Student Paper Competition

The Midwest Sociological Society announces the 2024 Student Paper Competition.  The competition is open to currently-enrolled undergraduate and graduate student members of MSS. Papers are judged through a blind review with separate panels of judges for graduate and undergraduate papers. Deadline for submissions is January 15, 2024.

Find the competition rules in printable version here.

Prizes

• Three prizes are available in each division, Graduate and Undergraduate:

1st Prize: $250         2nd Prize: $150            3rd Prize: $100

• Winners receive a waiver of the annual meeting registration fee.
• Prizes may be picked up by the winner at the annual meeting.
• MSS reserves the right not to award prizes, or to award 2nd or 3rd place prizes but no 1st place prize.

Paper Requirements

• Research-based papers involving research on human subjects must secure Institutional Review Board approval prior to beginning research or undergo an equivalent review procedure described in the methodology section of the paper.
• Papers may be co-authored by students, but not by students and faculty. Advisors are expected to provide guidance, but not to assist with writing the paper. A student may author or co-author only one paper in the competition.
• Students may nominate their own work. With a student’s permission, an advisor may submit a paper on a student’s behalf.
• Maximum text length: 25 double-spaced pages (12-pt font), not counting abstract, references, tables or figures.
• Students who submit papers to this competition may submit the same paper to sessions at the annual meeting and/or to the editor of The Sociological Quarterly for publication consideration.

Submission Procedures and Deadline

• Student competitors must pay MSS membership dues for the year of award before submitting a paper. 
• The paper may be submitted as .pdf or text files, but must be submitted as separate documents as follows:
  1. A cover sheet including title of the paper; the name, institutional affiliation, email address, telephone number, mailing address and the graduate or undergraduate status of the author(s); and the name, email address, telephone number, and mailing address of the student’s advisor.
  2. The paper itself must include NONE of the identifying information from the cover page, but must include, at the top of its first page, the full title of the paper, followed by the abstract, if one is included. 
  3. IRB certification or appropriate documentation must be submitted as a third document, for research-based papers involving human subjects.
• All submissions must be received by January 15. Send submissions electronically ONLY to: [email protected]
• Your submission will be acknowledged by email when received. If your submission is not acknowledged within 72 hours of your sending it, it is your responsibility to follow up with the MSS Executive Director at: [email protected]

Notification of Competition Results

• All competitors will be notified of results on or about February 1.

Questions / Other

• Questions? Please contact MSS Executive Director at: [email protected]
• No reviews will be provided to competitors, either verbally or in writing.