Distinguished Paper

HERA members are encouraged to submit their research for HERA’s Distinguished Paper Award. The award winner is announced at the annual conference and receives an honorarium as well as the opportunity to present at the American Educational Research Association.

HERA solicits unpublished papers for its Distinguished Paper Award for the Annual Conference.  HERA will confer the award on a paper that has been judged to best meet the established criteria.  The winning paper is automatically included on the HERA conference program and author(s) must present their paper in person at the conference. Author(s) must be a current standing member of HERA and also renew their membership for the following year. If not currently a member, author(s) may submit membership dues for the current year for their paper to be considered; membership is not pro-rated.

In addition to the local honor and a monetary award of $500, the recipient(s) of the HERA Distinguished Paper Award receives an invitation to present at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, where the winner is also recognized with a certificate and invited to the reception.


HERA Distinguished Paper Award Criteria

  1. Significance of Topic or Problem (e.g., has educational significance; purpose and rationale clearly provide importance of problem or issue)
  2. Scholarship and Objectivity (e.g., is research and theory-based, theoretical perspective apparent; relationship to literature articulated; limitations noted and discussed; conclusions drawn are reasonable and supported)
  3. Organization and Coherence (e.g., conclusions relate to study and findings; findings and conclusions are related to other research and to expressed purposes)
  4. Clarity of Presentation, Language, and Style (and also of design; data presentation, such as tables and figures; and technical factors, such as procedures and statistical analyses)

Submissions will be blind-reviewed by a panel of judges using the criteria set forth in this Call for Distinguished Papers.  Award will be conferred on the paper that meets all criteria and is judged most distinguished among the submissions.

Paper Format Guidelines

Your paper must conform to the following requirements to be considered:

  • Body of paper no longer than 4,000 words, excluding abstract, tables, figures, and references
  • Abstract no longer than 250 words (not included in 4,000 word count)
  • Format guidelines applied from in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
  • No identifiable author information in the abstract or body of paper
  • File format be Rich Text Format (.rtf) or MS Word (.doc)
  • Filenames be only alpha numeric in composition (A-Z and 0-9) and include extensions
    • Examples
      • Acceptable names: NativeReading3.doc, CognitiveOverload8.rtf
      • Unacceptable filenames: Native & Reading.doc, Cognitive-Overload.rtf

Paper Submission

Intent to Submit

You must send an email to herainfo@hawaii.edu using the Subject Line “Intent to Submit, Distinguished Paper” by 4 pm HST October 30 of each year to indicate that you intend to submit a paper for consideration. Your intent to submit does not bind you to submit an actual paper. However, a note of withdrawal would be appreciated. In your intent to submit email, please include the author(s), tentative title, and brief description.

Submitting your paper

Submit your paper using the Subject Line “Distinguished Paper Award Submission” as an attachment via email to herainfo@hawaii.edu by 12 midnight Hawaii Standard Time on November 16th of each year. In your email, please include the following:

  • Author(s), Title of Paper, and contact person’s name, mailing address, email address, and daytime phone number
  • Keywords for the research paper
  • Indication of whether you are a current member or will be submitting membership dues for the award year

After receipt by our office, you will receive an email notification of receipt within 3 working days. If you do not receive a notification of receipt, please email us at herainfo@hawaii.edu or call 956-6507.

Notification

The lead author of the winning paper will be notified by December 18th of that year.

Should you have any questions, please call Truc Nguyen at 956-6507 or email herainfo@hawaii.edu.