No more than one Award will be made each year, unless there are unusual and compelling reasons to make two Awards.

It is not necessary to make an Award every year, and it is to be expected that there will be many years when an Award is not made.

The Award will comprise an engraved plaque and certificate. Recipients will be invited to write an opinion piece about some aspect of their work for publication in Nexus, TASA Blog, Journal of Sociology or Health Sociology Review, or any other journal TASA may sponsor at the time of the Award. A list of Award winners will be maintained on the TASA web site.

The Executive will call for nominations each year, with nominations closing 17th July. The Award will be presented at TASA 2023 in November. This time schedule may be altered in any year at the discretion of the Executive. Recipients shall be offered the same assistance as other TASA prize winners to enable them to attend the prize presentation. The complimentary conference registration and dinner is not transferable (ie. only valid in the year of the Award).

The written nomination must be signed by five TASA members. Nominations must show how the nominee meets the selection criteria outlined above and must be accompanied by a focused curriculum vitae of the nominee and the names of three referees. The nominee must be a TASA member.

Nominations will be considered by the Executive as a whole. At its discretion the Executive may assign this task to a sub-committee chaired by the President or Vice-President, with the decision to be ratified by the whole Executive.

The Distinguished Service Award process will be covered by the TASA grievance procedures. Apart from this, the Executive’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.