2010 Malcolm S. Knowles Dissertation of the Year Award

The AHRD Malcolm S. Knowles Dissertation of the Year Award is given to commend an outstanding doctoral dissertation that exemplifies scholarly work and contributes to the HRD field. We encourage doctoral graduates of the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 academic years to submit an abbreviated version of their completed dissertation according to the following guidelines.

2010 Submission Guidelines

The submission process has changed slightly from previous years. The submission should:

• Include a cover page that identifies:

• Dissertation title
• Author
• Author’s current affiliation
• Author’s current email address
• Author’s current telephone number
• Degree granting institution
• Academic year granted
• Dissertation advisor
• Dissertation advisor’s current affiliation
• Dissertation advisor’s current email address
• Dissertation advisor’s current telephone number
• Dissertation committee members

• Have 1” margins on all sides (left, right, top, bottom)
• Use 12 point font
• Follow formatting as defined by the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) (5th ed.).
• Be no more than 21 pages, including all front and end matter (e.g., cover page, references, appendices)
• Be sent as an MS Word document
• Be received in the AHRD Office via email (office@ahrd.org) by the deadline of 5:00pm EST, 1 October 2009

Submissions not following the above guidelines may not be considered. The AHRD Malcolm S. Knowles Dissertation of the Year Award Committee evaluates each submission against five criteria:

• The evident theoretical and practical importance of the problem
• The appropriateness of methods used
• The extent to which the results justify the conclusions
• The contribution to new knowledge on research and practice in the HRD profession
• The quality of the writing and reporting

Based on the committee’s initial evaluation, the top finalists then submit their full dissertation for review. The committee identifies the single winner based on review of each finalist’s full dissertation using the same five evaluation criteria. These top finalists are expected to register for the 2010 AHRD International Research Conference in the Americas held in Knoxville, Tennessee, 24-28 February 2010, where the award will be presented.

Submission for this award is not considered submission for the 2010 AHRD International Research Conference in the Americas proceedings, and the winning dissertation is not published in the conference proceedings. If you are interested in getting your dissertation published in the conference proceedings, you are encouraged to submit a version your paper conforming to the Call for Papers guidelines for the 2010 conference found on the AHRD website (www.ahrd.org). Authors retain the copyright to their manuscripts.

Prior to October 1, please address any questions to the AHRD Malcolm S. Knowles Dissertation of the Year Award Committee Chair, Martin B. Kormanik (mkormanik@odsystems.com). Good luck!

Deadlines

• Nominations must be sent to the AHRD Office by October 1, 2009.
• Committee decision must be forwarded to the Awards Program Chair, Maria Cseh, and the AHRD Office by February 1, 2010.

If you are interested in getting your dissertation published in the conference proceedings, you are encouraged to submit a version of your paper conforming to the Call for Papers guidelines for the 2010 conference found on the AHRD website in the Conference area. Authors retain the copyright to their manuscripts.

Award Winners

Back to the Awards Page