The Angle Research Prize turns 25
The Angle Research Prize celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2016. In those 25 years, an impressive collection of scientific papers, along with their talented authors, have received the prize and been recorded among the best in the history of our specialty. The first Angle Prize was awarded to Ram S. Nanda for the paper entitled “Effect of orthodontic forces on blood flow in human gingiva” which appeared in the September, 1991 issue of the journal. Quite appropriately, Ram Nanda is being honored again later this year at the American Association of Orthodontists' annual session as the Society of Educators presents the “Ram S. Nanda Educational Leadership Conference” on Friday, April 21 in San Diego. The list of winning authors reads like a “Who's Who in Orthodontics” and includes among others, Leena Peck, Phillip Campbell, Robert Rosenblum, James Boley, Jay Bowman, Lysle Johnston, Tiziano Baccetti, Lorenzo Franchi, and Anthony Gianelly. Jim McNamara, R Scott Conley, and Sheldon Peck each received the award twice, which is really quite an amazing accomplishment.
In 1991, papers eligible to receive the Angle Research Prize were those in which at least one of the authors was a member of the Edward H. Angle Society of Orthodontists. Therefore, Kazunori Yamaguchi, who was first author of the winning paper in 1991, did not receive the prize himself, though he became an Angle member, and would have therefore become eligible, a few years later. For 2013, the Angle Society opened up eligibility for the prize to all papers published in the journal in recognition of the huge growth in the proportion of contributions that originated from all parts of the world. The increased visibility of The Angle Orthodontist enabled by the internet and the journal's open access policies, coupled with electronic submission and review protocols, helped increase the number of manuscript submissions from 120 in 2000 to nearly 1000 per year today.
In the September 2011 issue, Bob Isaacson introduced the concept behind an “Edward H. Angle Research Prize” open to all papers published in the journal. He likened the award to an orthodontic “Nobel Prize.” I'm sure he had no idea at that point that the following two winning papers (2013 and 2015) would both originate from Sweden, the origin of the Nobel Prize itself. Since the Angle Prize is only awarded to correspond with the Angle Society's Biennial meeting (which occurs in odd-numbered years), that means that all of the globally-available Angle Research Prize trophies to date are now residing in Sweden. Eligible papers for those two awards were published between 2011 and 2014 and only 17 of the 3300 papers submitted during that time were from Sweden, so this feat is truly remarkable.
What advice can I give you for submitting the paper that will win the next Angle Research Prize? Wouldn't you like to have your paper recorded among the best and along with those that have had the most impact on the literature available to the specialty? Outside of picking the proper topic, one that is timely and of great interest to orthodontists, designing the study well, and writing it in a way that connects it to past and future accomplishments in the specialty, I think I can offer one more piece of advice. We often see well-designed studies with great impact that are divided into small parts (so-called “salami slicing”) so the authors can receive credit for multiple publications from the same project. Most of the time, the overall value of the study becomes diminished by cutting it up into many papers. Condensing the findings into one significant contribution to the literature would be much more impactful and, therefore, more likely to be recognized as one of the great and enduring papers in orthodontic history. Take, for example, the two-time Angle Research Prize winners Sheldon Peck and James McNamara. Many of their papers have been cited more than 100 times in peer-reviewed scientific journals with measured impact.
This year's Angle Research Prize will be awarded at the biennial meeting of the Edward H. Angle Society of Orthodontists to be held in Chicago in September. Papers are chosen from those published in the journal in 2015 and 2016. They are narrowed down, reviewed by the Board of the Angle Society and by the Editorial Staff of The Angle Orthodontist. The task takes several months to complete. Voting is confidential and tallied by the Editor and then kept secret until the winning paper is announced during the meeting.
To view the entire list of past winning papers, visit the Angle website, www.angle.org, and a link will be available half-way down the far left column. If the link isn't there, you may need to refresh the page to see it.