EASE Awards 2022/23

The EASE Awards for 2022/23 were announced at an online event on Wednesday, 7 February 2024. Congratulations to all those nominated by our membership and, of course, our award winners.

View the recording of the event

Best EASE Initiative – for a project or development from across EASE which has made a big impact on our community in 2022/23

Winner - EASE Editorial School for Journal Editors training course

This eight-module online training course was designed on behalf of EASE by Pippa Smart, PSP Consulting, with the aim of helping editors make their journals more visible, impactful, and full of engaging material.

The modules supported editors in these key topics:

improve the quality of editorial processes;
manage ethical issues effectively;
enhance the efficiency of peer review and production processes;
support more successful promotional activities;
comply with international standards, and
increase the chances of successful indexing applications.

Each module covered a different topic to help editors develop their journals, engage their editorial boards and subject area communities, and work with their publishers and industry organisations.

Over 200 people have completed the course which was run in March 2022, with EASE Chapters in Croatia, Romania and Turkey, November 2022 with EASE Chapters Ukraine and Brazil and in conjunction with the 17th EASE Conference in June 2023.

Community Contributor - awarded to a member who has been especially active in participating in or contributing to a wide range of EASE community activities in the years 2022-23

Winner - Professor Iryna Izarova

Editor in Chief Access to Justice in Eastern Europe; chair of EASE Ukraine, Ukraine

Iryna was nominated for her work leading and developing EASE Ukraine:

Planned and hosted a number of meetings and lectures for the Chapters’ regular meetings throughout 2022 and 2023
Attended in-person the 16th EASE Conference in Valencia, June 2022
Presented the results of a survey to assess the impact of war on editors of science journals from Ukraine at the 16th EASE Conference in Valencia, June 2022
Supported over 50 EASE Ukraine members to attend the Editorial School for Journal Editors in November 2022 and June 2023, including organising the translation of the course materials and moderating the breakout sessions in Ukrainian
Organised the translation of the EASE Retraction Form following the webinar Retraction in Academic Journals: Best Practices and Lessons Learned with Dr Ivan Oransky, Dr Herve Maisonneuve and Dr Evelyne Decullier in April 2023
Co-author of the article ‘Impact of war on editors of science journals from Ukraine: Results of a survey‘ published in European Science Editing in May 2023.

Rising star - awarded to a member who has joined in the Award period and quickly become involved in contributing to community initiatives in EASE.

Winner - Roohi Ghosh

Ambassador, Researcher Outreach, Engagement, and Success, Cactus Communications (CACTUS), India

Roohi joined EASE in February 2023, she was nominated for:

co-chairing EASE India, supporting the leadership team setting up various office systems and procedures
developing the Writing Retreats course for EASE India members
her role on the EASE Environment and Sustainability Committee, in particular developing the proposal to create an SDG Action Week for the scholarly publishing community.
organising the EASE/Cactus partnership for PRW2023, including a panel discussion ‘Breaking the mould: exploring the impact of peer review innovations on the future‘ attracting over 4000 registrations, an Ask Me Anything for the China audience on the ScienceNet platform, in which three EASE members answered over 70 questions on peer review in a two hour live session and several video shorts to support PRW2023. September 2023.

Awards for the EASE Journal, European Science Editing

Best original research paper or review paper as voted by members

Winner – Impact of war on editors of science journals from Ukraine: Results of a survey

Authors Maryna Zhenchenko, Iryna Izarova, Yulia Baklazhenko, Ukraine

Best reviewer voted by the Editorial Team

Winner – Roohi Ghosh, Ambassador, Researcher Outreach, Engagement, and Success, Cactus Communications (CACTUS), India

Best Original Research or Review paper awarded by the ESE Editorial Advisory Board

Winner – Needs of early-career professionals in STM: Findings from two surveys

Authors: Erin Foley, Rachel Moriarty, Kerys Martin

The panel thought this was a great study on workplace cultures that affect many EASE members and our extended network of colleagues. It contains many enlightening results, and prompts activities that the publishing industry (and our own committees at EASE!) might wish to address and get organisations thinking more about the needs of their early career employees and members.

Knowing how to support people at early stages of their careers, and being active in doing so is really important, and this is a valuable addition to the literature providing organisations take heed! We look forward to the third iteration of this project!

Best Viewpoint paper awarded by the ESE Editorial Advisory Board

Winner – Challenges of qualitative data sharing in social sciences

Author: Tanja Vuckovic Juros

The awards panel agreed this highlights a field where there is a growing amount of discussion (and ‘anecdata’) and, this paper captures some prominent issues well.

The social sciences and humanities are often a secondary consideration or overlooked entirely in much of the discussions around research and research practices. This viewpoint reflects on the implications of reward structures and cultural pressures towards transparency and open science practices that risk penalizing the social sciences, for its own best practices of ethical and integrity considerations for handling qualitative data.

Awards for the 17th EASE Conference, Istanbul, Turkey, 1-3 June 2023

Members’ choice – best conference session

Winner – Session 7: Digital Tools to Help
Chair: Octavian Andronic, Carol Davila of Medicine, Romania

Speakers:

Camelia Diaconu, Archives of the Balkan Medical Union, Romania;
Gareth Dyke, Research Square, Hungary;
John Willinsky, PKP, USA;
Rachael Lammey, Crossref, UK

Members’ choice – best poster

The International Journal of Cancer enforces strict quality control of the cell lines used in biomedical research

Authors: Nicole Yvonne Souren, Konstantina Falida, Stefanie Heck, Franca Bianchini

View the poster

View the video presentation

View the transcript

Pau Award - in recognition of her considerable contribution to EASE over many years the EASE Council awarded Pippa Smart with the Pau Award for services to EASE

Pippa Smart

PSP Consulting, UK

Pippa’s many achievements and contributions include:

Editing the 2002 and 2013 editions of the Science Editors’ Handbook
Delivering her ‘How to be successful journal editor’ course on a number of occasions as a Conference workshop
Member of the Strategy team from 2016-2018
Editing the EASE e-newsletter from 2016-2022
President from 2018-2020
Speaking a numerous conferences and webinars
Instrumental in transitioning ESE to an open access format and negotiating sponsorship for it from ARPHA, 2020
Leading the first virtual conference in June 2020 and the second in June 2021 including securing significant sponsorship for both events
Creation of the Editorial School for Journal Editors and delivery of 3 courses, March 2022, November 2022 and June 2023
Gifting the use of her Medical Journal Editors course content to EASE.

Please note that EASE Council members were not included in the nominees for either the Rising Star or Community Contributor awards. Our Awards Scheme seeks to recognise those from within our community who have made a significant contribution to EASE during the Awards period.

Similarly papers authored by Council members, those on the Journal’s Editorial Team and those on the International Editorial Advisory Board, were not considered for the European Science Editing Best Paper award.

2020/2021 Award Winners

The 2020/2021 awards were presented at on event in December 2022. Read about them here, and view the recording of the event.