We are now accepting entries for our annual Publication Awards, highlighting the best publications of 2022. The Awards aim to celebrate and promote the work of people within Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust or at the University of Nottingham working in the fields of mental health or learning disability.

The award categories are as follows:

  1. Best overall publication
  2. Best publication when the author has published no more than six previous publications
  3. Best publication flowing from work during doctoral studies or as part of a doctoral dissertation
  4. Best publication by an employee of Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust who does not have a substantive contract with a university
  5. Best publication by an employee of the Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust or the University of Nottingham, co-authored with a person with lived experience of mental distress or a current or former user of mental health services
  6. Best publication (including blog posts, newspaper articles, or similar) by a person with an affiliation to the Institute of Mental Health who has lived experience of mental distress or is a current or former user of mental health services

Each award carries a prize value of £100. All winners will be announced during the IMH Research Day, May 2023.

Nominations can be submitted by the author or by others (professors are not eligible for prizes). A publication may be submitted for more than one category but can only win one prize.

Please submit a copy of your paper, along with the entry form below to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 28th February 2023. Publications must be a pdf copy showing the date and journal title, not a draft.

docx2022 Publication Awards - entry form

Prize rules

Rules for all prizes

A1.  Nominations for each of the prizes can be accepted from any person, including the nominee himself or herself or another author of the publication to which the nomination relates.  The nominating individual must state clearly which prize(s) the individual is nominated for, and any nomination not so doing will be deemed to be a nomination for prize 1 only.  Where there are multiple authors cited, the nominee’s contribution to the publication in question must be fully explicated - failure to do this may result in the entry being deemed ineligible.  The nominator must also provide contact details for the nominee to allow verification of eligibility.   A form for submitting nominations is contained at the end of these rules.

A2. ‘Publication’ includes an article, book chapter, or book on a subject relating to mental health, learning disability, or a related subject.  Scholarly materials published in electronic format may be considered.  Edited collections are not eligible for prizes.

A3.  Publications may be nominated in more than one prize category but will not be awarded any more than one prize.  All submissions will be considered for prize A, best overall publication. 

A4.  Only one publication can be entered per nominee, with the exception that a nominee submitting for prize E is also permitted to submit a secondary paper in a different prize category.

A5.  Subject to the specific rules below, nominees must at the time of publication be employees of the Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust or employees or students of the University of Nottingham.  Full professors are not eligible for nomination.

A6.  The nominator must provide an electronic (PDF) copy of the publication to Darren Wright (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) by 28 February 2023.  The publication must have been published in electronic or hard copy format in the calendar year ending 31 December 2022.  Material accepted for publication but not yet published are not eligible for prizes.  No paper may be submitted in more than one year for a prize.

A7.  The winners of the competitions will be determined by members of the Institute’s publication competition committee.   The Committee may seek such advice as it deems appropriate in reaching this determination.  Where a Committee member is co-author of a paper under consideration for a prize, or where a Committee member is the supervisor of the doctorate relevant to a nomination for prize C, he or she shall recuse himself or herself from deliberations regarding that paper.  The Committee members will also determine any dispute regarding eligibility.  Decisions made by the Committee members are final.

A8.  The Committee members may, in its discretion, decline to award a prize.  It may also in its discretion publish or announce a short list for any prize.

A9.  The prizes will be awarded to the successful candidates at the Institute’s Research Day, and details of the winners will be published in Institute publications and on the Institute’s website.

A10.  The winners will be invited to present their findings at future Institute event/s.

Specific rules relating to prize B

B1.  For the purposes of prize B, a previous publication is a scholarly publication.

B2.  Publications published in the relevant year will not count as ‘previous publications’, if they are published after the publication for which the nominee is nominated.

B3.  Students and non-students are eligible for this award.

Specific rules relating to prize C

C1.  The publication relevant to the nomination for this prize may be significantly re-written following submission of the doctoral dissertation, but it must flow substantially from the doctoral studies of the nominee, or from additional work tangential to the dissertation but completed while the nominee was a doctoral candidate. 

C2.  Work completed while a student was registered for a master’s programme such as an M.Phil degree is eligible for this award, so long as the master’s programme is the initial stage of a doctoral programme.

C3.  Persons will be eligible for prize C if they:

(a) did the work to which the nomination refers while part of a doctoral programme at the University of Nottingham; and/or

(b) did the work to which the nomination refers at a different university, but at the time of nomination are employed by the University of Nottingham or the Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

Specific rules relating to prize D

D1.  A ‘substantive contract with a university’ means a contract with the university which imposes a requirement that the individual will engage in research-related activities.  Contracts with a university for occasional teaching and related duties will not be considered a substantive contract.

Specific rules and guidance relating to prize E

E1. This prize is intended to promote co-production between employees or students of the University of Nottingham/Trust employees and people with lived experience of mental distress/users of mental health services.  The usual eligibility criteria apply; nominees must be students or employees of the University of Nottingham or employees of the Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.  Rule A4 also applies to this category.  People with lived experience who meet this criterion are welcome to apply but must show co-production with other service users/people with lived experience of mental distress.

E2. People with lived experience of mental distress and users of mental health services who do not meet the eligibility criterion in rule E1 should consider, where appropriate, submitting for prize F below.

Specific rules relating to prize F

F1. This prize is intended to give voice to people with lived experience of mental distress and users of mental health services, groups traditionally silenced in academic and professional contexts.

F2.  In addition to the publications noted at rule A2, the committee will consider blog posts, newspaper articles, and other similar material.

F3. In addition to the individuals in rule A5, this prize is open to service users of the Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and people who have an affiliation to the IMH.