Introduction
The process of electing Fellows of the Royal Society is highly thorough and results in the election each year of 44 Fellows, 8 Foreign Members and up to 1 Honorary Fellow, from a group of over 700 candidates who are proposed by the existing Fellowship.
According to the Society's statutes, candidates for election to the Fellowship must have made "a substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematics, engineering science and medical science".
Each candidate is considered on his or her own merits and can be proposed from any sector of the scientific community. Every effort is made to encourage nominations of women candidates and candidates from the emerging disciplines.
Download a full guide to the election process (PDF).
Nomination
Each candidate for the Fellowship or Foreign Membership must be nominated by two Fellows of the Royal Society, who sign a certificate of proposal. The certificate includes a statement of the principal grounds on which the proposal is being made and is available for inspection by other Fellows. The completed certificate of proposal must be received by 30 September each year.
The President of the Royal Society may additionally encourage suggestions for candidates from Vice-Chancellors of universities and Chairs and Chief Executives of Research Councils. These suggestions must also be received by 30 September each year.
The proposing Fellows are responsible for informing the candidate that he or she has been nominated. The proposers must ensure, in consultation with the candidate, that all information relevant to the nomination is up to date.
There is no limit on the number of new nominations made in any year. There were 621 candidates for election as Fellows in 2013.
Once nominated, candidates remain eligible for election for seven years. If not elected within this period, an individual may be proposed as a candidate again after a break of three years and then remains eligible for election for a period of three years. This three year cycle may be repeated without limit.
The Society does not provide details of the identities of nominated candidates to anybody outside the Fellowship, except those individuals consulted in confidence during the refereeing process.
Selection
The Council of the Royal Society oversees the selection process. Two Officers, the Biological Sciences Secretary and the Physical Sciences Secretary, are responsible for the smooth running of this process. The Council appoints ten subject area committees, known as Sectional Committees (PDF), to advise it about the selection of the list of the strongest candidates.
Each candidate is considered by the relevant Sectional Committee on the basis of a full curriculum vitae, details of their research achievements, a list of all their scientific publications and a copy of their 20 best scientific papers. Members of the Sectional Committees vote in early March each year to produce a short-list.
The final list of candidates is confirmed by the Council in April each year and a secret ballot of Fellows is held at a meeting in May each year. A candidate is elected if he or she secures two-thirds of votes of those Fellows present and voting.
Admission
New Fellows are formally admitted to the Society at the formal Admissions Day ceremony in July, when they sign the Charter Book and the Obligation of the Fellows of the Royal Society.
The Obligation reads as follows:
"We who have hereunto subscribed, do hereby promise, that we will endeavour to promote the good of the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, and to pursue the ends for which the same was founded; that we will carry out, as far as we are able, those actions requested of us in the name of the Council; and that we will observe the Statutes and Standing Orders of the said Society. Provided that, whensoever any of us shall signify to the President under our hands, that we desire to withdraw from the Society, we shall be free from this Obligation for the future."