We invite you to participate in the Fourteenth Annual Hektoen Essay Competition: Hospitals of Note.
Grand Prize: $5,000
Second Prize: $2,500
Submission deadline: October 1, 2026, 11:59 PM CST

From antiquity to the present day, the hospital has been a cornerstone of human society. Across centuries and cultures, hospitals have healed the sick, sheltered the poor, welcomed pilgrims and orphans, and served as fertile ground for medicine’s most transformative advances.

Articles should focus on the history of a particular hospital. They may also discuss, but are not limited to: notable physicians or staff associated with the hospital; groundbreaking research conducted there; distinctive architectural or interior design features of the hospital; or significant operations, practices, or treatments associated with the hospital. Please see our Hospitals of Note section for examples. Read past contest winners here.

Guidelines

• Submissions must be sent via the form below by 11:59 PM CST on October 1, 2026.
• The contest is open to participants 18 years or older.
• Essays must be based on original research and have a length between 500–1,600 words.
• Submissions must follow the formatting guidelines below.
• By submitting to the contest, you agree for your article to potentially be published in the journal, regardless of placement in the contest. Contest placement will be decided based upon your original, unedited submission.
• Only the winners and those authors whom Hektoen International selects to publish will be contacted after submission.
• Winning articles will be published in the journal and featured in our newsletter and on X (Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and LinkedIn.
• Questions about the contest should be sent to contest@hektoeninternational.org.

Essays will NOT be considered if they are:

• Focused on a hospital already featured in the Hospitals of Note section;
• Previously published elsewhere, or currently under review by another publication;
• Written by multiple authors; or
• Incomplete with regards to submission requirements.

Essays

Essays must be unpublished, original work 500–1,600 words in length and focus on a hospital as detailed above.

Please save your submission as a Word document with the author’s last name followed by the article title (or abbreviated title). For example, an article titled “Big Hugh” by Dr. John Smith should be saved as Smith_Big Hugh.docx. Each submission should include:

• A cover page with:
  • Author name, titles/degrees, professional affiliation, email address, and location (as you would like these listed in the journal)
  • A biography no longer than 60 words, written in the third person. See the ends of our articles for examples
• Essay text containing:
  • The title of the article at the beginning of the text
  • The full text of the article in Times New Roman, size 12, and double-spaced
  • References for quoted and cited material formatted in the style of current articles in Hektoen International
    • Example: Florence Nightingale learned from the shortcomings of Crimean hospitals in developing her guidelines for healthcare facilities.¹
      1. McDonald, Lynn. “Florence Nightingale: The making of a hospital reformer.” Health Environments Research & Design Journal 2020;13(2):25-31. doi:10.1177/1937586720918239.

Patient consent/confidentiality

Our confidentiality policy is based on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). Please refer to this document if you have any questions: http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/. Authors should protect the confidentiality of all persons and not reveal personal details without their consent.

Review process

The journal editors review contributions for adherence to the contest theme, originality, style, and content. All reviewers and editors advise the Editor-in-Chief, who makes the final decision on publication and reception of awards.

Copyright (©) and plagiarism

Authors retain the copyright to their submissions to Hektoen International. We request, however, that authors refrain from submitting their work for publication for four months after the piece has been published. Authors are requested to notify us and reference the Hektoen International website as the original publisher in subsequent publications of the article.

Plagiarism is, in its simplest wording, claiming someone else’s work as your own. When you submit work or portions of a work that you yourself did not write, without giving credit to its original author, that is plagiarism. Plagiarism ranges from copying another’s entire publication to rewording portions and ideas from another’s publication without a citation. We also acknowledge the concept of self-plagiarism, in which you republish work you have already written without permission from the work’s copyright holder.

By submitting your work to us via Everest Forms for consideration, you consent to the scanning of your work by third-party plagiarism and AI checker programs.

All submissions should be the stated author’s original work.