Terms and Conditions

Void where prohibited. No purchase or payment of any kind is necessary to enter or win. By providing a submission, entrant agrees to be bound by these official rules.

The American Psychological Association (APA) is holding the PsycShorts Video Contest to encourage scientists and others to think about how to translate the psychological science that excites them to lay audiences.

All entrants agree to comply unconditionally with all the provisions set out in these Official Rules Any entrant who does not comply will be considered ineligible for participation.

APA shall have the right, but not the obligation, to monitor the contest and determine compliance with these Official Rules, and the right at its sole discretion to refuse, reject, and/or remove any video, in whole or in part, that it finds to be in violation of these Rules and Guidelines or otherwise unlawful and objectionable.

1.  SPONSOR.  The Sponsor is the American Psychological Association, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 (hereinafter “Sponsor”).

2.  TERM.  The PsycShorts Video Contest (“Contest”) begins on Dec. 1, 2018, at 12:01 a.m. U.S. Eastern Standard Time (ET) and ends March 25, 2019, at 11:59 p.m. ET. All entries must be received by March 25, 2019, at 11:59 p.m. ET.  Information on how to enter and the prizes available form part of these official rules (“Official Rules”). By submitting an entry, each entrant agrees to the Official Rules and warrants that his or her entry complies with all requirements set out in the Official Rules. This is a skill-based contest and chance plays no part in the determination of winners.

3.  WHO MAY ENTER.  Contest is open only to individuals 14 years of age or older. If an individual has not reached the age of majority in the jurisdiction in which the individual resides, they must obtain and provide written consent and permissionopens in new window (PDF, 54KB) from their parent or legal guardian prior to entering a Contest. Minors who enter must also have the written consent of a parent or legal guardian in order to be eligible to receive any prizes, as described in Section 7 of these Rules. The officers, directors, employees, contractors, and agents of Sponsor and any entity involved in the sponsorship, development, production, implementation and distribution of this Contest as well as their respective parents, affiliates, divisions, subsidiaries and successor companies (the “Contest Entities”), and their immediate family members (and those living in the same household, whether or not related), are prohibited from participating in any Contest. “Immediate family members” shall include spouses, siblings, parents, children, grandparents, and grandchildren, whether as “in-laws”, or by current or past marriage, remarriage, adoption, co-habitation or other familial extension.

4.  HOW TO ENTER.  There is no entry fee. One entry allowed per person.  All entries must be submitted in digital format through our online entry form.  To enter, please go to the dedicated contest page at https://app.reviewr.com/s1/site/PsycShorts_Film_Festivalopens in new window  and follow the entry instructions, which include providing a link to your YouTube video on our online entry form.  You must submit an original video, created by you, which effectively translates the psychological science that excites you to lay audiences. Your Video should focus on one or more concepts or findings from psychological science research.

Your video must comply with the following requirements (the “Entry Requirements”).  Failure to meet any of the Entry Requirements will result in disqualification.   The Video must be no more than 2 minutes.  The Video must be in English, or, if it is in a language other than English, then it must contain subtitles in English.  We recommend videos use a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio and be at least 1280x720 at 720p or higher resolution.  However, other size formats will be considered.  Entrants are required to provide a complete transcript of the video through YouTube.  The Video must be the entrant’s original, previously unpublished work and not feature or focus on any material owned or controlled by third parties (including without limitation, third party copyrighted material).  The Video must contain the proper citation to the published, peer-reviewed research that is mentioned in the video.  At least one research reference must be included and listed at the end of the YouTube transcript.  The entrant must provide upon request all appropriate clearances, permissions and releases for the Video, including any required releases for third parties appearing in the Video.  In the event an entrant cannot provide all required releases, Sponsor reserves the right, in Sponsor’s sole discretion, to disqualify the applicable Video, or seek to secure the releases and clearances for Sponsor’s benefit, or allow the applicable Video to remain in the Contest.  Obscene, provocative, or otherwise objectionable content will not be considered, and such determination is solely at the discretion of Sponsor.  Submissions must not contain text or imagery that is inappropriate, indecent, obscene, hateful, tortuous, defamatory, slanderous, or libelous; or contain text or imagery that promotes bigotry, racism, hatred, or harm against any group or individual or promotes discrimination based on race, gender, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or age.  Entrants assert that they either own or have the rights to use all content used in videos (music, photos, animations, etc.), and that material is properly credited. Entrants using third-party material (i.e. material not owned by entrant) must have received explicit permission from the owner to use these materials. In addition, entrants grant APA royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right and license to the materials.  Anyone under the age of 18 who appears in a video must have parental consentopens in new window (PDF, 54KB); entrants must obtain consent prior to video submission.  Limit one (1) Video per entrant.  The Video entries will be judged in accordance with the Judging Criteria, as described in Section 9 below. All entries must be submitted and received by March 25, 2019, at 11:59 p.m. ET. Proof of submission is not proof of receipt.

Videos that fail to adhere to any of the requirements set forth in these Official Rules as determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion, may be disqualified or edited by Sponsor only as specifically provided herein.

Videos posted on YouTube are subject to the terms set by that platform. Please refer to the YouTube Terms of Service and Community Guidelines for details.  This Contest is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by YouTube.

Non-Competing Entries.  Videos may be entered as non-competing. Non-competing videos that meet eligibility and accuracy requirements may be shown on the contest website but will not be judged by the contest panel or considered for cash prizes.

5.  NO THIRD PARTY LOGOS/INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY/TRADEMARKS.  Any entrant who incorporates any logos, intellectual property, trademarks or material owned by a third party into his or her video does so at his or her own risk. If Sponsor is notified that any element of an entrant’s video infringes upon the rights of another person and/or receives a legally valid request to remove the video from this Contest because of such infringement, such video may be removed from and/or disqualified from the Contest, as Sponsor determines in its sole discretion. Further, no entrant will be eligible to receive the prize unless Sponsor determines, in its sole and absolute discretion, that such entrant’s video has been or can be sufficiently cleared for legal purposes.  Sponsor may elect to blur incidental third party trademarks or logos in any entered video at its sole discretion.

6.  MUSIC.  Any music included in a video must be original and all music and/or lyrics must be written and performed solely by you, unless for any third-party-created music, the Sponsor is expressly granted the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right and license to use, reproduce, edit, publish, translate, and distribute that music (in whole or in part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or hereafter developed for the full term of any copyright that may exist in such material, with the objective to promote the goals of the Contest and the mission of Sponsor (see section 11). If Sponsor determines in its sole discretion that the music you have included in your video is not original, or infringes on any third-party rights, the Sponsor may either disqualify your entry or Sponsor may dub over the music with music selected by the Sponsor in its sole discretion.

7.  CONTEST PRIZES.  There will be up to 11 prize winners.  There will be up to 10 Jury Prize Winners who will each receive $1000.00 and one Audience Favorite Prize Winner who will receive $1000.00.  (Note, a winner of the Jury Prize may also win the Audience Favorite Prize.) Sponsor reserves the right to substitute the prize in the event of unavailability.  Prizes are not transferable. If a group submits a winning video, the cash prize will be given to the single designated recipient and division of cash prizes is at the discretion of that individual.

THE WINNER IS REQUIRED TO SIGN AND AGREE TO THE FOLLOWING: (1) AN AFFIDAVIT OF ELIGIBILITY AND LIABILITY RELEASE; (2) WARRANTY OF OWNERSHIP AND LICENSE; AND (3) PUBLICITY RELEASE, UNLESS PROHIBITED BY LAW, WITHIN 15 DAYS FROM THE DATE OF NOTICE IN ORDER FOR SPONSOR TO AWARD THE PRIZE. NONCOMPLIANCE OR RETURN OF PRIZE NOTIFICATION AS UNDELIVERABLE MAY RESULT IN DISQUALIFICATION AND SELECTION OF AN ALTERNATE WINNER.

8.  ODDS OF WINNING.  The odds of winning depend on the number of eligible entries received and skill of the entrant.

9.  JUDGING CRITERIA AND CONDITIONS AND PUBLIC VOTING.  The contest consists of one (1) round of evaluation by a large panel of psychological science experts and a second (2nd) round of evaluation by a 6-member expert jury panel with verification of the results of each round conducted by the Sponsor. Judges in both rounds will use the Judging Criteria set forth below. Judges in round 1 will determine up to 40 top finalists and judges in round 2 will choose the top, up to 10, videos that they determine represent the best  out of the, up to 40, round 1 finalists.  The round 1 judges will be experts in psychological science. The round 2, expert jury panel, will consist of experts in psychological science, filmmaking, and communications.  Additionally, a round of public voting will be conducted among the up to 40 finalists from round 1. The judges will watch and evaluate the videos from April 1, 2019, through April 25, 2019.  The judges will evaluate the entries based on the following criteria, and will determine the top, up to 10, entries by applying those criteria (“Judging Criteria"):

• Accuracy 
• Clarity of communication 
•  Technical execution 
•  Engagement 
•  Creativity

The top up to 10 candidates chosen by the round two expert jury panel judges will each be the potential Jury Prize Winners. The top up to 40 finalists chosen by the round one judges will proceed to a public vote on the videos. The public will be voting to select the Audience Favorite Prize Winner. The public will be instructed to evaluate and vote on the video they believe deserves to win based on the same Judging Criteria established for the first round evaluation. Public voting is limited to one vote per person, per day. Public voting by software, bot, app, or other electronic algorithm is not allowed and may result in disqualification. The top up to 10 potential Jury Prize Winners and candidates for the Audience Favorite Prize will be contacted by email and asked to sign and submit an Affidavit of Eligibility and Liability Release form. If Sponsor does not receive the signed Affidavit of Eligibility and Liability Release within two (2) business days of Sponsor’s email request, the finalist may be disqualified, and may not proceed to the public voting round.  The public will vote by visiting the PsycShorts video contest website page. The public will be able to view each of the up to 10 finalist’s videos, and the winner will be chosen by the highest number of votes. The public will be able to vote from April 15, 2019, 12:00 p.m. ET through April 30, 2019, 11:59 pm ET. 

Following round one, the up to 40 finalists must add “2019 APA PsycShorts Video Contest Official Entry” to the YouTube description section.

Once the judges have identified the up to 10 potential Jury Prize Winners and once public voting is completed to choose the Audience Favorite Prize Winner from the up to 10 potential Jury Prize Winners, and a potential winner of the Audience Favorite Prize Winner is identified, then the potential winners must demonstrate that they meet the requirements for entering into this contest and sign the following: (1) Warranty of Ownership and License; and (2) Publicity Release.  If Sponsor determines an entrant meets the requirements for entering into this contest and did not violate any of these Official Rules, and further signs an Affidavit of Eligibility and Liability Release, a Warranty of Ownership and License, and Publicity Release, then the entrant will be declared a prize winner. If Sponsor determines that the entrant does not meet the requirements and/or violated any of these Official Rules, then the entrant will be disqualified, and Sponsor will select an alternate prize winner.

10. CONTEST ENTRANTS CONDUCT.  All entrants of the Contest shall not submit any video(s) that in whole or in part violates or infringes in any way upon the rights of others; that is unlawful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, invasive of privacy or publicity rights; vulgar, obscene, profane, contains morbid images, or otherwise objectionable material; that encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense; that gives rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any law, including, but not limited to, HIPAA; or that contains any advertising or any solicitation with respect to products or services.

All entrants shall not modify, exploit, create derivative works, or otherwise interfere with the material submitted by other entrants. In the event of permitted copying, distribution, or publication of such material, no changes in or deletion of author attribution, trademark legend, or copyright notice shall be made.

11. THIRD PARTY RIGHTS AND CLEARANCES.

Proprietary Rights
Submitted videos must be the original work of the entrant and must not infringe upon the copyrights, trademarks, and rights of privacy, publicity, or any other proprietary rights of a person or entity, and may require: location releases for footage shot at any location; name, voice, and likeness releases for any person whose name, voice, likeness, and/or feature appears; releases for the use of any props, set dressings, and other materials used; releases from any individuals participating in the production of the video and releases for any other audio and/or audio-visual materials not wholly owned by the participant(s) that are used.

Permissions
If the video contains any material or elements not owned by the entrant(s) and/or are subject to proprietary rights of third parties, the entrant(s) hereby automatically grant(s) or warrant(s) that any third parties owning material included in the submitted video, has(ve) expressly granted to Sponsor the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right and license to use, reproduce, edit, publish, translate, and distribute such material (in whole or in part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or hereafter developed for the full term of any copyright that may exist in such material, with the objective to promote the goals of the Contest and the mission of Sponsor.

Burden of Determination
The burden of determining that any material is not protected by copyright, trademark, rights of privacy, publicity, or any other proprietary rights rests with the entrant. The entrant shall bear the sole liability for any damage resulting from any infringement of copyrights, proprietary rights, or any other harm resulting from such a submission.

Minors
For any person(s) under the age of 18 appearing in any video, entrant must obtain parental consentopens in new window (PDF, 54KB) prior to video submission.

Individually Identifiable Health Information
Entrants are required to obtain appropriate authorizations to use and disclose individually identifiable health information as required by HIPAA.

12. TERMINATION, CANCELLATION, SUSPENSION, DISQUALIFICATION.  Sponsor reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to consider ineligible any video and disqualify the entrant, or to cancel, terminate, modify, or suspend the Contest in whole or in part and without prior notice at any time, if it suspects or finds that:

• The video actually or potentially infringes upon any third party’s intellectual property right and/or it is discovered that necessary permissions for an entered video have not been obtained.
• The video does not comply with the established entry requirements and/or in the sole discretion of APA the video contains obscene, unlawful, or other objectionable material.
• The video is advertising or promoting products or services.
• The entrant commits fraud relating to the entry process or the operation of the Contest.
• Fraud is committed, by a third party, on behalf of the entrant.
• The entrant acts in violation of these Official Rules.

13. USER RIGHTS.  Entrant grants to Sponsor a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right and license to use, display, reproduce, edit, publish, translate, and distribute the submitted video (in whole or in part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or hereafter developed for the full term of any copyright and renewal that may exist in such material, with the objective to promote the goals of the Contest or the mission of Sponsor.

Entrant grants to Sponsor the right to use submitted video to create a trailer or to splice together with other submitted videos for the objective of promoting the goals of the Contest or the mission of Sponsor. Entrant agrees Sponsor is not required to place acknowledgement (as stated below) on a trailer or spliced work as described in this paragraph.

Entrant grants to Sponsor the right to use the entrants’ names, likenesses, photographs, voices, sounds and/or biographical information and videos in connection with the Contest and for any and all advertising, publicity, and promotional purposes relating to the Contest or promoting the mission of Sponsor. The entrant will be clearly acknowledged for any use of his/her material and his/her name will accompany any dissemination of the material he/she owns by Sponsor. Beyond permission granted herein and acknowledgment, Sponsor shall not be obliged to compensate the entrant for use of the submitted material, unless prohibited by law.

14. DISCLAIMER OF LIABILITY.  All entrants, by entering  the Contest, agree that the Sponsor, its agents, representatives, employees, affiliates and contractors, are released and discharged from and against all and any costs, claims, damages, liabilities, and expenses of any sort arising out of, or generally relating to: submission of the material for the Contest and participation in it, the use of the material by Sponsor, the decisions made or actions taken by Sponsor in connection to the conduct and administration of the Contest and the acceptance and use on their part of any prize.

APA and its subsidiaries, its agents, representatives, employees, affiliates and contractors are not responsible for technical failures of any kind; any problems or delays arising from any technical, software, equipment malfunctions, computer viruses, or congestion; unavailability of the Contest website; any other technical, equipment, or human errors of any kind with regards to the administration of the Contest; or any damage or alteration to the entrants’ video that may occur in connection with the uploading or display of the video. Also, Sponsor is not liable for any failure to screen the entered video on the Internet or at any venue.

The entrants specifically acknowledge that Sponsor is not liable for the defamatory, offensive, or illegal conduct of other entrants or of comments made on YouTube or anywhere the video is posted and that the risk of injury from the foregoing rests entirely with the entrants; also, the entrants waive any right to seek injunctive action or other equitable relief relating to any claim against APA and its agents, representatives, employees, and contractors.

15. CHANGES TO THE OFFICIAL RULES.  Sponsor shall have the right at any time and without prior notice to modify, suspend, or terminate the Contest or the Official Rules, or any part thereof; and/or impose new rules or guidelines as it considers appropriate. Such changes, modifications, additions, or deletions shall be effective immediately upon notice thereof, which may be given by means including, but not limited to, posting on the Contest, sending electronic or conventional mail to the entrants, or by any other means by which the entrants obtain notice thereof.

16. GOVERNING LAW AND TAXES.  THIS CONTEST IS VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. The Contest and these Official Rules shall be governed by the laws of the District of Columbia, shall be the proper venue for any claim, suit, or dispute arising from the Contest and participation therein, and these Official Rules.  All federal, state and local taxes, fees and surcharges on prizes are the sole responsibility of the prize winners.

17.  WINNERS LIST. For names of the winners send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to: APA Science Directorate, PsycShorts Video Contest, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002.

18.  DATA PRIVACY.  Entrants agree that personal data, especially name and address, may be processed, shared and otherwise used for the purposes and within the context of the Contest and any other purposes outlined in these Official Rules. The data may also be used by the Sponsor in order to verify the participant’s identity, postal address and telephone number or to otherwise verify the participant’s eligibility to participate in the Contest. Participants have the right to access, review, rectify or cancel any personal data held by Sponsor by writing to APA Science Directorate, PsycShorts Video Contest, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Personal data will be used by Sponsor and its affiliates exclusively for the purposes stated herein.