The Early Career Researcher Award.

 Details:  

1. Eligibility Criteria: This award will be open to first authors who were students and postdoctoral researchers at time of initial submission. Papers may be co-authored, but the student should be the senior author. Early Career Researcher includes students and postdocs with a maximum of 3 years past PhD.

2. Process: The nominees will be chosen by members of the Editorial Board to reflect the diversity of topics in Paleobiology. Papers are automatically considered when meeting eligibility criteria. The nomination criteria will be: Quality and originality of research, importance to immediate research community, importance to broader paleontology research community, and potential for paper to generate future research. The editorial board will rank and choose the winner. Like other PSEC awards, Council will approve the award and the winner(s) will be announced in the spring along with other PSEC awards.

3. Benefits for winners: In addition to the prestige of the award, the lead author of the winning paper will receive free membership to the Paleontological Society. Winning papers will appear as a collection on the Cambridge website. The paper will be featured in the Editor's choice section with a blog post. 

The first award will be given in 2027 (covering submissions made in 2026). 

See our instructions for authors here.