The William A. Owens Scholarly Achievement Award recognizes the best publication appearing in a refereed journal in the field of I-O psychology during the previous calendar year.
This annual award is given to the author(s) of a publication in a refereed journal judged to have the highest potential to significantly impact the field of I-O psychology. There is no restriction on the specific journals in which the publication appears, only that the journal be refereed and that the publication concerns a topic of relevance to the field of I-O psychology. Only articles published in the previous calendar year will be considered for the award
Award recipients receive a plaque and a $3,000 cash prize (to be split in the case of multiple authors).
The Scholarly Achievement Award honors William A. Owens who was best known for his extensive theoretical and applied work on biodata conducted at Iowa State University, Purdue University, and, primarily, at the University of Georgia. For that work, as well as a broad range of other research, he received SIOP’s Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award. He was a past president of SIOP and a Fellow of SIOP and APA. He and his wife Barbara established this award and helped create the SIOP Foundation.
Administrative Procedures
- At least five members of the SIOP Awards Subcommittee will review and evaluate each nomination package.
- The Awards Subcommittee will recommend an award-winning publication to the Executive Board of SIOP and, if appropriate, a publication deserving honorable mention status. The honorable mention is awarded a certificate and cash prize of $500.
- The Executive Board may either endorse or reject the recommendations of the Awards Subcommittee, but may not substitute a nominee of its own.
- In the absence of a publication that is deemed deserving of the award by both the Awards Subcommittee and Executive Board, the award may be withheld.
Criteria for Eligibility
Nominated publications will be evaluated on the following criteria:
- The publication addresses a phenomenon that is of significance to the field of I-O psychology.
- The potential impact or significance of the publication to the field of I-O psychology.
- The research displays technical adequacy, including issues of internal validity, external validity, appropriate methodology, appropriate statistical analysis, comprehensiveness of review (if the publication is a literature review), and so forth.
Call for Nominations
Nomination Guidelines
- Nominations may be submitted by any SIOP member. Self-nominations are welcome.
- Only publications with a print publication date in the previous calendar year (2023) are eligible for the award. Online first publication dates should not be used in determining a publication’s eligibility for this award (with the exception of journals that are only published online).
- Publications having multiple authors are acceptable. At least one author must be a SIOP member.
- If there are multiple authors, the names of each author must be entered during the online nomination process. Please ensure that all authors in your nomination have current information in their siop.org profiles. All nonmembers should create an account at siop.org (creating accounts is not equivalent to applying for membership).
- A nomination letter should address how the publication meets the evaluation criteria noted below.
- The nomination letter and the nominated publication must be submitted online by the nominator.
- When submitting the nomination materials, nominators will also be asked if the nominee(s) are being investigated, or have been found responsible, for misconduct prohibited in SIOP’s Anti-Harassment Policy and to provide a brief explanation if this is the case.
Current Award Recipients
Award Type
Achievement & Best Paper Awards
