2025 Award of Merit Scientific Essay Competition Rules

2025 Award of Merit Student Scientific Essay Competition Rules and Application

Awards:

First Place – $150.00 Cash Award

Second Place – $100.00 Cash Award

Third Place – $50.00 Cash Award

Student Eligibility:

Radiologic Science, Radiation Therapy, Ultrasound, Nuclear Medicine and MRI students in an accredited Radiologic Science or Medical Imaging Program who are not already registered or certified in a primary modality are eligible to enter this competition. If a student is registered or certified after the entry deadline but prior to the award announcement, the student will retain eligibility.
The student must be a TXSRT member at the time of submitting a contest entry form and at the time of the 2025 Annual Meeting. TXSRT online membership applications can be found at www.txsrt.org.
TXSRT reserves the right to limit the number of essays for this competition to 25. The first 25 essays which meet these rules and regulations will be accepted. Any additional essays will be accepted on a space available basis at the discretion of the essay committee chair/Vice President. Educators and students will be notified of any limitations via email by the Vice President of TXSRT as the deadline for submission approaches.

Entry Form Process:

Contest entry forms will be accepted between February 1 and March 15, 2025. Students must complete an online entry form for the 2025 Award of Merit Scientific Essay Competition,
When filling out the entry form, the student will upload the following:

- A letter from his/her Program Director which verifies the student’s status in the program. The attached letter from the Program Director must be on institutional letterhead, dated no later than March 15, 2025, and uploaded at the time of contest entry.
- The complete essay in Microsoft Word format (docx)

3. A student may submit only one essay for the scientific essay contest.

4. Only one student author is allowed per essay.

5. If the student is participating in more than one contest, each contest requires a separate entry form.

Essay Requirements:

1. The essay shall include the following:

● A properly formatted title page (separate page)

● A 150-250 word abstract (separate page)

● The body of the paper contains an introduction, methods, discussion, and conclusion sections.

● An AMA or APA formatted reference list (separate page)

● An appendix with any figures, graphs, or other artwork, properly cited if warranted (separate page)

● 10 multiple choice questions with an answer key

2. The essay must be Microsoft Word docx format, double-spaced, and typed using one (1) inch margins on all sides. Acceptable font styles are Arial, Times New Roman, Calibri, or Courier in a 12 point font size. Either APA or AMA formatting will be used for all references and in-text citations.

3. All figures, graphs, photographs, and illustrations must be placed in an appendix at the end of the essay and referred to within the text. If any of the above is from an outside source, it must be cited properly.

4. The essay must be at least five (5) pages and must not exceed ten (10) pages. This does not include the cover page, abstract, reference list, any appendices or the 10 questions and answer key.

5. The student author, by entering this competition, grants the TxSRT a non-exclusive right to publish the entry in either print or electronic format. The TxSRT may edit the essay to conform to any publishing length requirements. The student author retains full ownership of the essay and may publish it elsewhere.

6. The essay must be an original composition of the student. Plagiarism of any type will result in disqualification. Plagiarism.org is a website to consult if the student has questions about plagiarism. Please note: the TxSRT encourages students to submit original work without the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Essay Judging:

1. The Vice President of TxSRT and/or the essay chair will appoint the judges for the Award of Merit Competition. Only the Vice President of the TxSRT and/or the essay chair shall know the names of the judges. There will be a minimum of three (3) judges selected for the final judging of the competition.

2. Judges will be committed to impartiality, will avoid conflicts of interest, and maintain confidentiality. Judges may not favor anyone based on personal connections. Violations may result in disqualification of the participant.

3. Judges will review the essay to assess whether it meets TxSRT Award of Merit Scientific Essay rules.

4. Judges scores will reflect their evaluation of the essay using the included rubric.

5. The judges are responsible to submit their graded rubrics to the Vice President and/or essay chair no later than April 1, 2025. The decisions of the judges shall be final.

6. Scores will be tallied and then averaged. The students with the highest averaged scores will be declared the winners.

Award of Merit Essay Information:

1. The Vice President is responsible for the revision/distribution of the Rules for the 2025 Award of Merit Essay Competition. The Vice President and the TXSRT Executive Office Manage will confirm the receipt of all essays submitted, the TXSRT membership of each student, and the contest entry date (between February 1 and March 15, 2025).

2. The TXSRT will email the student if the contest entry form and/or essay is dated too early or too late or if the student’s TxSRT membership cannot be verified. Deadlines will be strictly enforced.

3. The Vice President will distribute the essays to the contest judges. The student’s name and institutional affiliation will have been removed.

4. The names of the essay authors will not be released until the judging results are completed and received by the Vice President.

Conflict Resolution:

Any questions regarding the eligibility of a student which cannot be settled by the Vice President will be decided by the TxSRT Board of Directors and Officers and their decision shall be final.

Presentation of Awards:

The presentation of awards will be at the annual conference on April 10-12, 2025. Any unclaimed awards will be sent to the student via their program.

Please see Judge’s Scoring Sheet here – 2025 Award of Merit Scientific Essay Competition Rules Judges Sheet

Submissions: Please use the application below to submit your Award of Merit Scientific Essay Competition Application:

Title of Manuscript *

Name *

First

Last

Email *

Mailing Address *

City/State/Zip *

Primary Phone with Area Code *

Please read and acknowledge each statement. Be advised failure to acknowledge all applicable statements may result in an incomplete application. *

I acknowledge that I am currently enrolled in an accredited medical imaging or radiation therapy program.
I acknowledge I am not currently registered in any primary medical imaging or radiation therapy modality.
I acknowledge I will be subject to disqualification as well as my submission if the above acknowledge are verified as inaccurate or not compliant with qualifying standards.

TxSRT Membership ID Number *

TxSRT Membership Expiration Date *

Name of School *

Name of Program Director *

Program Director's Email *

Upload Manuscript w/ References *

Click or drag a file to this area to upload.

Upload the submission in Microsoft Word only format

Upload Letter of Verification *

Click or drag a file to this area to upload.

The Program Director must complete and sign the letter of verification for your student status. Please note the same letter of verification may be submitted under each applicable competition. The attached letter from your Program Director must be on college/school letterhead and the date should not exceed 03/15/2025.

I attest to have read and know the above Award of Merit Competions Rules and Regulations. I understand and agree to abide by these rules and regulations governing the Award of Merit Competition. *

Agree

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