertation advisor

Jury

A jury of five members (including the Jury Chair) and one alternate shall be appointed by the Awards & Honors Committee at the recommendation of the Jury Chair. Jury members must:

Be a member in good standing of ASIS&T;
Not be a member of any other ASIS&T committee;
Not submit a nomination for the award in the year of their jury service; and
Declare any conflict of interest related to any nominee for the award and recuse themselves from the jury should the conflict be deemed significant by the Jury Chair (in which case the alternate would be appointed).

Selection Process

The jury will utilize both asynchronous scoring and synchronous discussion to arrive at a final decision as to who wins any award.
Through the evaluation platform or system, jury members will rate each nominee on a scale of 10 (highest) to 1 (lowest) on each of the five criteria listed above. Jury members should also submit a brief synopsis summarizing the most exemplary accomplishments of that nominee.
Only one winner will be selected in a given year. In the event of a tie that cannot be resolved through synchronous discussion, the jury chair will identify an additional jury member to break the tie. This new jury member will evaluate only the tied nominations and will rate them using the same criteria used by the other jurors.
In the event that the Jury decides that none of the submitted dissertations should be recognized, no award may be given that year.
The jury chair shall use the qualitative feedback from the jury as well as their own judgment to write a ~ 250-word citation stating the rationale for making the award.

Nature of the Award

The Doctoral Dissertation Award was established in 1974 and is administered by the Awards & Honors Committee and sponsored by the Association. The award consists of a US$1,000 prize, a certificate, and up to US$500 towards travel or other expenses of the award recipient, contingent upon the recipient’s attending the ASIS&T annual meeting. The winner may be given the opportunity to present a summary of the doctoral research at the ASIS&T Annual Meeting. If runners-up are designated, they will receive letters of “honorable mention,” signed by the ASIS&T President, but shall not share in the award.

Presentation of the Award

The award shall be presented at the ASIS&T Annual Meeting.

Important Dates

Jury Appointment: March 15
Submission Deadline: March 31 (or adjacent business day)
Selection Deadline: May 15