APS Janet Taylor Spence Award Nominations

About Award | Past APS Spence Award Recipients  | Janet Taylor Spence | Remembering Janet Taylor Spence

Nominate for the 2026 Janet Taylor Spence Award here.

Nominations closed Oct 1.

Nominees must be members of the Association for Psychological Science and may be employed in academia or another employment sector. Nominees must have completed their PhD within eight years of the date of the annual meeting at which the award would be conferred. (Nominees for the 2026 award should have received their PhDs no earlier than January 2018.) Extensions will be considered for nominees who have taken time away from research for reasons such as medical, disability, family care, natural disasters, and active-duty military service. Nomination materials should include information supporting the need for an extension. The award committee will consider extension requests on a case-by-case basis as the nominations are evaluated. Prior approval for an extension is not necessary. 

Research contributions can be transformative in various ways, such as the establishment of new approaches or paradigms within a field of psychology, or the development or advancement of research that cuts across fields of psychological science. The common thread is that Award recipients should reflect the best of the many new and cutting-edge ideas coming out of our most creative and promising investigators who, together, embody the future of psychological science. 

Letters of nomination and support should specifically address the nominee’s work with respect to the following selection criteria: (1) is the research novel and creative? (2) does the research have the potential to change how we think about psychological science? (3) is the research characterized by rigorous and innovative scientific methods? (4) does the research build upon existing psychological science in scholarly ways? (5) is the research influencing multiple fields of psychological science? 

To nominate a candidate for the APS Janet Taylor Spence Award, please include the following materials: 

• Electronic Letter of Nomination no more than 2 pages in length specifically addressing the selection criteria listed above 

• Complete electronic curriculum vitae of the candidate (no more than 3 pages in length) 

• PDFs of the nominee’s work indicating the most important contributions to psychological science (not more than 10 papers)  

• Two additional letters of recommendation no more than 2 pages in length each (Three total letters should be submitted: one letter of nomination and two letters of support.) 

• Nominations will not be considered complete if the materials exceed the page limits noted above. 

Please consider the diverse and international nature of our field in nominating colleagues. Nominations of members of underrepresented groups in psychological science are encouraged. 

Questions? Email [email protected].