Area Prize

The Area Prize for New Research in Geography

2016 Winner

Brendon Blue, The University of Auckland
‘But what do you measure?’ Prospects for a constructive critical physical geography
(co-authored with Gary Brierley)
Area 48 190-197

View previous winners.

Purpose
Part of Area’s mission is to be accessible to new researchers, including postgraduate students and academics at an early stage in their careers. The purpose of the Area Prize is to encourage submissions from new researchers and to reward excellent geographical research. The winner receives a cash prize of £500.

Eligibility
To be eligible for consideration, at the time of submitting their paper, authors should be engaged in full or part-time postgraduate research, or be within three years of the completion of their PhD, or of equivalent professional standing. This time limit excludes any periods of formal career breaks taken for family care responsibilities, health or other personal reasons, or periods spent working outside academia (e.g. in a business or policy environment). Only the lead author of multi-authored papers will be considered; all single authored papers will be considered.

The assessment process
Papers are subject to the normal Area refereeing process and, if accepted, are published. Towards the end of each calendar year the final list of all the papers published in that particular print volume number (i.e. Vol. 45 for 2013) will be known. At that stage, all of the papers eligible for the Area Prize will be collated. Authors will be contacted by email and asked to confirm their eligibility. If they do not respond within the time frame, their paper will not be considered. The Editor’s Committee will then decide which paper to award the prize to. The final decision will be made in relation to Area’s mission to publish the very best of geographical research and scholarship across the field of the subject. The Editor’s decision is final.

Award of the Prize
The winner of the Area Prize will typically be announced to the recipient in April of the awarding year, and officially at the AGM of the RGS-IBG together with the other RGS-IBG prizes. Any questions concerning the Area Prize for New Research in Geography should be addressed to the Managing Editor of Area, Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), 1 Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AR | email journals@rgs.org | tel +44 (0) 20 7591 3026 | fax +44 (0) 20 7591 3001.