Conference Paper Competition
IASSIST offers a paper competition as part of its annual conference each year. Inaugurated in 2015, the competition invites authors to submit completed manuscripts* just prior to the conference. (*Manuscripts published in the IQ during the 12 months prior to conference are also eligible, but the lead author must write to indicate they want to be considered.) Winners are announced at the conference, published in the IASSIST Quarterly following peer review, and win a free registration to the next year's conference.
See a list of past winners with links to their published articles.
WHO MAY ENTER?
The paper competition is open to IASSIST members.
DO I HAVE TO PRESENT (OR BE) AT THE CONFERENCE TO SUBMIT A PAPER?
No. The converse is also true, you are not required to enter your paper in the competition simply because you are presenting it at the conference. The two activities are distinct.
WHAT KIND OF PAPER?
The paper may be newly written or it may have been written in the year since the last IASSIST conference. The paper must be unpublished, with the exception of papers published in the IQ that year. It must be of interest to IASSIST members, and it must be written in English with formatted references. If in doubt, you may want to browse the current or past IQ issues to understand topics of interest to the membership.
CAN I SUBMIT A PAPER I PUBLISHED IN ANOTHER JOURNAL?
No. Only unpublished papers, or ones published in the IQ, qualify.
IS THERE A REQUIRED STYLE GUIDE OR FORMAT?
There is no style guide for the paper competition. However, we recommend following the author guidelines for IASSIST Quarterly (IQ) if you plan to submit the paper to the IQ. Papers average around 3,000-7,000 words. (And yes, we like to consider well-written entries, even if they don’t win! Please do submit!)
WHEN IS THE DEADLINE?
All papers must usually be submitted by mid-April each year.
HOW DO I SUBMIT?
Email the paper to Meryl Brodsky at meryl.brodsky [at] austin.utexas.edu.
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER A PAPER IS SUBMITTED?
The volunteer team of reviewers reads each paper and rates it according to this rubric.
DO I STILL NEED TO SUBMIT MY PAPER TO IASSIST QUARTERLY?
Yes. There is no automatic submission process.
PRIZE
The winning paper is announced at the IASSIST conference. The winning author(s) need not be present to win. The winner (lead author only) receives a free registration to the following year’s IASSIST conference.
OTHER QUESTIONS?
Contact Meryl Brodsky at meryl.brodsky [at] austin.utexas.edu.
2024
How are we FAIR-ing? Creating a FAIR self-assessment checklist for data repositories.
by Lauren Phegley and Lynda Kellam. Not yet submitted for publication.
2023
No entries
2022
Investigating teaching practices in quantitative and computational Social Sciences: A case study.
by Rebecca Greer and Renata G. Curty. Appeared in Vol. 46 No. 3 (2022).
2021
Open Geospatial Data: A comparison of data cultures in local government.
by Karen Majewicz, Jaime Martindale, and Melinda Kernik. Appeared in Vol. 46 No. 1 (2022).
2020
No award made
2019
Standards and Scoring to Increase Transparency for Archived Public Opinion Data.
by Kathleen Weldon. Appeared in Vol. 44 No. 3 (2020) as “Standards and scoring to increase transparency for archived public opinion data.”
2018
Because of a virtual tie in scoring, the committee decided to award two winners:
Metadata Improvements on Historical Polling at the Roper Center
by Kathleen Weldon and William Block. Not submitted for publication.
Data Policies of Highly Ranked Social Science Journals
by Mercè Crosas, Julian Gautier, Sebastian Karcher, Gerard Otalora, Dessislava Kirilova, and Abigail Schwartz. Not submitted for publication.
2017
Flexible DDI Storage
by Oliver Hopt, Claus-Peter Klas, Alexander Mühlbauer. Appeared in Vol. 42 No. 2 (2018).
2016
More Data, Less Process? The Applicability of MPLP to Research Data
by Sophia Lafferty-Hess and Thu-Mai Christian. Appeared in Vol. 40 No. 4 (2017).
2015 (inaugural year)
Sustainability of Social Science Data Archives: A Historical Network Perspective
by Kristin R. Eschenfelder, Morgaine Gilchrist Scott, Kalpana Shankar, Ellen LeClere, Rebecca Lin, and Greg Downey. Appeared in Vol. 40 No. 1 (2016), as “Social Science Data Archives: A Historical Social Network Analysis.”
