AAP officials said that it’s been another record year for submissions to the AAP’s PROSE awards for scholarly publishing, and this year the winner of the AAP’s top honor will also score a major payday.

John Jenkins, director for the awards, told PW that for the first time the AAP’s Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division is endowing the R.R. Hawkins Prize with a $10,000 cash award to the winning author. Jenkins said that the cash endowment was “an affirmation of the growing importance and influence of the awards,” which has notched a sixth straight year of record submissions.

Last year's R.R. Hawkins Award was presented to Princeton University Press for Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350-550 AD by Peter Brown.

Now in its 38th year, the PROSE Awards honor the best in professional and scholarly publishing, recognizing “distinguished books, journals, and electronic content” in over 40 categories, as judged by peer publishers, librarians, and medical professionals.

Submissions for this year are closed, and judging will begin in early January. The Hawkins Prize will be announced live at an awards Webcast on February 6.