Monash Law School Students’ Publication Prize 2008

Number of Annual Awards

There will usually be at least one award per year.

Award Benefits

The award shall be a prize of $1,000. Additional awards may be available for runners-up depending on the standard of the publications. The prize may be shared between two people. A Certificate will be given with the monetary prize.

Eligibility

In order to be eligible for the award, a student must:

have been enrolled in any degree program in the Faculty of Law, Monash University at the time the publication was undertaken and have undertaken the research as part of that program;
have a publication published between 1 January 2008 and 31 December 2008. The published work must:
- include a by-line, footnote or statement that the research was undertaken in the author’s capacity as a student of the University (even if the nominee is also affiliated with another University/Institution which is also mentioned);
- be published in one of the accepted DEEWR categories of publications (ie a book, book chapter, fully refereed journal article, fully refereed conference publication;
- have been included in the Faculty’s 2008 Research Publication Collection.

Staff not Eligible

HDR candidates who are staff members of either the Law Faculty or other Faculties within Monash University or other tertiary institutions are not eligible.

Nomination

Students whose publication meets the above eligibility criteria will be invited to submit their nominations. Nominations should be filled in by students and their supervisors on the nomination form.

In order to be eligible for the prize, applicants must submit:

a copy of a completed nomination form with supporting statement from the students’ supervisor as to the value of the publication; and
a copy of the nominated publication.

Applicants are strongly advised to supply any supporting materials where available, i.e. book reviews, referee’s report(s) and evidence of citations or impact.

Where a student has more than one supervisor, it is adequate that just one supervisor writes the supporting statement.

The supervisor’s statement should address the selection criteria.

A student may submit a separate nomination for each eligible published work.

Jointly Authored Publication

In the case of jointly authored work, the nomination must clearly indicate which author is responsible for which sections of the publication. The percentage of contribution of the author to be nominated for the Monash Law School Students’ Publication Prize must be at least 50%.

If two authors are both Monash Law students at the time the work was accepted for publication, a joint nomination will be accepted and students are able to share the prize. The co-author who is not a Monash Law student at the time the work was accepted for publication is not eligible to share the prize.

Selection Criteria

The awarding of the prize will be considered by a subcommittee of the Research Committee.

In determining the winner/s of the award, the sub-committee must consider which nominated work most strongly demonstrates evidence of:

scholarly activity, as evidenced by discussion of the relevant literature, an awareness of the history and antecedents of work described as well as a knowledge of current developments, and a format which allows a reader to trace sources of the work through citations, footnotes etc;
originality, that is, it is not a mere compilation of existing works;
veracity/validity through a peer validation processes or by satisfying the commercial publisher;
increasing the stock of knowledge; and
being in a form that enables dissemination of knowledge (eg text well-organised, clear, easy to read and important terms defined.)
referee reports of the nominated publications.
Book reviews of the nominated publications (if relevant).

The selection sub-committee will reserve the right to withhold an award in a particular year if it believes that nominations are not of a sufficiently high calibre.

Closing Date

30 June 2009 with the HDR Coordinator, Faculty of Law.

Presentation of Award

Presentation is to be made at the Faculty student prize ceremoney which is normally held in March each year.

Academic Transcripts

Official academic transcripts will record the award of the prize if possible.