Reply #10: Wikipedia: [View All]

[Hissyspit]

Nominations for the Prize may be made by a broad array of qualified individuals, including former recipients, members of national assemblies and congresses, university professors (in certain disciplines), international judges, and special advisors to the Prize Committee. In 2009, a record 205 nominations were received.<5> The Committee keeps the nominations secret and asks that nominators do the same. Over time many individuals have become known as "Nobel Peace Prize Nominees", but this designation has no official standing.<6>

Compared with some other prizes, the Prize nomination and selection process is long and rigorous. This is a key reason why the Prizes have grown in importance over the years to become the most important prizes in their field.<8>

For the peace prize, inquiries are sent to such people as governments of states, members of international courts, professors and rectors at university level, former Peace Prize laureates, current or former members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, among others. The Norwegian Nobel Committee then bases its assessment on nominations sent in before 3 February.<10> The submission deadline for nominations for Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Economics is 31 January.<11> Self-nominations and nominations of deceased people are disqualified.

The names of the nominees are never publicly announced, and neither are they told that they have been considered for the Prize. Nomination records are sealed for 50 years.<12> In practice, some nominees do become known. It is also common for publicists to make such a claim, founded or not.

After the deadline has passed, the nominations are screened by committee, and a list is produced of approximately 200 preliminary candidates. This list is forwarded to selected experts in the relevant field. They remove all but approximately 15 names. The committee submits a report with recommendations to the appropriate institution. The Assembly for the Physiology or Medicine Prize, for example, has 50 members. The institution members then select prize winners by vote.

The selection process varies slightly between the different disciplines. The Literature Prize is rarely awarded to more than one person per year, whereas other Prizes now often involve collaborators of two or three.

Nobel's will provides for prizes to be awarded in recognition for discoveries made "during the preceding year", and for the first years of the awards, the discoveries recognized were recent. However, some awards were made for discoveries that were later discredited. Taking the discrediting of a recognized discovery as an embarrassment, the awards committees began to recognize scientific discoveries that had withstood the test of time, in violation of the letter but not the spirit of Nobel's will.