Science Journalism

The Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Science Journalism is awarded to an Australian journalist or journalist team whose work is assessed as having most effectively communicated scientific issues to the public.

$10,000

Judges will be examining entries against the following assessment criteria.

Note: while documentaries are encouraged to enter, judges are aware that these entries often have larger budgets and longer lead times than news pieces, and will take this into account during judging.

The prize is open to individuals and teams of up to six people where the work is the result of a collaborative team effort.

Work entered in this prize must consist of one body of work, single/series of articles or single/multi part documentary, with at least one part published or broadcast for the first time in the Australian media or online no more than 12 months prior to the Entry Deadline. Entrants must submit pieces that best represent their work (maximum of 5 per entry).

For the purposes of this prize, ‘scientific topic’ refers to the full breadth of STEMM – science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medical topics.

Entrants are required to declare and disclose any subsequent corrections or challenges to the accuracy of an entry, or claims of plagiarism or defamation against the work submitted.

All entrants must be a) Australian citizens, b) Australian permanent residents, or c) New Zealand citizens who were resident in Australia at the time the work was undertaken. Where the entry is by a team, all members of the team must meet this criterion.

Work entered must adhere to the highest ethical standard of investigative journalism – including the MEAA Code of Ethics.

Where content from other sources is incorporated for purposes of proper coverage of the topic, this must be attributed.

The following are NOT eligible for this prize:

• collations of materials previously published elsewhere
• work which is only edited by, and not originally produced by, the entrant(s)
• books, magazines and whole websites

The activity entered or nominated for this prize may not be entered or nominated for another Australian Museum Eureka Prize in the same year.

A project that has been awarded an Australian Museum Eureka Prize in the past cannot be entered again. Non-winning finalist activity is eligible for re-entry, so long as it meets all other conditions of entry.

In addition to the prize and category specific conditions of entry all entrants need to comply with the General Terms and Conditions of Entry.

Each entry must include the following information. All information provided will be used by the judging panel to assess the work entered against the assessment criteria.

Entries to the 2021 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes have closed.