Call for submissions! The Rose Prize for the history of UK General Practice

Submissions are invited for the 2022/2023 Rose Prize for the best submission in the history of UK general practice/primary care (final deadline November 1)

The award is a biennial prize established by the RCGP and the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London. The aim of the prize is to stimulate interest by independent history scholars and increase knowledge in the history of UK general practice/primary care.  It commemorates William Rose, a late 17th century apothecary, whose court case of 1701-4 established the legal foundation of General Practice in England and Wales, and Fraser Rose, co-founder of the Royal College of General Practitioners

The Winner of the Rose Prize 2021 was Dr Stephen Gillam, who adapted some of his work for a limited series in BJGP/BJGPLife. The articles may be accessed here.

Submissions for the tenth Rose prize are now invited. Applications are welcome from individuals and teams with an interest in primary health care and general practice including:

• Individuals from university departments of the history of medicine
• Independent historian scholars up to doctoral level
• Non-medical historian

Advice on all aspects of the Prize is available at governance@rcgp.org.uk and entrants are encouraged to contact us in advance if they wish to check on eligibility or wish advice from our mentors. See the bottom of this flier for specific contacts regarding any aspect of the prize.

The best submission for the Rose Prize will be awarded:

• A silver rose bowl with inscribed plinth, which will be kept by the winner/s for the prize tenure of two years
• A certificate
• A prize of £200
• Two years of Fellows’ Category membership to the Faculty of the History and Philosophy of Medicine and Pharmacy
• An associate membership of the British Society for the History of Medicine

Highly Commended certificates and a prize of £100 may be awarded to applicants meeting the required standard but not winning the prize, including one for the best submission by a medical student.

Further details on how to enter

• Three copies of submissions should be submitted. These may be in any medium, typewritten, written books, audio-visual, electronic, as databases, oral history and radio programmes. (This list is not exhaustive.)
• Submissions can be on any aspect on the history of UK general practice/primary care – previous winning submissions have included: The ‘Letters to No-one’ and the Retirement Oral History – Legacy of a Glasgow GP by Dr Kenneth Collins. A book based on this is shortly to be published. Dr Stephen Gillam won the last Rose Prize for The Changing Gaze of the General Practitioner.
• Written submissions should follow a scholarly format. They should normally be between 3,000-6,000 words long (excluding references, tables, figures, captions and bibliography). The word limit includes footnotes and endnotes. Submissions should be fully referenced. Indexing is optional and does not count towards the word-length.
• With static submissions, e.g., museum displays, a video presentation of 5-10 minutes should be also included.
• Quotations from any source, including the internet, are acceptable only when quotation marks are used to indicate their full extent, and full citation(s) given in the references. Plagiarism is not acceptable and if detected would lead to disqualification.
• Copyright will remain with the author. There may be opportunities for publishing the winning submission. It will be included on both organisations’ websites and sent to the assistant Editor of the British Journal of General Practice for consideration. If it is subsequently published, reference should be made to the Rose Prize.
• Any sponsorship must be declared and approved as acceptable. How to submit your application and adjudication
• Please send three copies of your submission to governance@rcgp.org.uk. Following adjudication, a copy of each application will be kept by both organisations to retain in their archives or libraries.

• In the case of museum displays or similar advice should be sought on possible ways of presenting these.
• Submissions should be accompanied by (1) a signed disclaimer to certify the originality of the work and the eligibility of the applicant(s) and, if applicable (2) a letter confirming joint responsibility. General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) will apply.
• The closing date for applications is 1 November 2023 and the tenth Rose Prize will be awarded at a ceremony in 2024.
• The prize is adjudicated by three examiners, one from The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries, one from the Royal College of General Practitioners and one independent professional historian.
• All applicants will be notified of the result of the competition via email by 1 December 2023
• The examiners’ decision will be final, and correspondence cannot be entered into regarding the result of the competition
• The prize will not be awarded if there is not a submission judged to be of sufficient merit.

For further details on mentors and other queries please contact:

Kate Messent/Nicole McIntosh, Royal College of General Practitioners: governance@rcgp.org.uk

Maria Ferran, Faculty Manager & Webmaster
Faculty of the History & Philosophy of Medicine & Pharmacy, The Society of Apothecaries facultyhp@apothecaries.org