Research Committees

Established in 2020.
Submission deadline for the first edition: March 31, 2020.

The Board of the Research Committee on Logic and Methodology in Sociology (RC33) is pleased to announce the introduction of two awards, the Best Paper Award and the Best Paper by a Young Scholar Award, to highlight outstanding recent published work by RC33 members. Winning articles will each be awarded a prize of €300. The awards for this first edition will be presented at the 10th RC33 Conference to be held in Nicosia, Cyprus on September 8-11, 2020.

Those who are not yet members of RC33 should consider becoming one before the upcoming IV ISA Forum of Sociology in Porto Alegre and the 10th RC33 Conference in Cyprus. The Best Paper Award is open to anyone who is a member of RC33 as of September 2020.
The Best Paper by a Young Scholar Award is open to RC33 members in the early stages of their academic career, i.e., a) who have not yet finished their PhD/dissertation or b) who received their PhD/doctorate after December 31, 2016.

Selection Criteria

Submissions will be judged by an Awards Committee made up of RC33 board members. Each paper will be judged based on its scientific contribution, innovative nature, and style (in terms of writing and presentation).

Papers can be substantive or statistical and/or methodological in nature. Whether substantive or methodological, papers should have a clear empirical (quantitative or qualitative) focus.

General Eligibility

All RC33 members at the time of the RC33 Conference in September, 2020 are eligible to submit a paper for consideration.

Submitted papers should be:
- on a social science related topic
- written in English
- published in a peer-reviewed journal, no earlier than January 1, 2018
- and at least one of the authors (the applicant) should be an RC33 member.

Furthermore, for the Young Scholar Award, the applicant* should meet the above-mentioned criteria (PhD/doctorate completed no earlier than December 31, 2016).
* For the Young Scholar Award, the applicant should be the main author, i.e. the name listed first in a co-authorship. No restrictions are placed on other co-authors besides the applicant.

Applications submitted to the Young Scholar Award will also be considered for the Best Paper Award on the basis of the submission’s overall merit. This means both awards could be given to young scholars. Applications from established scholars, however, cannot be considered for the Young Scholar Award.

Submission Guidelines

In your submission, please include
- a short abstract of the paper (ca. 300 words, if not already included)
- a copy of the article for consideration

For the Best Paper by a Young Scholar Award, please also include
- a copy of your CV so we can verify your status as a “young scholar”.

Application and Selection Process

Submissions should be sent to Henrik Andersen, RC33 Vice-President for Awards, at henrik.andersen@soziologie.tu-chemnitz.de. Please clearly state in the subject line of the email whether you wish to be considered for the Best Paper Award or Best Paper by a Young Scholar Award.

The deadline for submissions is March 31, 2020.

After the submission deadline, the papers will be forwarded to the RC33 Awards Committee and reviewed based on the above-mentioned criteria. Award winners will be contacted after the review process.