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Jesse H. Shera Award for the Support of Dissertation Research

Guidelines

  1. This award is intended to provide recognition for dissertation research employing exemplary research design and methods.
  2. The award is restricted to research designs that have been approved by the doctoral candidate’s dissertation committee and that are about to be employed or are in the initial stage of use. Completed research is not eligible for consideration.
  3. Any research design is acceptable, but the topic of the research must relate in at least a general way to library and information studies.
  4. Eligibility is not limited to LRRT members.
  5. Candidates for this award should submit a two-part paper based on their approved dissertation proposal. Part one should be a brief problem statement not to exceed 500 words. Part two should be a summary of the design/methodology portion of their dissertation proposal, not to exceed 2,500 words. The approval of the research by the doctoral candidate’s dissertation committee should be supported by a brief statement from the dissertation committee chair.
  6. Papers will be evaluated in a double-blind, peer review process, on the basis of the following criteria:
    1. Clarity of the research design.
    2. The appropriateness of the design and method(s) for the research problem.
    3. Adequacy of the description of the methodological procedures.
    4. The definitions of important terms where needed.
    5. The adequacy of the data collection instrument(s) or technique(s).
    6. Appropriateness of the proposed data analysis for the research problem and methods.
    7. Innovation of the research design.
  7. The Committee reserves the right to give no award.
  8. The author of the winning paper will receive a Certificate.

To enter the 2009 competition for this award should submit electronic copies of each article along with a cover letter in PDF format, or FOUR (4) copies of the paper, postmarked no later than January 31, 2010, to:

Debbie Rabina, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Pratt Institute, School of Information and Library Science
144 West 14th Street, 6th fl.
New York, NY, 10011-7301

Email: drabina@pratt.edu
Website: http://pratt.edu/~drabina/index.htm

View list of previous Shera winners