AFOMP Journal Prize Guidelines for Best Paper


This prize is to be awarded annually for the best paper on original work published in an AFOMP Journal (Radiological Physics and Technology, and Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine and Journal of Medical Physics) authored by an AFOMP member.

Objective: To recognize excellence in medical physics published work; based on originality, science, clarity, and potential impact on practical applications or theoretical foundations.

Presentation: The AFOMP Journal Prize will be presented annually at the Asia-Oceania Conference on Medical Physics (AOCMP) to the individual(s) judged by AFOMP’s Awards and Honours Committee (AHC) to have written the best paper.

Selection/Nomination process: Papers published in any of the AFOMP journals, receiving the highest praise from international referees will be shortlisted for the award. The editor of each journal will nominate up to 10 such publications for a given calendar year; i.e. up to 30 publications will be shortlisted for the award in total. The nomination of selected publications must be made to the Chair of the AFOMP Awards and Honours Committee in writing and include a concise justification for the nomination.

Criteria for selection:

  1. Lead authors must be from an AFOMP region.
  2. Lead author must be a current medical physicist working in the AFOMP region.
  3. Publication must be an original scientific or technical work.
  4. Entries must have been published in the previous calendar year.
  5. Entry must have received highest praise from international referees during the review process.

Judging Process: The nominated publications will be evaluated by the Awards and Honours Committee and a recommendation will be put forward to the AFOMP executive for consideration.

The nominated publications will be judged on:

Originality (10 points): Subject of the research is clearly defined and addresses novel issue(s) of importance to the discipline of medical physics. For example: a) presenting a major piece of work in writing for the first time; b) extending on an existing piece of work; c) developing a new product or significantly improving an existing one.

Science (10 points): The experimental design is relevant and effective to address the aims of the research. The conclusions are appropriate to the data and results and the limitations are identified.

Clarity (10 points): The structure and writing of the paper effectively communicates the research conducted and outcomes in a logical flow that is clear and pedagogical for the reader Impact (10 points): The contribution that research makes to medical physics, society, health systems or environment or even beyond the contribution to academic research.

Conflict of Interest: Members of the AHC are not allowed to judge presentations of which they are authors or co-authors, or from the same institute. Other conflicts are to be identified as deemed necessary.

The Award will consist of a cash prize of US$400, certificate and a memento.

In case of more than one author the cash prize will be distributed to the lead author.