The submitted paper must have been presented at one of the ESPAnet conferences, workshops or seminars in 2012. The author(s) must, at the closing date of March 18th, 2013, not yet have been awarded a doctorate.
The judges are particularly looking for exciting, innovative and scholarly work, which challenges existing perspectives; poses new research problems, and develops answers to them; which offers sophisticated or subtle insights and interpretations from empirical evidence; and/or which develops new methods, or applies old methods in new ways to illuminate our understanding.
Judges are specifically requested to assess and rank the submitted papers in terms of:
Please note: if there are no papers which meet the standard required, the panel need not award a prize.
Submitted papers will be sent to the judge by late March 2013. The judges will evaluate, rank and return the papers and their decision to the editorial office by June 2013. Candidates should receive feedback and the results of the competition by late July 2013. The winning author(s) must return their final version paper, conforming in length and style to JESP requirements, to the JESP office by mid-September 2013. A formal announcement of the prize-winner is made at the annual ESPAnet conference in the autumn.
To enter this prize authors should email their papers to jesp@ed.ac.uk on or before the above deadline. In the main text and subject line of the email please state, "Doctoral Researcher Prize entry 2013".
Please attach the following to your email (in MS word format):
Submissions must have a file name which includes their surname (this includes the anonymous documents outlined above. The editorial officer will make all papers fully anonymous before the assessment stages).
For further details please refer to the Journal of European Social Policy website: http://esp.sagepub.com/
Papers must have been presented at, or contributed to, an ESPAnet workshop, conference or seminar during the competition year. Authors must not at the closing date have been awarded a doctorate. Jointly authored papers are acceptable, providing that no authors have been awarded a doctorate at the closing date. Submissions must address any aspect of European social policy. There are no other exclusions on the basis of subject matter: papers can cover any subject; country/countries; adopt any theoretical basis; use any methodology; and come from any discipline within the broad field of social policy. The only subject matter requirement is that the paper should make a contribution to our understanding of, and knowledge about, social policy in Europe. Authors may have revised their papers in the period between presentation at an ESPAnet event and the submission deadline. Authors may be required to revise their submission in the light of judges' comments before publication. Failure to comply with these revisions may result in loss of the prize. If no paper of a high enough standard is identified by the judges in any one year, the prize will not be awarded. The prize-winning paper will be published in the Journal of European Social Policy in the first issue of the subsequent volume. The winner(s) will receive 1 year's free subscription to the Journal. For further information please contact jesp@ed.ac.uk.
JESP/ESPAnet Doctoral Researcher Prize
The Journal of European Social Policy (JESP) and the Network for European Social Policy Analysis (ESPAnet) are offering a prize to the best paper by a doctoral researcher presented at any of the ESPAnet conferences, workshops or seminars in 2012.
The prize-winning paper is provided with high-profile publication in the Journal of European Social Policy, and the winner also receives 1 year's free subscription to the journal.
The judging process is tougher than normal journal refereeing procedures, and the high-profile publication and public announcements of the winning paper reward the author for the outstanding and exciting quality of their work.
The judging process is fully anonymous, but otherwise much more rigorous even than normal scholarly journal refereeing procedures. There are four senior, international scholars who act as judges, and who read all the papers submitted for the prize (rather than the usual two referees). Even if you do not win the prize, this is a great opportunity to get feedback on your work, to help you develop your ideas, and prepare your work for publication.
You will have the chance to have your work evaluated both on its own terms, and in relation to your peers, and of course you might be especially pleased with the result!
The judges are particularly looking for exciting, innovative and scholarly work, which challenges existing perspectives; poses new research problems, and develops answers to them; which offers sophisticated insights and interpretations from empirical evidence; and/or which develops new methods, or applies old methods in new ways to illuminate our understanding. Papers can cover any subject; country/countries; adopt any theoretical basis; use any methodology; and come from any discipline within the broad field of social policy. The only subject matter requirement is that the paper should make a contribution to our understanding of, and knowledge about, social policy in Europe.
The submitted paper must have been presented at one of the ESPAnet conferences, workshops or seminars in 2012. The author(s) must, at the closing date of March 18th, 2013, not yet have been awarded a doctorate. Jointly authored papers are acceptable, providing that no authors have been awarded a doctorate at the closing date.
The prize-winning paper for the doctoral researcher prize will be published in one of the forthcoming issues of the Journal of European Social Policy and it will be specifically identified as the prize-winning paper. The winner also receives 1 year's free subscription to the Journal.
Read the previous published JESP/ESPAnet Doctoral Research Prize winners:
Here some comments by the last years awarded:
Tim Vlandas about winning the 2012-Prize:
“I was both delighted and honoured to be awarded the prize. Like most PhD researchers, I had doubts about my research and winning this prize was therefore a great motivation to persevere through the vagaries of doing my PhD. Moreover, submitting my research to this prize was a unique opportunity to receive excellent feedback on my work from leading scholars in the field. Winning the prize also allowed me to get my research published in a top social policy journal, thereby getting my argument across to the wider academic community. I would therefore encourage all doctoral researchers to submit their research to the JESP/ESPAnet prize.”
Nam K. Jo about winning the 2009-Prize:
"It was only a couple of years later from its beginning, but the reputation of this prize was already widely known, making me hesitate to apply - as many PhDs do, I had doubted my work for the whole duration of my PhD. Now I can only agree with former winners - this prize is a great confidence-booster and an entry ticket into academia. It will be recognised (by you and 'them') that you have been on the right track and actually doing well! This opportunity should not be missed not only for the prize but also to get comments from the very leading researchers in 'your' field."
Stefan Kühner about winning the 2005-Prize:
"Receiving this Prize has not only encouraged me to stay in academia, it also played a huge role for my appointment as a permanent Social Policy lecturer even before I had passed my viva. The recognition that comes with this prize has helped to convince a sponsor to facilitate a research visit in the US, and the same is true for my employment at a major international organisation as an external collaborator last year. ESPAnet has provided a chance to meet and discuss my work with leading researchers in the field, and I can only encourage all current 'Doctoral Researchers' to consider submission of their work for the prize."
Silja Häusermann about winning the 2004-Prize:
"Winning the Prize made quite a few people take notice of my research and of the arguments I wanted to make. It has helped me enormously in being admitted and getting funding for a research stay in the US. It is a crucial early single-authored publication in a well-known peer-reviewed journal, and it turned out to be an important "signal" in academia, both for people within and outside of the welfare state research community. Last but not least, it made me belief that my Ph.D. research was not completely on the wrong track and gave me the confidence to consider a professional future in academia in the longer run."
Ingela Naumann about winning the 2003-Prize:
"I certainly did not think my research was good or original enough for a prize - and I know many students feel the same about their own work. In fact, it was a friend of mine who persuaded me to send my paper to ESPAnet on the very last day of submission. The Prize was, of course, a great confidence-booster, and it has encouraged me to keep developing my own ideas irrespective of what's "en vogue" in my research field at any particular time. It has basically been my entry ticket into academia. It's brought me many interesting offers to co-operate in research projects and an open-ended lectureship even before I had finished my PhD."