J. Lawrence Angel (JLA) Student Award

American Academy of Forensic Sciences Physical Anthropology Section

Competition Guidelines

Eligibility

  • Person(s) eligible for the competition include students who are matriculated in an anthropology program at the time of the paper submission. In case of multiple authors, both authors must satisfy this requirement.

  • Student must hold membership in the Physical Anthropology Section of the AAFS at the time the scientific presentation is given. Students who do not hold membership at the time of abstract submission must submit an application for membership concurrently with their abstract submission.

  • The author (s) of the presentation must be a student(s) as define above (1.). Papers co-authored by faculty or other non-students are not eligible under any circumstance.

Requirements

  • Abstracts are to be submitted on the official American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) form by the official deadline. Abstracts will be accepted or rejected for presentation by the Physical Anthropology Section Program Chair.

  • The student(s) must notify the Section Program Chair at the time the abstract is submitted that the presentation will be entered in the JLA award competition. The Program chair will notify the Competition Chair who in turn will determine eligibility.

  • For both podium and poster presentations, one electronic final copy of the complete manuscript/presentation must be sent to the JLA award committee Chair, dated no later than January 15. A complete manuscript consists of text, illustrations, and bibliography. The committee does not accept submissions of theses or other larger works. All manuscripts must be abbreviated versions that represent a reasonable facsmile of a conference paper manuscript (12-15pp).

  • The author, or at least one of the authors in a multi-authored presentation must present the paper or poster in person at the AAFS meetings.

Judging Criteria

  • The quality and content of the manuscript and the presentation

  • The general organization and format including a clear statement of hypothesis.

  • Clarity of presentation (use of visuals, ease of information extraction, diction, etc.)

  • The application/relevance of the research to forensic anthropological practice.

  • The ability of the presenting author to answer questions about the research (both podium and poster presenters are expected to remain available to the committee members to answer any questions).

  • Special consideration will be awarded for original and creative research that furthers the goals of forensic anthropology.

The results of the competition will be announced in the Physical Anhtropology Section News of the AAGFS Newsletter following the Annual meeting. Each participant will receive a notification of the results from the committee Chair. Winners will be officially recognized at the annual section and general business meeting of the AAFS in the following year.