Sirca has decided to make an annual award for the best paper published in the previous calendar year that uses, at least in part, data supplied by Sirca. The award will be made based on a recommendation to the Sirca CEO by the Membership and Research Committee (MRC), a sub-committee of the Sirca Limited Board. It has an initial cash value of $10,000.

In recognition of the contribution Philip Brown made to the establishment of Sirca and the work he did in developing databases to be used for finance and accounting research, the award has been named in his honour. The 2012 best paper will be announced during the 2013 AFAANZ Conference in Perth (July 7-9), and Philip has agreed to make the inaugural presentation.

I write to invite you to submit papers that were published in the 2012 calendar year, that use (at least in part) data supplied by Sirca, and that you believe are of excellent quality. While not all excellent papers are published in the “best” journals (as a guide ABDC rank A and above) it is unlikely that papers published in journals below an A rank would qualify for the award. Please submit a full pdf version of the paper that provides details of the journal in which your paper is published.

Please respond prior to 15 June 2013 to philipbrownprize@sirca.org.au