The Charles F H Evans Award
Background Information
Charles Evans, MA, FSA, FSG, was one of the 20th
century’s leading medieval genealogists. He died in 1988 at the age of 84. His
work and his collected papers were the inspiration in 2001 for the establishment
of the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy (FMG) as a UK-based not-for-profit
educational charity. The objectives of the FMG are the advancement of public
education in the study of medieval genealogy and prosopography, the promotion of
research into medieval genealogy and the publication of the useful results of
that research. In pursuit of those objectives the FMG has developed an active website (http://fmg.ac/), published a journal (Foundations) and initiated an
Occasional Publications series starting with the Complete Works of
Charles Evans in book and CD-ROM formats to celebrate the centenary in
2003 of Evans’ birth.
The Charles F H Evans Award has been made possible by a
generous donation from a member of the FMG. It will be awarded by the
FMG Executive Committee on the recommendation of a panel of experts appointed by
the Committee. The Award will be given to the lead author of the best article
submitted which presents original or cutting edge research, leading to a major
advancement in a topic related to medieval genealogy.
Guidelines for Entries for the Award
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The competition is open to all, with the exception of
members of the FMG Executive Committee (trustees) or its employees1,
or previous recipients of the award.
We are particularly keen to encourage new scholars to submit entries.
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The judging panel will consider only those articles
submitted specifically as entries for the award competition. Entries will be
anonymised before presentation to the judges. The panel will
make recommendations to the Executive Committee.
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The decision of the FMG Executive Committee shall be
final, and there is no right of appeal.
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One prize of £7502 will
be awarded annually (provided suitable entries are received). The judges may
offer a higher award for exceptional work, at their discretion.
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For articles with multiple authorship, all co-authors
must confirm their agreement to the name of the lead author to whom any
prize money will be awarded. Any partition of the prize is a matter for the
lead author to determine.
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Entries must represent original research on British
or continental European medieval genealogy or prosopography. The work will
be judged on the quality of the research undertaken, the soundness of the
interpretation, and the clarity of presentation within the article. Primary
sources should be used wherever possible.
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The work must be unpublished (including on websites),
and not submitted or pending publication elsewhere. Studies prepared for
academic dissertations are eligible. References to previously published work
by any author should be supported with appropriate citations. Any evidence
of plagiarism will result in the rejection of the entry.
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The research should be reported, in English3, in an
article of about 10000-15000 words. The article should follow the guidance
for authors for Foundations. This is
available on the FMG website at
http://fmg.ac/FMG/Contributors.htm or on request to the FMG secretary.
Authors’ attention is particularly drawn to the house style for source
reference citations.
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Articles should if possible be submitted
electronically, either on disc or by email, to the FMG secretary (see
contact details at the end of this notice). They should be preferably in
MS-Word or a compatible format such as RTF. It is advisable to submit a hard
copy also in case of any problems with non-standard characters. Diagrams and
charts should be designed with the format of
Foundations in mind.
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It would be helpful to both the FMG, and hopefully
the candidate, to submit a short work plan as soon as possible indicating
the scope and approach. We will then confirm whether it is potentially
eligible for the award.
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From 2011 onwards, entries must be received by the 31st
October in
any year. The winner will be announced by the end of January. The
winning article will be published in the following edition of
Foundations. The editor reserves the right to
amend the text for publication.
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Non-winning entries of suitable quality will also be
considered for publication in Foundations.
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Foundations is published both as a printed journal,
and on the Users' Area of the FMG website.
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Entrants can only win once.
Copyright of material submitted remains with the author(s),
but on publication in Foundations, the FMG
assumes publisher’s copyright in the published formats.
Submission of Entries
All entries should be clearly marked on the first page,
"Charles F H Evans Award". Deadline for receipt of submissions is
31st October. Please allow for postal delays if sending by mail.
Electronic files may be sent by email to:
secretary@fmg.ac
or mailed on a CD-ROM to the following
address:
Foundation for Medieval Genealogy
Oak House
Vowchurch
Hereford
HR2 0RB
England
Hard copy submissions can also be accepted at the above
address. Please type double spaced, on one side only of the paper using a clear
type face, as it will be processed using optical character recognition software.
Submissions will be acknowledged. If you fail to receive
such an acknowledgement, please contact us at
secretary@fmg.ac or write to the above address.
1 - At the present time the FMG
does not have any paid staff. Should a member of the judging panel wish to make
an entry, they will be expected to resign from the panel for that year.
2 - Approximately $1200 US at
current rates. Any costs of conversion to non-sterling currencies must be borne
by the recipient.
3 - Some editorial assistance can
be given to authors whose first language is not English, provided the underlying
scholarship is of appropriate quality, and the intended meaning is reasonably
clear.
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