Best Paper in Health Sociology Review 

The TASA Best Paper Award for Health Sociology Review (HSR) is a biennial process that uses academic peer review to reward papers of outstanding quality published in HSR. The prize is awarded to the paper judged by the panel to be the best of those published in the previous two years of Health Sociology Review. Symposia or parts of symposia, replies or rejoinders, notes and book reviews (but not review essays) are excluded from consideration.

The HSR BP Award is presented in odd years at the TASA annual conference.

Voting Process

The voting process takes place February-April, every second ‘odd’ year (eg. 2021, 2023, 2025 and so on). Eligible papers include those appearing in the six issues of HSR published across the previous two-year period (e.g. January 1 2015 – December 31 2016).

In the year that the Prize is to be awarded, a selection committee of ten members is assembled, comprising the seven members of the HSR editorial team, and an additional three IEB members, at least one of whom should be located outside of Australia. None of the members of the selection committee should have authored a paper which would be deemed eligible for inclusion in the voting process.

Round 1 (February): The total number of papers eligible for inclusion is divided by the number of panel members (n=10). Each panel member is assigned one set of papers to review. Each paper is assigned a number between 1 and 5. Panel members will be asked to provide points against the following criteria: 1: excellent; 2: very good; 3: average; 4: poor; 5 very poor.

Round 2 (March): The Joint Editors and two self-nominated members of the selection committee review the papers ranked ‘excellent’ and determine a final shortlist of three papers.

Round 3 (April): All ten members of the selection committee review the final shortlist of three papers and rank those papers from 1 (best) to 3, providing brief comments to support their decision.

Assessments will appraise both quality (eg. methodological/analytical rigour, theoretical approach and innovation) and alignment with the aims and scope of HSR (eg. addresses matters of central importance to health sociology; extends the international standing of HSR).

The shortlisted paper with the highest ranking is named the winner, and the decision of the selection committee communicated to the TASA Executive for ratification. The winner of the prize is notified and the result publicly announced at the annual TASA conference dinner.

Prize

Best Paper in Health Sociology Review (awarded in odd years; 2017, 2019, 2021).

For this Award the successful recipient will receive the following:

1. Economy airfares to attend the TASA Annual Conference, where the award will be presented. For winners located outside of Australia, a maximum of AUD$1,500 will be reimbursed. In the case of two or more authors, one author will receive this prize.
2. Complementary TASA Annual Conference registration and dinner. In the case of two or more authors, one author will receive this prize.
3. A TASA ‘Best Paper in HSR’ certificate. In the case of two or more authors, each prize recipient will receive an individual certificate;
4. A listing on TASAweb’s ‘Recipients of the HSR Best Paper Prize’. All authors will be recognised in this listing.

Kevin Dew is in the top left image of this page and Natalia Luxardo is on the right. 

This Award is supported by Taylor and Francis