Carol Weiss Prize

To mark the tenth anniversary of Evidence & Policy, the journal launched a prize which recognises outstanding early career contributors to the journal. The prize was created in memory of Professor Carol Weiss, the first North American Editor of Evidence & Policy and a pioneer in the field, and it will be awarded every two years.

We are delighted to announce that the winners of the 2023 Carol Weiss Prize are Brian W. Gac, Hanna Yakubi and Dorie E. Apollonio. To celebrate their achievment their prize winning papers have been made free to access until 31 March 2023. 

Issues arising from the study design, conduct, and promotion of clinical trials funded by opioid manufacturers: a review of internal pharmaceutical industry documents
Brian W. Gac , Hanna Yakubi , and Dorie E. Apollonio

Why was this article selected?

"The opioid crisis is one of the 21st century's most harmful challenges to physical and mental health. Guc et al. have done an excellent job addressing this timely issue of enormous social and medical significance. It is also significant to Evidence & Policy because it highlights the potential risks to policy of ignoring or manipulating evidence. The editorial board also appreciated the authors' innovative use of an enormous corpus of documents to explore the (in this case, problematic) intersection of evidence and policy in ways that would not be possible through direct surveys or interviews." 

We would also like to give an honourable mention to Matthew P. Abrams, Janet Weiner et al. for their Research Article: 

Translating and disseminating a localised economic model to support implementation of the ‘Ending the HIV Epidemic’ initiative to public health policymakers [Open Access]
Matthew P. Abrams, Janet Weiner et al. 

Comments from the prize panel

"Although policymakers may often want to adopt policy that is evidence-informed, they must also use resources efficiently, which can introduce competing considerations. Abrams et al. provide health policymakers with practical insight into how to balance these considerations by showing how economic models can reveal the costs and benefits to adopting evidence-based practices in real-world settings. While this approach will be useful in a range of contexts, the editorial board was particularly impressed with their application in the context of HIV prevention and treatment, which are often costly and difficult to implement."

You can lean more about the prize winning article by reading the authors' post the Evidence & Policy blog: 

Research by opioid manufacturers distorted authorship and overstated findings

Prize
A prize of £100-worth of Policy Press books will be awarded to the winner.  The paper will be made freely available for a period of three months and promoted widely.

Eligibility
The competition is open to early career contributors to Evidence & Policy.  Applicants must be the first author of a paper published or accepted for publication since between 1 July 2019 and 30 June 2021 and must be able to demonstrate that they are at an early stage in their career, e.g. have completed a PhD no more than four years ago. Short-listed candidates will be contacted over Summer, with a request for a short supporting statement briefly justifying their status as an Early Career Researcher and outlining why the contributor should be awarded the 2021 Carol Weiss Prize.

Assessment Criteria 
A panel involving Editorial Board members will judge the applications on the written material provided; applicants will not be required to attend an interview.  The assessment criteria are:

• Original and promising contribution to the journal
• Early career researcher (this is broadly defined but must be justified by applicants)
• Research papers only
• Demonstrates rigorous social science methods and theory
• Novel contribution to evidence and policy studies
• Accepted or published between 1 July 2019 and 30 June 2021

The winner
There will be one winner every two years who will be asked to participate in some promotional activities for the publisher, Policy Press, relating to the article and the prize. 

Timeline

• Deadline for accepted articles – 30 June 2021
• Shortlisting panel meeting – July 2021
• Awards announcement – September 2021

Previous winners of the Carol Weiss prize

2019: Kristen J Mills, Jennifer A Lawlor, Jennifer Watling Neal, Zachary P Neal, and Kathryn McAlindon, ‘What is research? Educators’ conceptions and alignment with United States federal policies’

2017: Iris Stucki, ‘The use of evidence in public debates in the media: the case of Swiss direct-democratic campaigns in the health policy sector’

2016: William Allen, 'Factors that impact how civil society intermediaries perceive evidence'

Contact us
For more information about the Evidence & Policy Carol Weiss Prize please contact us at EvidenceAndPolicy@ed.ac.uk