AAS Open Research Photography Competition:
Tell the story of your research through photography
Submission deadline: 31st December 2020

Share your photos with the African Academy of Sciences (AAS)
Photography is a great way to capture and share a different side of your research with the world in an engaging and accessible way. That’s why we’re inviting members of the African research community to bring your research to life via a single visual image.
From life sciences and medicine to physical and social sciences, the competition aims to showcase and celebrate the breadth and depth of research taking place across Africa, as well as the people who make it happen.
We are looking for photographs that are visually appealing and original, as well as inspiring and relevant to the research that you do. Photographs can be taken on either a digital camera or smartphone and should be accompanied by a caption (brief description) that explains what is happening in the picture.
AAS Funded or Affiliated?
“Photography is another of many compelling ways of telling our stories. It is important to capture and widely share these images that showcase our African scientist, places they work and the amazing transformative research they are doing on the continent.”
- Juliette Mutheu, Head of Communications and PR at AAS
Prizes
The winner will receive a KSh10,000 (Approx. 91.89 USD) eGiftAfrica voucher, a £250 Routledge Books voucher and their photo will take pride of place on our AAS Open Research Twitter and Blog headers. We will interview you about you image and your research for a special blog post that will be showcased on the AAS Open Research blog.
Two runners up will also be awarded a £100 Routledge Books voucher.
All photographs that are entered into the competition will be showcased across AAS Open Research content and promotions.
The strongest entries will be exhibited on AAS Open Research and social media and will be shortlisted by the AAS Open Research judging panel.
The submission will be judged on three criteria:
- Connection between image, text, and research
- Originality
- Visual Impact
The competition is supported by AAS Open Research, the open research publishing platform. The platform currently publishes research representing 19 countries across the African continent, from climate change to cancer, and hackathons to hearing loss. Method articles, study protocols, negative results: all valid and important research, all openly available for everyone to access, scrutinize, and replicate.


The legal side...
There are just a few important requirements:
The photo must comply with the following guidelines:
-
- If your photo features someone’s face, we will need written permission from that person in order to use the photo.
- The photos should not include any brand names or logos (for example on the front of shops, on clothing, or on any devices shown in the picture).
- Photos should be your own and you should have ownership in the copyright of the photo.
- If a photo is from inside private property that isn’t your own, we will need written permission from the property owner in order to use the photo. For example, if a photo is taken in a university lab then the university need to give written permission for its use.
- Photographic entries must be under 25MB and .jpg format. All photo submissions must be the entrant’s own work, and they must own the copyright to any photographs entered.
Got any questions? Feel free to contact our editorial office at info@aasopenresearch.org.
Make sure you read the full Terms & Conditions before you enter.

How to enter
Post your picture on social media by 31st December 2020, and tag us @AASOpenRes, make sure to use the hashtag #AASphoto.
Alternatively, you can email your photos to us at info@aasopenresearch.org with the subject line "Photo competition".

About AAS Open Research
AAS Open Research is a fully open access publishing platform, offering rapid publication of articles and other research outputs without editorial bias. All articles benefit from transparent post-publication peer review, and editorial guidance on making source data openly available.
AAS Open Research advocates for transparency and reproducibility in research, and our unique publishing model supports this at every stage. Articles can be published in as few as 14 days, with post-publication peer review creating an open dialogue between authors and their research community. This generates feedback which can be used to improve the article and develop the author's skills.
Our data and software sharing policy is designed to ensure that research is reproducible. For software tool articles this means the tools themselves should be openly accessible and clearly linked to any appropriate data and results.