Journal of Applied Ecology ECR Reviewer Prize

In 2024, Journal of Applied Ecology is trialling an Early Career Researcher Reviewer Prize. The prize will be awarded at random to two eligible applicants, each being awarded £500 to contribute to their research.

Peer review is fundamental to the research process, helping to ensure rigour, gauge originality, and improve the quality of the final publication. These prizes are being offered to ECRs – who play a key but poorly recognised role in the peer review process.

To be eligible to apply for the prize, you must:

• Have completed two reviews for Journal of Applied Ecology in the last calendar year.
• Be less than 5 years post- Ph.D. or -D.Phil. experience according to the date of your graduation certificate (excluding career breaks, see Career Break Statement below for more details).
• Be the named reviewer listed in the system. If you were invited to co-review by your PI, please ensure that the review is transferred over to your name. 

Prize winners will be asked to share with the Journal of Applied Ecology team how they have used their prize, and we will be sharing this with the community via our blog, The Applied Ecologist.

You can read about the 2024 winners here.

How can I get involved?

To be eligible for the prize you have to be the named reviewer on two or more Journal of Applied Ecology papers in a calendar year. Peer reviewers are selected by our Associate Editors, if you would like to put yourself forward to be a peer reviewer for the journal, please fill in this short form and we can pass your details to the relevant Associate Editors.

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How does the prize process work?

• The prize is promoted throughout the year on our social media pages and blog. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and The Applied Ecologist blog.
• At the start of the year, we will contact all reviewers who have completed more than one review for us in the previous calendar year (please note that this is for two separate papers, re-reviewing a revised manuscript does not count towards this number).
• Contacted reviewers will be asked to fill in a short form to confirm that they are happy to enter the draw, and that they are an ECR, defined as less than 5 years post- Ph.D. or -D.Phil. experience (including pre and during Ph.D.) according to the date of your graduation certificate (excluding career breaks, see Career Break Statement below for more details).
• Each ECR reviewer will earn one entry into the prize draw for every review they complete beyond the first one. For instance, if you’ve completed two reviews, you’ll get one entry; if you’ve completed three reviews, you’ll receive two entries.
• Two winners will be randomly and anonymously selected from the ECR reviewer applicants.
• The Senior Editor team will assess the winner’s completed reviews to ensure that they meet expected standards of rigour. If the reviews are not deemed to be high quality, another winner will be drawn.
• The winners will be contacted by the Editorial Office to arrange payment of the award and asked to share with us their plans for the prize. Prize funds are to be used to fund research, attend international conferences, or further education and training within ecology.
• One year following the awarding of the prize, we ask that the winners provide us with a blog or podcast about how they have used their prize funds.

Career Break Statement

Parental leave, ill health and caring commitments are included as an extenuating circumstances. The total time of leave will be deducted from the total time that you are post PhD. For example, if you are 6 years post PhD we would expect you to be able to show you had been off for nearing on a year in order to be eligible.

How do I enter?

If you have received an email saying you are eligible to enter the draw, please complete the short form, below.