TASA Awards
Jean Martin Award | Jean Martin: The Person | Nomination Form | Previous Recipients of the JMA Award | Jean Martin Award Guidelines | Panel Members 2003
JMA Guidelines For Conveners & Judging Panel Members
- The JMA prize will be awarded to the thesis judged by the panel to be the best PhD thesis submitted for consideration, passed by an Australian tertiary institution during the designated period. It is awarded every two years.
- The JMA will be publicised by the TASA Office, via TASAweb, the elist, Nexus and letters to heads of departments/schools. The letter should include the guidelines as well as the short statement about the JMA.
- The judging criteria are:
- Excellence in scholarship
- Balanced treatment of sociological theory and research
- Relevance to social policy
- Preferably, but not necessarily, work done in one of Jean Martin's major areas of interest, which are defined as: migration, community and family studies, the concept of 'ethnicity', ethnic politics, social class, theories of culture and of social change.
- The judging panel will comprise: a Convener appointed by the Executive Committee of TASA; the President or Immediate Past-president of TASA or nominee; and 4 other members from the TASA general membership appointed by the Convenor (including the previous recipient/s of the prize – the contact details will be provided by the TASA Office). Depending on the number of theses submitted, the Convener is allowed discretion to invite further TASA members on to the panel. The Convener should aim to achieve a broad representation of disciplinary interests in constituting the panel. Candidates of a PhD eligible for the Award will not be members of the panel.
- In 2003, 35 theses were submitted for consideration. To enhance the administration of the JMA, the TASA Executive Committee has decided that all submissions:
- Require the applicants’ PhD supervisor or HOS/HOD to co-sign the application form b. All theses are submitted only on CD-Rom in pdf format.
- The TASA Office will administer the prize. All theses (including candidate's declaration and payment of the processing fee) will be submitted to the TASA office. The TASA Executive Officer will process the payments and check TASA membership of candidates. The Convener will receive the submitted theses from the TASA Office and organise the mailout of theses to panel members as required.
- The Convener is required to confirm that no panel member has a conflict of interest with any of the candidates, such as being their supervisor or close colleague. An email of candidate names is sent to panel members asking them to respond if they have a conflict of interest with any of the candidates. Where a conflict of interest exists, the panel member is excused from reviewing the particular candidate’s thesis
- The judging process will comprise two rounds:
- Round 1: The Convener shall send an equal number of theses to each panel member to read. Each thesis will be read by 2 panel members. Panel members will be required, by a set date, to award their theses a score on a scale from 0 to 5 using the judging criteria noted above. The Convenor will collate the scores and rank the theses in order of merit.
- Round 2: The 3 (or more) theses with the highest total score will be designated as a shortlist. In the event of ties, the shortlist may be longer than 3 theses. Copies of the shortlisted theses will be sent to all panel members to read and rank, by a set date, the top three theses in order of merit. Theses will be awarded 3 points for each 1st preference, 2 points for each 2nd preference, and 1 point for each 3rd preference. Each panel member must provide a one-paragraph justification for their scoring of each shortlisted thesis. These comments are for internal use only, remain confidential and will not be provided to candidates. The Convenor will collate the scores and the recipient of the Award will be thesis receiving the highest number of total points. In the event of a tie on this calculation, the Award will be given to the thesis receiving the most 1st preferences.
- The prize will only be awarded if a majority of panel members have participated in each of the two rounds.
- 10. The voting process, including any communication, is confidential. No candidate receives any of the scores or comments made by the panel members – they do not get any specific feedback.
- Once the Award has been determined, the Convener is required to:
- Prepare a short report to the TASA Executive on the determination and outcome of the Award
- Inform the panel members of the outcome, reminding them to keep the outcome confidential.
- Prepare a congratulatory letter to the successful candidate, as well as a separate letter to notify unsuccessful candidates, to be sent on TASA letterhead (cc-ed to the TASA Office).
- It is the responsibility of the Executive Officer (EO) to ensure that the successful candidate has been informed and to make arrangements for their attendance at the annual TASA conference, as well as informing the Nexus editor/s to invite the recipient to contribute a synopsis of their thesis to be published in Nexus.
- The TASA President will send a congratulatory letter to the successful candidate, as well as a separate letter to notify unsuccessful candidates, to be sent on TASA letterhead (cc-ed to the TASA Office).
- The TASA President will send panel members a letter of thanks and invite them to attend the annual conference, with conference registration paid by TASA and administered through the TASA Office. Please note that as stated in TASA policy, this does not apply to elected or appointed Executive members.
- The Convener is required to present a report on the JMA at the AGM (though the recipient is announced at the Conference Dinner). The Convener is also required to write a report for the first issue of Nexus following the conference.
- The recipient of the Award will be officially announced during the annual TASA conference and will be presented by the Convener during the Conference Dinner, or in their absence, by the TASA President