The Journal of Industrial Ecology (JIE) awards two annual prizes for best papers. One prize is for a junior author and one for a senior author. The goal of the prizes is to recognize and promote high quality scholarship in industrial ecology.  A Best Paper Prize Committee administers the prize and evaluates nominated papers.  The selected papers in both categories are awarded Graedel Prizes, named for Professor Thomas E. Graedel in recognition of the vital and long‐lasting contributions he has provided to the scientific development of industrial ecology (IE).

The Prizes

The Journal of Industrial Ecology (JIE) awards two annual prizes for best papers:

• The JIE Junior Author Best Paper Prize
• The JIE Senior Author Best Paper Prize

The sole author of a Best Paper Prize winning paper, or the first author of a multi-authored paper, is given a prize of US$750. The author(s) of Best Paper Prize winning paper receives a certificate and acknowledgement in the JIE, plus one year’s free membership in the International Society for Industrial Ecology (ISIE). The committee may at its discretion award two prizes in the best junior category instead of one prize in each category. Best Paper Prize winners are announced in the first possible issue of the JIE, and Best Paper Prize winners from the two preceding years receive their Certificate and Check at the next biennial ISIE conference.

Selection Criteria and Eligibility

Papers will be selected and evaluated according to the following criteria:

• Professional Merit (40%): Creativity and originality in research questions, methods and applications, as well as scientific and professional quality of the research.
• Contribution (40%): Societal or scientific significance of the topic or problem investigated, usefulness and relevance to society in the field of industrial ecology.
• Presentation Quality (20%): Readability, language, organization and presentation of concepts, methods, facts, arguments, etc.

To be eligible for the JIE Junior Best Paper Prize, the author, or the first author of a multi- authored paper, must be younger than 36 years as of the date of online publication. In the case of a junior multi-authored paper, the co-authors must confirm that the first author has done most of the work and taken the lead role in writing the paper.

The paper must be a full length peer-reviewed paper in the JIE(i.e., editorials, columns, firm profiles, and book reviews are not eligible). 

Nominations

Any member of the Journal of Industrial Ecology Editorial Board, and members of the JIE Best Paper Prize Committee, may each nominate a maximum of 2 papers, to be sent to the Chair of the JIE Best Paper Prize Committee, followed by a statement of high quality referring to selection criteria (see above), not later than March 1st of the year following publication.

A paper cannot be nominated by its author(s) nor can nominators propose a paper by one of their students or members of their own research group. 

The JIE Best Paper Prize Committee

A Best Paper Prize Committee administers the prizes and evaluate nominated papers. The committee operates according to the following rules:

• The committee has 7 members; The Chair is appointed by the JIE Editor-in-Chief, one member is appointed by the ISIE President, and the remaining members are picked by the Chair in consultation with the JIE Editor-in-Chief.
• The committee is authorized to enlist the assistance of other specialists within the IE community, if needed.
• Each nominated paper will be evaluated by at least three members of the committee, and members must recuse themselves from evaluating papers by their students or members of their own research group.
• The Chair will communicate the decisions of the committee to the JIE Editor-in-Chief and the ISIE President, followed by a 50-250 word abstract, stating why the prize was given, not later than May 15th.

The JIE Best Paper Prize Funding

The following organizations have generously provided support for the Graedel prize: the Nickel Institute, GE,  A-1 Recycling,  the Raw Materials Group Stockholm, Martha Walters, and AT&T.

The current members of the Best Paper Prize Committee are:                        

Christopher Kennedy, University of Victoria, Chair

Clinton Andrews, Rutgers University

Yong Geng, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Mark Huijbregts, Radboud University

Alissa Kendall, University of California, Davis

Yuichi Moriguichi, Tokyo University

Angela Druckman,  University of Surrey