Eligibility

  • Only current CELJ member–journals may be nominated for awards. Submissions made for journals with lapsed membership cannot be considered.

  • No journal can compete in more than one category annually.

  • Journals are only eligible to win awards every three years (if your journal won an award between 2022–2025, it is not eligible for this year’s [2026] award cycle). This criteria does not apply to honorable mentions.

  • Nominations must be made by a journal’s editor or publisher. Nominations from guest editors are not accepted. 

  • Journals must be published in English. (Journals publishing in multiple languages within the same issue are allowed, as long as one of them is English.) Note: CELJ will be spending 2026 creating a plan to broaden awards opportunities for other-than-English journals.

  • Submissions must be published on or after September 1, 2025, and display publication date, as relevant.   

  • Submissions must be easily accessible via website or document repository that CELJ judges can view anonymously.

  • Trade/technical journals that work primarily in areas of discourse other than the scholarly and creative arts are not eligible.

Submission Guidelines

Each category will be judged by a panel of up to three editors who independently evaluate the submissions, consulting with the Vice President, who makes final decisions based on the judges' recommendations. When appropriate, the judges or the VP may also recommend a runner-up or decide not to award in a given category. 

Journals can be nominated in only one category each award cycle.

All submissions must be made through the online submission form.

  • The form asks you to submit a link to your submission—a URL for a website or an online storage location (Google Drive, DropBox, OneDrive, etc.) that contains electronic files (PDF or other) necessary for the specific award to which you’re applying. See Awards Categories section for information on what to include. 

  • If the award you’re applying to requires a cover letter, that letter also needs to be available through the URL you provide. Please do not email these to CELJ board members, as they will be deleted.

  • If you provide links to a journal publisher’s website, those links must take judges directly to the item nominated (special issue, artifact, etc.), not to the press or journal home page. If the award requires submitting multiple journal issues, include a direct link to each of them or provide PDF copies. Nominations with indirect or broken links will be disqualified. 

  • Any material behind a subscription paywall must be made fully available to the judging panel. Please include anonymous means of accessing anything paywalled or passworded in your cover letter. 

  • Contest materials for 2026 must be received by 11:59pm your time on Tuesday, September 8, 2026.

  • Due to the number of submissions, we cannot send individual notifications of nomination receipt or to non-winners. 

Awards will be presented publicly at a CELJ session during the Modern Language Association Convention in January. We will notify winners and runners-up in advance of MLA so they can make plans to attend the ceremony. Results will be posted on the CELJ website after the convention. 

Please direct all inquiries about the competition to the Vice President of CELJ at <celj.awards@gmail.com>.

Submit Here!

Award Categories

  • New journals with three years or fewer of publication history are eligible. Applicants must supply copies of two different issues, one of which must be the most current issue. Nominations must include a cover letter introducing the new journal. 

  • A special issue from the previous Fall/Winter (2025) or current year (2026) may be submitted. Nominations must include a one-page cover letter that includes the vol/issue and explains why the submitted special issue is exceptional. Nominations from guest editors are not permitted.

  • Nominees must demonstrate a journal’s efforts to connect with popular audiences. Submit a single example of an artifact in any medium that uses accessible, jargon-free language and attractive presentation to reach out beyond academe. Examples include a public framing of a special issue, podcast, video, live or recorded event, etc. (If the artifact itself cannot be submitted, e.g., for live events, documentation of its effects must be provided. 

    Nominations must include a one-page cover letter that explains why the submitted artifact constitutes public outreach and not just reaching a “generalized” academic audience.

  • This award recognizes excellence and innovation of journals with digital media components. Nominators may submit a single article, a recurrent feature, or another type of artifact.  Material may be drawn from all-digital journals, digital arms of hybrid journals, or supplementary digital features of print journals.

  • Journals that have launched an effort to revitalize or transform within the previous three years may submit. This award goes to the most improved journal, regardless of its state at the time the renovations began. A weak journal that has become excellent is eligible, but so too is an admired journal that manages to become dramatically better. Submissions must feature significant editorial and/or design change. Please submit the last issue before the launch of the revitalization or transformation and two different sample issues of the revitalized or transformed journal. Submissions should include a letter from the editor, no longer than one page, introducing the journal's changes.

  • This award is currently on pause, starting February 2026.

Have Award questions?

Contact CELJ Vice President at <celj.awards@gmail.com>.

Submit Here!

Submission guidelines for 2026 updated June 3, 2026 

Deadline for submission: September 8, 2026