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The American Geophysical Union is accepting nominations for its 2024 journalism awards through 27 March 2024. This year, we offer:

Click here to submit a nomination

The Perlman and Sullivan awards each honor specific stories reported by journalists in the past year (i.e. 2024 awards honor stories published in 2023).

Journalists are welcome to nominate their own work for these awards, or someone may nominate a story or individual on the reporter’s behalf. Nominations may be from any country, in any language (English translation required), and in any news medium, except books. Please note stories published in Eos are not eligible, and that AGU does not currently offer an award for institutional science writing. Eligible news stories must be about one or more of the scientific disciplines represented by AGU and be published in an editorially independent journalistic outlet. A nominee may submit only one entry for each award in a given year (i.e., one entry for the Perlman and one entry for the Sullivan). Each award consists of a plaque and a $5,000 award; awardees also receive up to $1,000 in travel costs to attend AGU24 in Washington, D.C., and two tickets to attend the Honors Banquet at the conference.

Additional nomination requirements for the awards can be found below. Instructions for submitting a nomination can be found here. There are no fees for nominating your own or others' work for any of AGU's journalism awards.

Please note that no nominator and/or support letters are required for the Perlman or Sullivan Awards; the FAQs on the journalism awards website are for all AGU awards generall and can be ignored.

Questions? Contact AGU's Media Relations team at news@agu.org. 

 

Perlman Award

The David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism—News recognizes excellence in science news reporting, generally produced under deadline pressure of one week or less. It is named for the late David Perlman, longtime science editor of the San Francisco Chronicle.

This award recognizes excellence in reporting a news story or series that meets one or more of the following criteria: Brings new information or concepts about AGU sciences to the public’s attention, identifies and corrects misconceptions about AGU sciences, or makes AGU sciences accessible and interesting to general audiences without sacrificing accuracy.

The selection committee will also consider accuracy, initiative, originality and clarity. The committee may also consider the timeliness of the news story, whether it was published first, before other media outlets, and whether it contains information of exceptional originality, importance, surprise or secrecy.

Nominees:

  • Nominations are open to journalists working in any medium, except books.

  • A nominee must be the author of the submitted story. In the case of collaborative efforts, those involved must determine who is or are the nominee(s) up to four people, which can include contributors to the audio and visual aspect of the entry.

  • The nominee must be an author who is employed in one the following arenas:

    1. Print or electronic news publication,

    2. Broadcast or cable station, or broadcast network

    3. Freelance journalist.

  • A person or group may be nominated or may self-nominate for both the Perlman and Sullivan awards in one year. But no individual or group is permitted to win both awards in the same year.

  • Nominees who have won the Perlman Award during the past two award cycles are not eligible to enter a nomination for the Perlman Award for the current award cycle. (i.e., the 2022 and 2023 Perlman Award recipients are not eligible for the 2024 award.)

Entries:

  • Eligible entries must have been first published between 1 January and 31 December of the year prior to the award year (i.e., must have been first published between 1 January 2023 and 31 December 2023 to be eligible for the 2024 award)

  • Eligible entries must have been intended for, and available to, the general public;

  • Entries must be in English (or include an English translation).

  • A nominee may submit only one entry for the award in a given year. If a nominee has multiple entries, AGU staff will contact the nominee to clarify which story they'd prefer to advance to judging.

  • Eligible news stories must focus on one or more of the scientific disciplines represented by AGU. Click here for a full listing.

  • If each segment of a series was identified at the time of publication as being part of the series, the series is eligible to be judged as one entry. Alternatively, coverage of an ongoing activity, such as a scientific society meeting or a natural event, can be regarded as a series. However, no more than three segments of any series may be submitted for judging.

  • For most submissions, AGU will need a URL web address for the entry, which you can enter into the nomination form. However, for certain entries, you will also need to submit additional documents, which you can upload by means of the online nomination system.

    • BROADCAST/MULTIMEDIA REPORT: If your entry is a broadcast or multimedia report (i.e., video or audio), you will be required to upload a written transcript for the video or audio portions, which you can do by means of the online nomination system.

    • NON-ENGLISH REPORT: If your entry is in a language other than English, please be certain to upload a written translation, in the form of a PDF or Word document, which you can do by means of the online nomination system.

***

Sullivan Award

The Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism—Features recognizes excellence in science feature reporting, generally produced under a deadline of longer than one week. It is named for the late Walter Sullivan of The New York Times, who was the first recipient of the award.

This award recognizes excellence in reporting and writing a feature story or series that meets one or more of the following criteria: Brings timely information or concepts about AGU sciences to the public’s attention, identifies and corrects misconceptions about AGU sciences, or makes AGU sciences accessible and interesting to general audiences, without sacrificing accuracy. The selection committee will also consider accuracy, initiative, originality and clarity.

Nominees:

  • Nominations are open to journalists working in any medium, except books.

  • A nominee must be the author of the submitted story. In the case of collaborative efforts, those involved must determine who is or are the nominee(s) up to four people, which can include contributors to the audio and visual aspect of the entry.

  • Nominators are welcome to submit up to three parts of a multi-part series, or any select parts. The selection committee will evaluate all submitted parts of a series collectively as one submission.

  • The nominee must be an author who is employed in one the following arenas:

    1. Print or electronic news publication,

    2. Broadcast or cable station, or broadcast network,

    3. Freelance journalist.

  • A person or group may be nominated or may self-nominate for both the Sullivan and Perlman awards in one year. But no individual or group is permitted to win both awards in the same year.

  • Nominees who have won the Sullivan Award during the past two award cycles are not eligible to enter a nomination for the Sullivan Award for the current award cycle. (i.e., the 2022 and 2023 Sullivan Award recipients are not eligible for the 2024 award.)

Entries:

  • Eligible entries must have been first published between 1 January and 31 December of the year prior to the award year (i.e., must have been first published between 1 January 2023 and 31 December 2023 to be eligible for the 2024 award)

  • Eligible entries must have been intended for, and available to, the general public;

  • Entries must be in English (or include an English translation).

  • A nominee may submit only one entry for the award in a given year. If a nominee has multiple entries, AGU staff will contact the nominee to clarify which story they'd prefer to advance to judging.

  • Eligible stories must focus on one or more of the scientific disciplines represented by AGU. Click here for a full listing.

  • If each segment of a series was identified at the time of publication as being part of the series, the series is eligible to be judged as one entry. However, no more than three segments of any series may be submitted for judging. (Please note: Whereas coverage of an ongoing activity, such as a scientific society meeting or a natural event, may be regarded as a series for the Perlman Award, such coverage is not regarded as a series for submission for the Sullivan Award.)

  • For most submissions, AGU will need a URL web address for the entry, which you can enter into the nomination form However, for certain entries, you will also need to submit additional documents, which you can upload by means of the online nomination system:

    • BROADCAST/MULTIMEDIA REPORT: If your entry is a broadcast or multimedia report (i.e., video or audio), you are required to upload a written transcript for the video or audio portions, which you can do by means of the online nomination system.

    • NON-ENGLISH REPORT: If your entry is in a language other than English, please be certain to upload a written translation, in the form of a PDF or Word document, which you can do by means of the online nomination system.