Overview of Rules from the 2011, 2012 and 2013 Contests

This page is an overview of the rules and eligibility requirements for the Richard A. Clarke National Scholarly Monograph Contests.

Click on a date for rules specifically relating to either the the 2011 or 2012 contest.

SUMMARY OF RULES

The Center for First Amendment Studies, in conjunction with A-Mark Financial and the web site www.911plus.org, hosted three national monograph scholarship competitions for graduate students in good standing at American universities.

The contests were limited (eligibility) solely to graduate students in good standing in master’s and doctoral programs at accredited American universities in the United States or its territories. The Contest excluded graduate students from the Communication Studies Department at California State University, Long Beach.

Scholarships

The scholarships were given in honor of former counter-terrorism czar, Richard A. Clarke, who authored several books related to national security, including “Against All Enemies” (2004) and “Cyber War” (2010).

First place scholarships were $20,000; second place, $10,000; and third place, $5,000 in prize money. (These scholarships may have been subject to tax if not used for tuition, books, and other educational expenditures.)

The monographs of the 2011, 2012 and 2013 winners are posted on the website for The Center for First Amendment Studies.

Steps in the Submission Process

  • Obtain a signed letter from your department chair or dean certifying that you are a graduate student in good standing in the spring semester of 2011 at your university (graduate students may be in either Master’s or Doctoral programs). Send the letter with a note indicating that you intend to participate in The Competition.
  • Mail your note and letter from your chair or dean to:
    Center for First Amendment Studies, AS 309
    California State University, Long Beach, CA 90840-2007
  • Write your monograph in Times New Roman font, font size 12, with one-inch margins and double spacing throughout, including block quotations and endnotes.
  • Do not use a running head; number pages in single Arabic numerals at the bottom center of each page.
  • Use the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th Edition or later, as your guide regarding all matters of form and style.
  • For 2012, Monographs were not to exceed 45 double-spaced pages (8 ½ x 11”) including cover page, endnotes, graphs, charts, and all other material (scholarly monographs are normally 20 to 40 pages in length in draft form).
  • For 2011, Monographs were not to exceed 50 double-spaced pages (8 ½ x 11″) including cover page, endnotes, graphs, charts, and all other material.
  • Number the cover page as page one of the monograph and include the title of the monograph (bold and underlined), your name, major and university, mailing address, e-mail address, and contact phone number.
  • At the bottom of the cover page, include the following sentence: “I pledge that the following monograph is an original work and mine alone,” followed by the date and your signature. (Do not identify yourself any other place in the monograph since the cover page will be removed for the blinded review by the judges.)
  • The submitted monographs must be original scholarly works by a single author, in English only; the submitted monographs must not have been published elsewhere. The unauthorized, uncited use, or close imitation of the language of another author and the representation of it as the entrant’s own work shall result in disqualification.
  • The competition sponsors shall not be held liable for an entrant’s violation of any third party including, but not limited to copyright, trademark, patent infringement, or defamation. Entrants must have full ownership rights of their submitted work.
  • No author may submit more than one monograph.
  • Each monograph will be blinded and then assessed by a panel of qualified judges using the following criteria (alphabetically):
    • Adherence to The Scholarship Competition Rules.
    • Depth of Analysis.
    • Grammar, punctuation and spelling.
    • Quality of arguments.
    • Quality of evidence and sources.
    • Scholarly merit, objectivity and accuracy.
    • Significance of policy suggestions for the future.
  • The decision of the judges is final and not subject to appeal. of entrants; however, entrants are encouraged to use other sources to supplement their research.
  • A searchable database of over 6,500 sourced quotations from over 110 published books, publications and other media has been provided at 911plus.org for use of entrants. However, it is expected that entrants will also use other sources for this competition.
  • Entrants should feel free to discuss their project with their university advisors. We encourage using the submitted monographs as a basis for scholarly papers, theses or dissertations.
  • The top three monographs will be published online by The Center for First Amendment Studies and 911plus.org.
  • The scholarship recipients shall provide The Center for First Amendment Studies with a copyright release form only for the purpose of posting the selected monographs for the website of The Center and 911plus.org. The scholarship recipients shall retain all other copyrights to their monographs. The Center for First Amendment Studies and www.911plus.org shall share copyrights with the authors of all monographs submitted in connection with The Contest.
  • Winners shall provide final revised versions of their monographs in PDF format or MS Word for posting on the website of The Center and 911plus.org.