The Prize
for New Scholarship

The ‘Printing Historical Society Prize for New Scholarship’, is a competition for a new article on any printing-historical subject, suitable for the Society’s Journal. The winning author will receive the ‘Printing Historical Society Prize for New Scholarship’ for that year, a purse of £500, membership of the Society for one year, and publication in the PHS Journal (and digitally, subject to the usual processes of peer-review). The competition is open to all, but those new to the subject (current students, early-career scholars, independent researchers and anyone new to printing history) are particularly encouraged to take part by sending their article (between 4000 and 8000 words, in Word format) to the Journal Editor, along with a short covering letter describing their research. The deadline for submissions is 1 January, and the results will be announced in the following Spring.

The Editor (editor@printinghistoricalsociety.org.uk) will be happy to answer queries and discuss possible subjects and approaches for submissions.

Details of the current application are published on the news page.

Rules of the PHS Prize for New Scholarship

Published October 2022

1) The competition is to be called the ‘Printing Historical Society Prize for New Scholarship’ (or ‘PHS Prize’ for short)

2) All are eligible to enter the competition, but scholars and practitioners who have worked in the field for no more than seven years are particularly encouraged to submit an original article on any printing-historical subject. The article should be between 4,000 and 8,000 words, and not previously published. Deadline 1 January 2023 (and annually thereafter).

3) The competition will be judged by a panel comprised of the members of the PHS Grants and Prizes Committee and the Journal Editor. Only the Editor will know the identity of each competitor; the other members will read submissions anonymously and thus judge them solely on their literary qualities, level of scholarship and of novel contribution to the discipline.

4) The article judged best will be awarded the title ‘Printing Historical Society Prize for New Scholarship’ for that year, a purse of £500, membership of the Society for that year, and publication in the PHS Journal (and digitally on the Society’s website, and other platforms as appropriate), subject to the usual processes of peer-review. The Society reserves the right not to make an award if no articles of suitable quality are received.

5) All articles submitted for the competition will be eligible for publication in the Society’s Journal, at the Editor’s discretion, and none may be published elsewhere until the results of the competition have been announced (the announcement of the results will be made before 1 March of the calendar year following that in which the competition is held).

6) Applicants for the Prize should send their article (in Word format), with a short covering-letter, outlining their research and status as a student, early-career researcher, independent scholar, librarian, printer, printmaker etc. to the Journal Editor by the deadline specified.