Technical Publications Competition

The technical publications competition accepts only physical media as entries. The competition has 18 categories (listed below).

1. Promotional Materials. Publications that market a technical product, service, or organization. Includes advertisements, flyers, catalogs, and other presale literature.
   
   
2. Informational Materials. Publications that provide information to the general public or a particular audience about a technical or scientific subject, product, service, or organization.
   
   
3. Interpretative Illustration, Line. Composed entirely of lines, dots, and solid areas. While the subject is technical in nature, intended use permits artistic interpretation of features or physical arrangement. Includes illustrative views depicting arrangement or general configuration, cartoons, and conceptual visualizations (as for technical proposals).
   
   

4. Quick Reference Guides. Brief guides that provide ready and concise reference to essential features during the use of hardware, software, or noncomputer equipment. Includes graphical devices and other job aids.
   

5. Hardware/Software Combination Guides. Guides that provide instructions for using equipment or a hardware product and modifying or programming its firmware or software. Includes manuals for laboratory test equipment, scanners, printers, facsimile machines, modems, watches, cameras, and calculators.
   
   

6. Computer Hardware Guides. Guides for computer hardware, including reference information, descriptions of features and functions, and instructions for installation, use, and repair.
   

7. Noncomputer Equipment Guides. Guides for noncomputer equipment, including reference information, descriptions of features and functions, and instructions for installation, use, and repair. The guides may cover audiovisual, medical, laboratory, test, telecommunications, photographic, and recreational equipment and vehicles, tools, and appliances.
   
   
8. Organizational Manuals. Publications that provide guidance to employees or customers of an organization. Includes policies and procedures manuals, style and identity guides, and benefits guides.
   
   
9. Training Materials. Publications developed for use in a training or classroom environment by either the trainer or student participant. Includes manuals, tutorials, workbooks, and instructor guides.
   
   
10. Annual Reports. Publications that summarize the activities or financial position of a corporation, governmental agency, or nonprofit community organization. Includes reports that comply with the regulations of government agencies, such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as reports of unregulated, nonprofit organizations.
    
    
11. Magazines. Regularly scheduled publications in magazine format with a feature treatment, including use of photographs and art, as well as news, feature, and interpretive writing; contain news and information about an organization, technology, industry, or scientific field. May be intended for an internal or external audience, a special-interest audience, or the general public. (Submit three consecutive issues as a single entry.)
    
    
12. Newsletters. Regularly scheduled publications with brief writings and a flexible format. Generally lower budget and fewer pages than the magazine in a simple, type-oriented format that may or may not have photographs and illustrations. May be intended for an internal or external audience. (Submit three consecutive issues as a single entry.)
    
    
13. Technical Reports. Reports on scientific or technical efforts, usually aimed at the professional community or a contracting agency.
    
    
14. Trade/News Articles. Single articles appearing in trade journals or general interest periodicals, not as an original contribution to knowledge. (Submit only three tear sheets or reprints, not photocopies, indicating the publication title, volume and issue number, and date of publication.)
    
    
15. Scholarly/Professional Articles. Single articles appearing in academic or professional journals or scholarly books as an original contribution to knowledge. (Submit only tear sheets or reprints, not photocopies, indicating the publication title, volume and issue number, and date of publication.)
    
    
16. Scholarly/Professional Journals. Regularly scheduled publications in magazine format whose primary content consists of by-lined, peer-reviewed articles reporting scholarly, scientific, or technical work, performed by the authors, to a specialized external audience. Articles are original contributions to knowledge; review or tutorial articles may appear as occasional exceptions but do not dominate the publication. (Submit three consecutive issues as a single entry.)
    
    
17. Books. Lengthy documents on one subject, usually intended for sale to the public.
    
    
18. Documentation Sets. A set of publications that are intended to be used as a unit, and are typically packaged together. Examples include, but are not limited to, software documentation sets, multivolume reference materials, a combination of quick reference, user, and technical reference materials that are provided as a single unit.