How to Enter:

• Essays must be limited to a maximum of 1500 words ± 10% with a maximum of 40 references.
• Essays may contain a maximum of 3 figures and 2 tables. Tables and figures should be annotated with appropriate legends and should appear within the manuscript immediately after the paragraph in which it is cited. Figures should be high quality (1200 dpi for line art, 600 dpi for grayscale and 300 dpi for colour, at the correct size). The entrant of the winning submission will be asked to supply the figures in one of the following file formats: EPS, PS, JPEG, TIFF, or Microsoft Word (DOC or DOCX) files are acceptable for figures that have been drawn in Word. Tables should present new information rather than duplicating what is in the text. Readers should be able to interpret the table without reference to the text. Figures and tables are not compulsory for submissions.
• Referencing should be in Harvard style. Cited publications are referred to in the text by giving the author’s surname and the year of publication, and are listed in a bibliography at the end of the text. In-text citations are not counted within the word count. Use of a reference formatting software such as Endnote is highly recommended.
• Please submit your entry via the following link: https://forms.gle/iXAQC2SQNbUUtpNz8
• Please ensure entries are submitted in PDF format with no personally identifiable information (as per terms of entry) in the main manuscript.

The deadline for entry is 5:00 pm (GMT) on the 31st December 2022, entries submitted after this time will not be accepted.

Terms of Entry:

• Essays must be submitted during the competition entry window. Any late entries will not be accepted, regardless of any reason given.
• Essays must be submitted via the provided email. Any essays submitted via other means will not be accepted.
• Essays should be submitted in PDF format via the email address provided.
• Entries must be written in English.
• The winning article will be invited to undergo formal peer review and editing by the British Journal of Neurosurgery. This may require the entrant to make changes to their submission at the suggestion of peer reviewers. Any entrant submitting to the competition is agreeing to undertake changes, where possible and where appropriate, suggested by reviewers in a timely manner. Failure to do so may result in the winning essay not being published in the British Journal of Neurosurgery. 
• This essay competition is open to undergraduates and postgraduates. An undergraduate is defined as any student who is enrolled in a healthcare course (e.g. Medicine, Neuroscience, Nursing) in university at the time of the deadline of the prize. A postgraduate is defined as any doctor (i.e. have completed medical school) who i) is not enrolled in a formal neurosurgical training programme at the time of the deadline of the prize and ii) has been practising clinically for the equivalent of no more than 3 years full-time before the deadline of the prize. 
• Entrants must NOT include any personally identifiable essay (e.g. name, level of training, affiliated institutions). Any essays containing this information may be subject to disqualification.
• Multiple authors are NOT permitted on a single submission.
• Any form of plagiarism identified within submissions will result in instant disqualification. It is the responsibility of the participant to ensure that their essay does not infringe on any pre-existing copyrights. Entries must be original work of the entrant.
• NANSIG or the BJNS will not be responsible or liable for any costs, problems, damage or loss of whatsoever nature to the participants resulting from their participation in the competition.
• NANSIG or the BJNS reserve the right to disqualify any participant that they determine is submitting material that is deemed to be offensive.
• NANSIG or the BJNS reserve the right to present no prizes or commendations if an insufficient number of deserving essays is received.
• NANSIG or the BJNS reserves the right to modify the format and content of essays for publication purposes.
• NANSIG or the BJNS will not be responsible or liable for any problem, loss or damage of whatsoever nature suffered by any party due to any delay and/or failure in submitting entries to the competition.
• By entering, the entrants, including the winner, agree to allow the free use of their names, photographs and general locations for publicity and news purposes during this competition
• Entrants should retain their own copies as no entries will be returned. Entries must be submitted online to the instructions specified. There will be no feedback on any entries, either during or after the competition.
• Scoring of essays will be conducted using a blinded approach with two rounds of multiple markers. Markers will use a pre-defined rubric to ensure essays are graded in a fair and consistent manner. Once essays have been marked, it will NOT be possible to request a remark and all decisions are final.
• Submission of an entry will be deemed acceptance of these terms and conditions.
• NANSIG or the British Journal of Neurosurgery reserve the right at any time to cancel, modify or supersede the competition (including altering the prize) if, in their sole discretion, the competition is not capable of being conducted as specified.

For further details or clarification of terms of entry, please contact nansiggroup@gmail.com