<P> The award process is similar for all of the Nobel Prizes; the main difference is in who can make nominations for each of them . </P> <P> Nomination forms are sent by the Nobel Committee to about 3,000 individuals, usually in September the year before the prizes are awarded . These individuals are generally prominent academics working in a relevant area . Regarding the Peace Prize, inquiries are also sent to governments, former Peace Prize laureates, and current or former members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee . The deadline for the return of the nomination forms is 31 January of the year of the award . The Nobel Committee nominates about 300 potential laureates from these forms and additional names . The nominees are not publicly named, nor are they told that they are being considered for the prize . All nomination records for a prize are sealed for 50 years from the awarding of the prize . </P> <P> The Nobel Committee then prepares a report reflecting the advice of experts in the relevant fields . This, along with the list of preliminary candidates, is submitted to the prize - awarding institutions . The institutions meet to choose the laureate or laureates in each field by a majority vote . Their decision, which cannot be appealed, is announced immediately after the vote . A maximum of three laureates and two different works may be selected per award . Except for the Peace Prize, which can be awarded to institutions, the awards can only be given to individuals . </P> <P> Although posthumous nominations are not presently permitted, individuals who died in the months between their nomination and the decision of the prize committee were originally eligible to receive the prize . This has occurred twice: the 1931 Literature Prize awarded to Erik Axel Karlfeldt, and the 1961 Peace Prize awarded to UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld . Since 1974, laureates must be thought alive at the time of the October announcement . There has been one laureate, William Vickrey, who in 1996 died after the prize (in Economics) was announced but before it could be presented . On 3 October 2011, the laureates for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine were announced; however, the committee was not aware that one of the laureates, Ralph M. Steinman, had died three days earlier . The committee was debating about Steinman's prize, since the rule is that the prize is not awarded posthumously . The committee later decided that as the decision to award Steinman the prize "was made in good faith", it would remain unchanged . </P>

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