Dear Colleagues,

The ALISE/Eugene Garfield Doctoral Dissertation Competition Jury is accepting proposals for the 2012 Award.  Information below is also available on the ALISE website at http://www.alise.org/mc/page.do?sitePageId=55538.  Please help us by distributing this call widely – thank you!

Clara M. Chu,

Jury Chair

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(DEADLINE - June 30, 2011)

The Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) is now accepting proposals for its 2012 Doctoral Dissertation Award Competition. Up to two outstanding dissertations completed between December 15, 2009 and June 30, 2011 will be selected. Each winner will receive $500, plus 2012 conference registration and personal membership in ALISE for 2012. Winners of the Dissertation Competition will present a summary of their work at the 2012 ALISE annual meeting.

Doctoral students who have recently graduated in any field of study, or who will have completed their dissertations by the above deadline, are invited to submit two complete copies of their dissertation. Dissertations must deal with substantive issues related to library and information science, but applicants may be from within or outside LIS programs.

Submission Requirements

1. Two complete copies of the dissertation, and abstract of 200 words, and an email/postal return address must be submitted to the address given at the end of this notice.
2. The dissertation must have been accepted by the university within the 18 months preceding the deadline for submissions and must not have been submitted for any other ALISE award during the year it is submitted for the Eugene Garfield-ALISE Doctoral Dissertation Award. For the 2012 award, the acceptance time frame is December 15, 2009 through June 30, 2011.
3. The dissertation must be accompanied by proof of university acceptance, or by a letter from the dissertation advisor indicating the dissertation has been submitted to the university and will meet the university acceptance deadline requirement.

Judging

The ALISE Research Committee will judge the dissertations. In cases where the research or methodology warrants it, additional assistance will be obtained from ALISE members outside the committee. Dissertations will be judged according to the following criteria:

1. Significance of the research problem to the overall LIS field
2. Presentation of the relevant literature
3. Design of the study (i.e., appropriateness of methodology, selection of specific techniques and/or tests)
4. Conduct of study (i.e., application of methods of data collection).
5. Analysis and presentation of the data (i.e., quality of analysis, logic of findings)
6. Appropriateness of conclusions
7. Clarity and organization of the writing

The committee reserves the right to select no winning dissertation if in its judgment none of the submissions are considered satisfactory. Previous outstanding dissertations exhibited these characteristics:

• Good writing
• Strong synthesis of the literature
• Well-developed discussion of potential problems with frameworks, theories, models, and definitions used in the research-along with discussion of how the dissertation would overcome limitations
• Constraints on generalizing beyond the data provided or the study as designed
• Clear explanation of validity/appropriateness issues
• Discussion depth beyond a repeat of findings
• Answers to the "so what?" question

Two complete copies, including an abstract of no more than 200 words, evidence of acceptance, and an email/postal return address, must be postmarked no later than June 30, 2011 and sent to: