ALISE/The Eugene Garfield Doctoral Dissertation Competition

2024 Winner: Saguna Shankar, University at Buffalo
Honorable Mention: Joseph Winberry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill & Nitin Verma, Arizona State University

Previous Winners

The award recognizes dissertations that deal with substantive issues related to library and information science. Applicants may be from within or outside LIS programs.

One outstanding dissertation will be selected. The winner will receive $500, plus conference registration at the ALISE annual meeting, and personal membership in ALISE. The winner of the Dissertation Competition will present a summary of their work at the ALISE annual meeting.

Sponsor

ALISE is thankful for the generous support of the Eugene Garfield Foundation for sponsoring the award.

Award Criteria

Dissertations will be judged on the following criteria:

• Significance of the research problem to the overall LIS field.
• Presentation of the relevant literature.
• Design of the study (i.e., appropriateness of methodology, selection of specific techniques and/or tests).
• Conduct of study (i.e., application of methods of data collection).
• Analysis and presentation of the data (i.e., quality of analysis, logic of findings).
• Appropriateness of conclusions.
• Clarity and organization of the writing.

Nomination Requirements

Applicants need to submit their applications. The members of ALISE Eugene Garfield Doctoral Dissertation Competition Committee will judge a 30-page summary of the dissertation (i.e. problem statement, brief literature review, research questions, methodology, findings, interpretation, implications, and conclusions). In cases where the research or methodology warrants it, additional assistance will be obtained from ALISE members outside the committee.

Those who completed their dissertation between March 1, 2023 and February 28, 2024 are eligible for the 2024 competition.

Submission Requirements

Your submission must include:

• A 200-word-abstract of the dissertation
• A 30-page summary of the dissertation (i.e. problem statement, brief literature review, research questions, methodology, findings, interpretation, implications, and conclusions) completed between March 1, 2023 and February 28, 2024
• Proof of university acceptance; we accept the following evidence as proof of university acceptance: a university transcript facsimile, official or unofficial, showing doctoral degree awarded or a letter from the advisor indicating university acceptance within the timeframe

Submission Process

Submission Deadline

March 25, 2024

Committee Membership 

• The Committee consists of five ALISE Members, one of whom serves as Chair
• Members are selected by the President-Elect and serve for two years and may be appointed to serve a second consecutive two-year term.
• The chair is selected by the President-Elect holds this position for one year, and may be appointed to serve a second consecutive one-year term.
• The Committee reports to the Past-President

The Chair may recommend additional committee members if warranted by the number of submissions

Chair

Jessica Bates, Ulster University

Members

Frank Lambert, Middle Tennessee State University
Jie Jiang, Simmons University 
Rhiannon Bettivia, Simmons University 
Elliott Kuecker, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chair may recommend additional committee members if warranted by number of submissions.

Board Liaison

Rong Tang, Simmons University

 Previous Winners

2023 - Li-Min Huang, University of Tennessee: University Students' Perspectives of Visual-based Cyberbully on Instagram

2022 - Deborah Garwood, Drexel University, To Our Health: A Case Study of Archivists’ Information Work and Information Practices at History of Medicine Collections in Philadelphia

2021 - Darra Hofman, San Jose State University, Between Knowing and Not Knowing: Privacy, Transparency, and Digital Records

2020 - Eva Revitt, University of Alberta, The Academic Librarian as the Subaltern: An Institutional Ethnography of a Feminized Profession.

2019 - Timothy Gorichanaz, Drexel University, for Understanding Self-Documentation

2018 - Rachel Clark, Syracuse University, for It’s Not Rocket Library Science: Design Epistemology and American Librarianship

2017 - Devon Greyson, University of British Columbia, for Health-Related Information Practices and the Experiences of Young Parents

2016 - Angela Pollak, University of Western Ontario, for Words to Live By:  How Experience Shapes Our Information World at Work, Play, and in Everyday Life

2015 - Kyong Eun Oh, Rutgers University, for The Process of Organizing Personal information

2014 - Youngseek Kim, University of Kentucky, for Institutional and Individual Influence on Scientists' Data Sharing Behavior

2013 - Kimberly Anderson, University of California, Los Angeles, for Appraisal Learning Networks: How University Archivists Learn to Appraise through Social Interaction

Michelle Caswell, University of Wisconsim - Madison, for Archiving the Unspeakable: Silence and Voice in Khmer Rouge Mug Shots

2012 - Eric Matthew Meyers, University of Washington, for The Nature and Impact of Information Problem Solving in the Middle School Classroom

2011 - Shari Ann Lee, St. John's University - Queens, for Teen Space: Designed for Whom? and Cassidy Sugimoto, Indiana University - Bloomington, for Mentoring, Collaboration, and Interdisciplinary: An Evaluation of the Scholarly Development of Information and Library Science Doctoral Students 

2010 - Charles Kamau Maina, University of Western Ontario, for The Traditional Knowledge Protection Debate: Identifying and Listening to the Voices of Traditional Knowledge Holders

Honorable Mention: Tiffany Veinot, University of Western Ontario, for Social Capital and HIV/AIDS Information Help Exchange Networks in Rural Canada

2009 - Xiaojun Yuan, Rutgers University, for Supporting Multiple Information-Seeking Strategies in a Single System Framework

2008 - Kara Anne Reuter, University of Maryland, for Children Selecting Books in a Library: Extending Models of Information Behavior to a Recreational Setting

2007 - Kate Williams, Dominican University, for Social Networks, Social Capital, and the Use of Information and Communications Technology in Socially Excluded Communities: A Study of Community Groups in Manchester England

2006 - Diane Kelly, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, for Understanding Implicit Feedback and Documents Preference: A Naturalistic User Study