Rules

THE BEST PUBLICATIONS ON MOUNTAINS
10th INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION IN CRACOW, 2025

I. GENERAL INFORMATIONS

1. The organizers of THE BEST PUBLICATIONS ON MOUNATINS 10th INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION, Cracow 2025 (Poland), here-in-after stated as the Competition, are as follows:
– The Central Mountain Tourism Centre (COTG PTTK) in Cracow,
– Trade Fair Ltd. in Cracow,
– Karpaty Publisher – Andrzej Łączyński in Cracow.
2. The goal of the Competitionis is to promote Polish and foreign-languages publications on both Polish and world mountains and on the topics related to the mountains, as it is stated in the rules.
3. The participation in the Competition is free of charge for the publishers and without any registration fee.
4. The members of the Jury represent:
– The Central Mountain Tourism Centre in Cracow,
– Trade Fair Ltd. in Cracow,
– Karpaty Publisher – Andrzej Łączyński in Cracow,
– The Mountain Tourism Commission of the Main Board of PTTK.
The Jury reserve the right to expand their composition of the authors and the publishers as well as the representatives of the companies and the organizations on mountains.
5. The Competition to be held under the patronage of:
– President of the General Board of PTTK;
– President of the Board of Trade Fair Ltd. in Cracow;
– President of the Malopolska Tourist Organisation In Cracow;
– Editor in Chief of the Karpaty Publisher – Andrzej Łączyński in Cracow.
6. The Competition is associated each year with the date of the International Book Fair in Cracow, a solemn meeting with participants of the eight edition of the Competition will take place during the 28th International Book Fair in Cracow® which will take place from 23 to 26 October, 2025 in EXPO Hall in Cracow, at ul. Galicyjska 9.
7. The publications submitted to the tenth Competition will be displayed at a special stand Turing on the 28th International Book Fair in Cracow® .
8. The publications whose the authors, reviewers or representatives of the publisher are members of the Competition Jury, may not participate in the evaluation of this category in the Competition to which the publishing house has been submitted.

II. THE RULES OF THE COMPETITION

1. The publications equivalent to A1 or B1 quire (e.g. 16 pages of A5 or 16 pages of B5) are to be subject of the evaluation of the Jury. This requirement does not apply to the maps submitted to the Competition.
2. The Competition is open to publishing, commissioning or distributing tourist, sightseeing, popular science and other publications about mountains or topics related to the mountains. The application could be submitted by:
– publisher,
– Polish representative of foreign publisher,
– commissioning the edition,
– author (authors),
– artistic association,
– national or landscape park,
– local government,
– social organization or association,
– wholesale of tourist publications,
– other institutions and organizations not mentioned above after prior
agreement with COTG PTTK in Cracow.
Only the publisher of the publishing house may become the winner or distinguished in the Competition.
The correspondence address is as follows: Centralny Ośrodek Turystyki Górskiej PTTK w Krakowie, ul. Jagiellońska 6, 31-010 Kraków, or by e-mail: poczta@cotg.pttk.pl, phone; +48 12 422 28 40, int. 10.
3. Each applicant may submit to the Competition any number of titles of the publications that have appeared with the date of issue since 2021 included. The same issues of publishing houses that have participated in previous editions of the Competition (or subsequent editions without major changes) cannot be submitted. In case of multi-volume publications (publishing series, encyclopedias and others), the whole titles are admitted to the Competition, the first volume of which could have been published before 2021, and the last volumes from 2021.
4. The publications submitted for the Competition, regardless of the language of the publication, will be assessed by the Jury in the following categories:
I.  albums,
II.  guidebooks,
III. popular science, monographs and others,
IV.  literary prose and poetry,
V. magazines,
VI. maps,
VII. atlases, publishing series, encyclopedias, vocabularies of names, places, objects, nature and others.
The publications can only be submitted to one selected category.
5. The participation in the Competition is conditioned by:
– sending or submitting a registration form to 19st September, 2025 (inclusive). The application form should be completed separately for each submitted title or publishing series. Together with the form, one copy of each of the titles announced for the Competition should be sent to the following address:
Centralny Ośrodek Turystyki Górskiej PTTK, ul. Jagiellońska 6, 31-010 Kraków, Polska, with a note ‘The Best Publications on Mountains Competition’;
– the day of 19th September of the year in which the Competition is organized is the date in which the application forms and the copies of the submitted publications must be placed at the above-mentioned address.
6. The application form is available on http://ow.wierchy.cotg.pttk.pl/konkursy/najlepsze-wydawnictwa-o-gorach/.
7. The publications must be sent on the expenses of the sender and should be suitably protected against the damages.
8. The organizers reserve the right to change the statutory category to which the publication has been submitted, if this results from an incorrect classification of the title to a given category by the applicant.
9. The organizers reserve the right to eliminate from the Competition the publications, which do not bear the characteristics of the literature related to its subject with the mountains or do not meet the conditions of the Competition rules. These publications will not be returned to the senders and will be donated for socially useful purposes (libraries, schools or others).
10. The Jury of the Competition will assess the publications. The Jury will evaluate the substantive content of the publications, an interesting or little known subject, their utility, a form of presenting the values of the described area or subject matter, and the editorial level.
11. Four cups will be awarded in the Competition:

– President of the General Board of PTTK;
– President of the Board of Trade Fair Ltd. in Cracow;

– President of the Malopolska Tourist Organisation in Cracow;
– Editor in Chief of the Karpaty Publisher – Andrzej Łączyński in Cracow.

12. The remaining winners of the Competition will receive honorary diplomas and statuettes for the first, second and third place in each category or possibly a distinction for the best publication in Polish, if it did not take the first to third place in a given category or possibly a distinction for the best publication in a foreign language, if it did not take the first to third place in a given category. The Competition Jury has the right not to award all the statutory places in individual categories.
13. In addition to the places for the winners, it is possible to award distinctions by the organizers of the Competition, its patrons, the press, local governments, organizations and companies associated with the mountains or mountain tourism.
14. The publishers who have received the main prize, who are winners or distinguished in the Competition, in subsequent editions or printouts, in the materials advertising them or on stickers on these publications, may have information about the main prize, the place taken or distinction in the Competition together with a reproduction of the electronic version of the Competition logo, received from the Organisers.
15. The list of the main prizes awarded, winners and distinctions in the Competition will be announced on Tuesday, at the latest in the week when the next International Book Fair in Cracow® begins (in 2025 it will be on 21th October), on the following websites: http://ow.wierchy.cotg.pttk.pl/konkursy/najlepsze-wydawnictwa-o-gorach/  and sent to the electronic addresses of the Competition participants given in the application forms.
16. The grand presentation of the cups, honorary statuettes and diplomas to the winners of the Competition, as well as the awarded distinctions, will take place on the third day of the 28th International Book Fair in Cracow® , on Saturday, October 25th at 1.30 p.m. (room „Lwów”). Participants of the Competition who will not be able to come to the above ceremony will receive trophies or diplomas by post.
17. The above mentioned rules of the Competition are available on http://ow.wierchy.cotg.pttk.pl/konkursy/najlepsze-wydawnictwa-o-gorach/  where you will also find any current news concerning it.

III. THE FINAL DECISIONS

1. The organizers reserve the right to promote the Competition in the media with free use of publications submitted to the Competition.
2. After finishing the Competition all publications will be given without charge to The Central Mountain Library of PTTK in Cracow (the second largest of this type in Europe), at ul. Jagiellońska 6, 31-010 Kraków where they will be available according to the general rules of the Library.
3. The members of the Jury as well as the organizers of the competition are working for free.
4. The minutes in written form of the Jury’s meetings will be availabvle to all the members of the Jury and the organizers in five working days at the latest after finishing the meetings.

These rules are effective from 20th July, 2016, with amendments introduced by 1st January, 2025.