Denis McQuail is one of the most famous scholars in the field of Communication Science. Tens of thousands of communication students have been brought up with McQuail's Mass Communication Theory, now in its sixth edition and an international bestseller. Denis McQuail held the chair in General Communication Science at the University of Amsterdam from 1977 till 1997 and is now an Honorary Fellow of ASCoR.

ASCoR McQuail Award for the best article advancing communication theory
The Amsterdam School of Communication Research ASCoR at the University of Amsterdam has established an award in honor of Denis McQuail. Previous winners include Professor Michael Slater and Dr. Matthew Baum. The call for nominations for the ASCoR Denis McQuail Award 2010 - for the best article advancing communication theory published in a peer-reviewed journal during 2010 - is now open.

Eligible articles:

• Must have been published (not 'due to appear') in 2010 in an English language peer-reviewed journal.
• May be purely theoretical or empirical and theoretical, but the focus should clearly be on theory development.
• Must focus on some aspect of communication. NB: Articles published in noncommunication journals are also eligible.

Selection
An international panel chaired by Professor Emeritus Denis McQuail, and consisting of Professor Pamela Shoemaker (Syracuse University), Professor Winfried Schulz (University of Erlangen-Nürnberg), and Professor Edith Smit (ASCoR, University of Amsterdam) will select the winning article from a list of nominated articles.

The selection will be based on the quality of the article, not on the author(s)' professional or personal credentials. The number of nominations for an article plays no role in the selection process: Each article that has been nominated at least once will be considered. Please note that the jury may decide not to give the Award if none of the nominations are considered to stand out.

Award
The award will go to all listed authors of the article chosen. The award consists of a certificate, and an invitation to the 1st author to become the McQuail Honorary Fellow 2011-2012 at ASCoR, as well as to give a guest lecture in Amsterdam in Fall 2011.

Nominations
Nominations for this award may be submitted before 1 June 2011.

Faculty and PhD students around the world can nominate articles for this award. Each nominator can nominate one article. Self-nominations are eligible. Anonymous nominations will not be considered. Nominations are strictly confidential. Information about who nominated whom will not be released.

A nomination package consists of: 

• The full reference to the article (including full title, journal title, volume and page numbers).
• A copy of the article (PDF or print).
• A motivation for the nomination (max. 150 words). Please note that the motivation should address the quality of the article in terms of theoretical advances. Please be as candid as possible.

You can submit your nomination before 1 June 2011:

By e-mail (preferred) to:
ASCoR Secretariat: ascor-secr-FMG@uva.nl

Or by post to:
ASCoR
Attn. Prof. dr. Claes de Vreese
Scientific Director
Kloveniersburgwal 48
1012 CX Amsterdam
The Netherlands

More information about ASCoR can be found on www.ascor.uva.nl.