Outstanding Student Paper Awards

Purposes

1. To recognize meritorious research by student members of NASPSPA.
2. To foster research by student members of NASPSPA.

Method of Selection

1. An award may be given in each of the three conference program areas, though an award is not necessarily given every year.
2. The selection committee for a given program area consists of the Area Program Committee members. The Area Program Chair coordinates the review of applications and, if necessary, breaks ties.
3. The Area Program Chair distributes award applications to the selection committee. Selection committee members independently evaluate which, if any, applications are sufficiently original, innovative, important, and significant to warrant award recognition. Members then each rank the proposals that meet this threshold and submit rankings to the Area Program Chair. Committee members do not rank applications if there is a conflict of interest (e.g., current or former advisees) and inform the Area Program Chair accordingly. The Area Program Chair assembles the rankings and then initiates a discussion among selection committee members to settle upon the top ranked application. The top-ranked application at the end of this process must be considered award-worthy by all selection committee members to receive the award. The Area Program Chair will communicate the outcome of the decision-making process and provide feedback to all applicants.

Criteria for evaluating the research

1. The research question should be original, innovative, important, and significant.
2. The researcher observed appropriate standards for the treatment of participants. That is, a statement certifying that ethical treatment of participants was followed in conducting this research should be included. (Note: These criteria are modified from guidelines found on pp. 11-18 of the Publication Manual of the APA, 6th edition).
3. At the time of the award application, the applicant must be a currently enrolled student (not post-doctoral) and a member of NASPSPA.

Guidelines
For students applying for the Outstanding Student Paper Award, the following must be sent to the Area Program Chair:

1. A short abstract (as described for the conference) submitted by the abstract submission deadline.
2. A long abstract (no longer than 5 pages double-spaced, 12-pt. font, including figures). This abstract should include: the research question, a rationale for the importance of the question, methods, results (including selected figures if appropriate), and a discussion of the findings and their significance. References should be included as separate pages using APA style. Deadline is two weeks following the abstract submission deadline of the annual conference.
3. For the graduate student advisor: A letter of nomination for the award must be written by the advisor indicating why this student’s research is worthy of the Outstanding Student Paper Award. This should address the criteria being used by the committee to evaluate the research (see above). The letter should also include a statement indicating that the majority of the work done for this research was completed by the student. In the case of multi-authored publications, the advisor should indicate the individual contributions of each author. Deadline is two weeks following the abstract submission deadline of the annual conference.