Confidentiality
Proposals received for the award of a prize, and investigations and opinions concerning the award of a prize, may not be divulged until 50 years have elapsed.
The Nobel Committee does not itself announce the names of nominees, neither to the media nor to the candidates themselves. In certain cases names of candidates appear in the media. These advanced surmises are either the product of sheer speculation or information released by the person or persons behind the nomination.
Neither the names of nominators nor of nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize may be divulged until the start of the year marking the 50th anniversary of the awarding of a particular prize.
Statutes of the Nobel Foundation, § 10, states:
"A prize-awarding body may, however, after due consideration in each individual case, permit access to material which formed the basis for the evaluation and decision concerning a prize, for purposes of research in intellectual history. Such permission may not, however, be granted until at least 50 years have elapsed after the date on which the decision in question was made."
Requests for access should be directed to the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Click here for information about the archive and application form.