ANZSOG Siobhan O'Sullivan Prize for Policy Studies Research

The ANZSOG Siobhan O’Sullivan Prize for Policy Studies Research is awarded annually to the best peer reviewed paper by a postgraduate or early career researcher with a policy studies focus.

This Prize is made possible by generous support from ANZSOG. ANZSOG is owned by and works for the governments of Australia and New Zealand to lift the quality of public sector leadership.

ANZSOG Siobhan O’Sullivan Prize for Policy Studies Research Guideline

  • Call for Nominations – is closed for 2023
  • Closing Date for Nominations 
  • Commission of Winner’s Award 

The ANZSOG Siobhan O’Sullivan Prize for Policy Studies Research is administered by the Policy Studies Research Group.  

Nomination Guidelines:  

  • The Prize is awarded to the author of the best peer reviewed article with a Policy Studies (public policy, social policy, public management, governance) focus, published online in early view or fully published by a journal in the previous calendar year (i.e. published in 2022 for a prize awarded in 2023).
  • To be eligible for the prize, the nominated author must be a postgraduate student or an early career researcher (within five years of obtaining their PhD, not including career interruptions). They must be currently working in Australia, studying at an Australian university, or living in Australia between academic appointments.
  • Articles may be co-authored. However, the nominated author must be the lead author, and must be able to provide details about their contribution to the article.
  • Submissions should include a completed application form and a digital copy of the article to be considered for the Prize. Applications should be sent to the Chair of the APSA Policy Studies Research Group (Joshua Newman <joshua.newman@monash.edu>, by the announced due date.
  • Only one submission from any single author in a single year will be accepted for consideration for the prize. Unsuccessful authors are welcome to submit another application in a subsequent year if they are still eligible.

Judging Process:

  • The decision will be made by a judging panel chaired by the Chair of the Policy Studies Research Group. The panel will consist of two members on behalf of ANZSOG and two Policy Studies Research Group members, with at least one female-identifying Policy Studies scholar and one male-identifying Policy Studies scholar. Other diversities are strongly encouraged
  • Authors or co-authors of papers under consideration will not be eligible to participate in the judging panel. Members of judging panels should adhere to the Guidance on Identifying and Managing Conflicts of Interest. If the Chair of a judging panel has a significant conflict of interest, they must relinquish their position as Chair to one of the other panellists.
  • The Policy Studies Research Group reserves the right to split the prize money between multiple winners, or not to award the prize at all, in any given year.

Award Details

  • The winner will be invited to attend the Association’s 2023 AGM & Prize Ceremony and will receive the prize of $1000 and a certificate.
  • This Prize is funded by ANZSOG.

Past Winners:

2023: Sophie Yates, Shannon Dodd, Caroline Doyle, Fiona Buick, & Helen Dickinson. ‘Where specialist and mainstream service systems collide: The National Disability Insurance Scheme in prisons’ Australian Journal of Public Administration 81(4), pp.611-628.

2022: Colette Einfeld (with Emma Blomkamp). Nudge and co-design: complementary or contradictory approaches to policy innovation?’ Policy Studies 43(5): pp.901-919. DOI: 10.1080/01442872.2021.1879036.

2021: Green, C, Carey, G, Malbon, E. Investigating the production and communication of evidence by the Productivity Commission: Apolitical, political, or somewhere in between? Aust J Publ Admin. 2022; 81: 18– 36. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8500.12450

2020: Lancaster, K., Rhodes, T., & Rance, J. (2019) “Towards eliminating viral hepatitis”: Examining the productive capacity and constitutive effects of global policy on hepatitis C elimination. International Journal of Drug Policy, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2019.02.008

2019 (joint award):

  • Dr. Prudence Brown, ‘Understanding barriers to new approaches – a case study from Australian remote indigenous policy‘.
  • Catherine Cochrane, ‘Boundary making in anti-corruption policy: Behaviour, responses and institutions‘.