Award categories

All about the awards and how they are chosen

Outstanding Papers

The Outstanding Papers form the backbone of the awards. Each journal published by Emerald is invited to select a winner of the "Outstanding Paper" award and up to three "Highly Commended" awards from the previous year's volume. As these are chosen following consultation amongst the journal's editorial team, many of whom will be eminent academics or managers, the winning authors will know that their paper was one of the most impressive pieces of work the team will have seen throughout last year. We often find previous winners have noted their award on their CV or list of publications.

Read a short piece on how the Outstanding Papers are chosen.

Paper with Best Practical Implications

Emerald has always held to the philosophy that research in the area of business and management should have relevance for practitioners founded in rigorous academic research. The AACSB’s 2008 Impact of Research states, "schools be required to demonstrate the value of their faculties’ research not simply by listing its citations in journals, but by demonstrating the impact it has in the workaday world", and this principle is perfectly encapsulated in Emeralds strap line: "Research you can use".

Outstanding Reviewers

Peer reviewers are the guardians of the body of knowledge, ensuring that every published paper makes a genuine contribution. They also provide an immensely valuable service to authors – the advice from reviewers is some of the best they will receive on developing as an author and researcher. This award recognizes that, without the efforts and dedication of our reviewers, Emerald journals would not have the right to be called scholarly.  

Leading Editors

The Leading Editor awards acknowledge the high commitment editors have to their journals and their efforts to raise and maintain the standing of the journals. Leading editors have worked hard on journal development and sought to comprehensively promote their journal to both authors and readers. They may have nurtured new authors, networked and shared ideas with other journal editors, contributed conference papers and promoted the journal at conferences.

Outstanding Service Awards

Outstanding Service Awards are usually given to editorial contributors to mark many years of service and support for their journals. Previous winners have included Dilys Wells, founder of Nutrition & Food Science and the journal's editor for over 30 years, Michael Thomas, Founding Editor of Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Graham Cornish and Maurice Line, giants in the field of library scholarship and both former editors of Interlending & Document Supply.

Outstanding Special Issue

The Outstanding Special Issue is intended to recognize the role special issues play in bringing acknowledged experts to write for Emerald journals and ensuring the journals maintain their reputation for academic rigour and cutting-edge research. The award reflects the efforts made by the Guest Editor, the calibre and range of authors and an issue that presents leading-edge concepts but still maintains a broad appeal to the readership.

ASLIB-Emerald Award

This award is presented jointly by Emerald and partner organization Aslib (the Association for Information Management). The key feature is that the winner is decided by Aslib's own Groups and Branches network voting for the paper that, in their opinion, best reflects the aims and objectives of Aslib in bringing cutting-edge research and best practice to their profession.

Emerald Partnerships

Emerald Partnerships significantly increase the dissemination of authors' work with a variety of initiatives, including supplying content to professional associations, subject-specific websites, translators and database services. This award recognizes the efforts of partner organizations in bringing this quality of content and information to their members and service users.

Social Impact Award

Emerald firmly believes in publishing ‘research you can use’ i.e. research which has real-world applications ranging from use in the classroom, contributing to the body of knowledge, research which influences public thinking and policy making, to research which has a direct application to the world of work, bridging the gap between theory and practice. One of the ways we seek to demonstrate this by making it more transparent to researchers, readers and users, that we seek to publish research which makes a tangible difference for the good of society. As a definition, the term ‘social impact’ refers to how our actions affect the social fabric of the community and wellbeing of individuals and families. In light of this we launched the Social Impact Award in 2010.

Best New Journal Award

This award is to highlight new journals that are publishing outstanding quality research in current, strong and evolving subjects. A best new journal will have a good balance of content within it, also a journal with an International authorship and EAB will stand out. Journals that have been launched in the last three years will initially be eligable for this award.

Impact of Research

Emerald is exceedingly passionate about publishing research which has an impact. In the light of this the Impact of Research Award is launched in 2011. Four journals have been chosen to pilot this inaugural award as they have made a significant subject-specific contribution. The eligible papers have been published at least 5 years prior to judging and can go back as far as the first issue of the first volume.The winning article must be considered ‘seminal’ in the community. Ideally, it should seek to explicitly demonstrate the significant impact it has had on one or more of the following areas: the body of knowledge, practice, teaching and learning, public policy making, society and environment or the economy.

Awards for books

For the previous years we have run the Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence program for our journals. We are passionate about recognizing and rewarding the efforts of our authors and editors and celebrating the outstanding contributions many have made, not only to our journals, but to the body of knowledge itself. Following the success of the awards with our journals and the acquisition of Emerald books, we included books in our awards program in 2010. Initially there are four categories:

Outstanding Author Contribution Award

This initiative is to reward those authors who have contributed something new and of significant value to the body of knowledge, either in terms of approach or subject matter.One chapter per book series can be chosen each year, this will be selected by the Series Editor and if applicable, volume editors or an editorial board can help make the decision. 

Read a short piece on how the Outstanding Author Contribution winners are chosen.

Leading Series Editor Award and Leading Volume Editor Award

The Leading Editor Awards acknowledge the high commitment editors have to their book series and their efforts to raise and maintain the standing of the series. Leading editors have worked hard on series development and sought to comprehensively promote their series to both authors and readers. They may have nurtured new authors, networked and shared ideas with other editors, and promoted the series at conferences.

Outstanding Service Award

Outstanding Service Awards will be given to editorial contributors to mark many years of service and support for their book series.

Emerald Management Reviews Citations of Excellence Awards

Emerald Management Reviews is an online database of over 290,000 summaries of articles from the world's top management publications. All the 300 titles (not just Emerald journals) which feature on its accredited journal list have already been independently judged to be the best but, every year, 50 out of the 20,000 papers assessed are singled out by the independent review team for a special Citation of Excellence Award.

Most Downloaded Article Award

Academics are increasingly being asked to consider what the impact of their research may be. When considering impact factors, Emerald believes that usage is an important measure of quality. In 2011 for the first time we will be rewarding the top ten articles with the highest download figures in 2010 and also the article with the highest download figures in each of our subject taxonomies.