Best Paper Award certificate templates and badges
3 free designs. A set is one design as a badge, a landscape or a portrait certificate, or all three.
Free for up to 20 recipients a year
Proceedings Bookmark set
Badge · Landscape · Portrait
A best paper certificate template gives a conference a ready way to honour the paper its programme committee ranked first. Academic conferences, learned societies, university research days and student symposia present the award at the closing session or the conference dinner, usually to the first author, sometimes to the whole author team. For a PhD student or an early-career researcher it is a real line on a CV, a faculty page and a grant application.
A good award for best paper names the author, the conference and the year, says in a sentence why the paper won, and lists what the reviewers judged: originality, rigour, significance and clarity. Add how it was selected, the date, a credential ID and the signatures of the programme chair and the general chair.
The designs here come as certificates in A4 and US Letter and as digital badges, so authors can frame a print and share a verifiable copy online.
Wording
What to write on a best paper award certificate
Use these lines as they are, or as a start for your own. Every template comes with wording you can change in the studio.
Wording for a best paper award certificate
- “Awarded for the best paper presented at the 2026 Annual Research Conference.”
- “In recognition of original, rigorous research of real significance to its field, chosen by the programme committee as the best of all papers presented.”
- “Selected after double-blind peer review as the outstanding paper of the conference.”
Best paper presentation award certificate lines
- “For the best paper presentation of the conference, judged on the quality of the research and the clarity of its delivery.”
- “Presented to the authors of the best student paper, for work that sets a high standard for the next generation of researchers.”
- “Honourable mention, best paper award: for a paper the committee singled out for its originality and care.”
Short lines for the badge or the announcement
- “Best Paper, Annual Research Conference 2026.”
- “Chosen by our reviewers as the best paper of the year.”
Why send it with Hyperstack
More than a PDF
Customize the template free. When it is ready, send it to everyone at once.
One design, every name
Upload a spreadsheet and Hyperstack makes a award for each person on it, in one go.
Sent by email
Each recipient gets their own email and link. You see who opened it, downloaded it and shared it.
Anyone can verify it
The QR code opens a page that proves the certificate is real. Recipients add it to LinkedIn in one click.
FAQ
Questions, answered
Usually originality, methodological rigour, significance to the field and clarity of writing. The committee shortlists the highest-rated accepted papers from the review scores, a small award panel reads them again, sometimes counting the talk at the conference, and agrees on one winner. Members with a conflict of interest stay out of the decision.
Give one certificate to every author on the paper, each with their own name. Some conferences add the role, such as first author, but most simply name each person as a recipient of the best paper award.
A best paper award judges the written paper, usually from the peer reviews. A best presentation award judges the talk or poster at the event, so the delivery, the slides and the answers to questions count. Many conferences give both, with a certificate for each.
Usually the programme committee chair, who led the selection, and the general chair or the president of the society that runs the conference. For a journal or a university research day, the editor or the dean often signs instead.
Put it in the program line or in the statement, since the title is what readers will look up. Keep the conference name and the year visible too, so the award can be placed at once.
Under honours and awards, with the award name, the conference, the year and the paper title, for example: Best Paper Award, Annual Research Conference 2026, for the paper named. A verifiable link to the digital certificate lets a hiring or grant panel check it.
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