Best B&AH Paper Award - Submit your research to B&AH and win a free registration to the SEH Congress 2021
The Spanish Herpetological Society publishes the call for the Best B&AH Paper Award – edition 2020, supported by the collaboration from Fundación Biodiversidad.
The purpose of the present call is to provide an incentive to the publication in Basic and Applied Herpetology (B&AH), the scientific journal of the herpetological societies of Spain (AHE) and Portugal (APH), of papers reporting the work conducted by young researchers in any ambit of the herpetological science.
All authors meeting the requirements established in the award conditions will be eligible for the Award. At the time of submission, the author will have the option to indicate whether she/he wants her/his article, if accepted for publication, to be considered for the Award. None of the process stages will involve any cost for the authors.
AWARD TERMS AND CONDITIONS
- Description of the process
The Award will be given to the main author of the article obtaining the highest score at the end of the evaluation process. Both the author and her/his article will have to fulfil the eligibility criteria established in the bases 2 and 3 below, respectively. Once eligibility of both the author and the article is confirmed, the evaluation will be conducted on the article exclusively.
- Eligibility of the authors
The main author, and candidate to the Award, will be identified at the time of submission and shall meet at least one of the following three requirements relative to her/his academic career:
A) To be registered at the time of submission, or having been registered at any time during the two years previous to the submission date, in an undergraduate or graduate academic program in any University or equivalent institution of high education.
B) To have at the time of submission, or have had at any time during the two years previous to the submission date, a contract, scholarship, internship or permit for stay in a research centre, if the purpose of such contract, scholarship, internship or permit for stay is unequivocally the development of research tasks leading to the attainment of a Master or Doctoral degree.
C) To have obtained the degree of Doctor within the two years before the submission date.
The B&AH editorial team can ask the author to provide documental proof of the fulfilment of one of the eligibility requirements. Failure by the author to present, upon request, such proof in a verifiable way will result in her/his declaration as ineligible for the Award.
There is no requirement relative to the nationality and affiliation of the candidates. It is not necessary to be AHE or APH member to be considered eligible.
- Eligibility of the articles
To be considered eligible for the Award, the article shall meet the following requirements:
A) It must have been submitted for consideration for publication in B&AH through the journal’s online submission system (accessible at https://ojs.herpetologica.org). There is no deadline for submission, but the deadline for acceptance (see requirement B below) must be taken in consideration, as the time from submission to eventual acceptance is unpredictable.
B) It must be accepted for publication, after the pertinent peer-review process, before October 31st 2020, in order to guarantee its publication in the volume corresponding to 2020.
C) The main author, to which base 2 above refers, must appear as either the first or the corresponding author of the submission. This requirement has to be met at all times from submission to final publication of the article. Any change in the authors’ list during the review process resulting in failure to fulfill this requirement will suppose the declaration of the article as ineligible to the Award.
- Evaluation process
The evaluation of the articles will take place only if there is a minimum of three eligible articles, according to the requirements described in bases 2 and 3 above. If the number of eligible articles is lower than three, B&AH editorial board will opt for any of the following actions, which will be accordingly published and communicated to the candidate authors:
-Extend the deadline of submission acceptance referred in base 3 above, always guaranteeing that the eligible articles accepted after that date can be published in the volume corresponding to 2020.
-Declare the Award null and void, and eventually call a future edition to which the articles considered eligible thus far would automatically attend.
If the number of eligible articles is three or more, the evaluation will be carried out by a committee, whose members shall:
-Be scientists of recognized prestige within the discipline of herpetology.
-Not be part of B&AH’s editorial board.
-Not have acted as reviewers of any of the candidate articles.
-Be exempt of conflicts of interest relative to the candidate authors.
The editorial board of B&AH will establish the number of committee members depending on the number of eligible articles. This number will not be, in any case, lower than three members.
The committee will assign a score to each candidate article that will depend on its originality, clarity and relevance. The list of candidate articles with their corresponding scores will be delivered to the B&AH editorial board no later than March 31st 2021.
- Resolution and award announcement
The editorial board of B&AH will declare the main author of the article having obtained the highest score after the evaluation described in base 4 above, as winner of the Best B&AH Paper Award – edition 2020, if the score obtained by the article is at least 60% of the maximum achievable score. If none of the candidate articles obtained a score above 60% of the maximum achievable, the Award will be declared null and void.
The Award winner will be informed no later than April 30th 2021.
- Prize
The Award winner will receive:
-A certificate as winner of the Best B&AH Paper Award – edition 2020
-A free registration to the 21st European Congress of Herpetology that will take place in 2021
-Free accommodation during the congress
-A travel grant of 300 € if the institution of affiliation institution of the awardee is located in Europe, or of 600 € if it is elsewhere
The prize is nominal and shall not be transferred to a person different from the Award winner. Payment of registration fees and accommodation during the Congress for the winner will be processed directly by the Spanish Herpetological Society. Travel grant will be transferred to the winner bank account upon reception of copies of the certificate of attendance and travel itinerary.
The Spanish Herpetological Society reserves the right to change these terms and conditions at any time without prior notice.
