Guidelines for the Biophysics and Physicobiology (BPPB) Awards

1. Title
Japanese: BPPB Ronbunsho
English: Award for outstanding BPPB paper
2. Purpose
This award is given by the Biophysical Society of Japan to authors who contributed
to the advancement of biophysics and to BPPB journal and its predecessor,
BIOPHYSICS journal.
The Society selects an article among papers that were published during a specifictime span before the year of the award and have an established reputation. The
award will go to a groundbreaking article of which importance has been recognized.
In a special case, up to two awardees can be selected as described below.
3. Eligibility
Eligible articles are those that were published in BIOPHYSICS or BPPB between two
to seven years before the year of the award (from January of the year X-7 throughDecember of the year X-2, where X is the year of the award). The award is open tomembers and non-members of the Biophysical Society of Japan (a member need not beincluded among the authors).
4. Recommendation for candidate articles
The following committee or members can recommend candidate articles to theSelection Committee by attaching a letter of recommendation. Articles that havenot been awarded previously may be recommended any number of times. The maximum
number of articles that can be recommended in each year is specified as follows:
BPPB editorial committee –up to five articles
Branch chiefs - one article each
General members --no limitation
5. Composition of Selection Committee
The Selection Committee comprises seven members: the president of the BiophysicalSociety of Japan, the vice president (who serves as the chairman of the committee),the Editor-in-Chief of BPPB, and four people recommended by the Biophysical Societyof Japan Board of Directors. When paper(s) contributed by the Selection Committee
member(s) is (are) assigned as the candidate(s) of the Award, The BiophysicalSociety of Japan will decide the other person(s) to whom the corresponding
Selection Committee member(s) will be replaced.
6. Selection
The Selection Committee will deliberate on all the recommended papers, select up
to one award candidate in principle, seek approval from the publication committee,
and then submit its recommendation to the Board with its reasons for therecommendation. When the scores and other conditions of the top two articles cannot
be discriminated, it is possible to select two award candidates as in a specialcase. The Board then will deliberate on the article(s) proposed by the Selection
Committee. Among the selection criteria, the Board will consider:1) The scores
given to the content of the paper by each of the Selection Committee members;2)
the committee's stated reasons for its recommendation; and 3) objective evaluation
criteria, such as the number of times the article has been cited before selection.
7. Announcement and commendation of winners
The Biophysical Society of Japan will promptly notify the winners after thedecision, and will announce the award-winning article(s) and reasons for selection
on the Society website, and in the BPPB journal and in the Japanese-language
SEIBUTSU BUTSURI journal. Awards will be given during the annual meeting of theBiophysical Society of Japan. If the first author or other responsible author ofeach winning article is a member of the Biophysical Society of Japan at the timeof annual meeting, the author(s) may be invited to present an honorary lecture atthe meeting.
Established on November 20, 2011
Partially revised on February 24, 2012
Partially revised on July 21, 2012
Partially revised on December 21, 2013
Partially revised on February 20, 2016
Partially revised on January 21, 2017
Partially revised on September 19, 2017
Partially revised on June 17, 2023