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 2017 or 2018.
The prize-winning paper is provided with high-profile opportunity of publication in JESP, and the winner also receives 1 year’s free subscription to the journal.
Timetable
The deadline o submit a paper was 31 December 2018.
The judges will evaluate, rank and return the papers and their decision to the editorial office.
Candidates should receive feedback and the results of the competition by late May 2019.
The winning author(s) must return her/their final version paper, conforming in length and style to JESP requirements, to the JESP office by mid-July 2019 Authors will be required to revise their submission in the light of judges’ comments as a condition for publication and for receiving the prize.
A formal announcement of the prize-winner is made at the annual ESPAnet conference in the Autumn.
Criteria for assessment
All submissions will be judged by two JESP editorial board members and two ESPAnet board members. The judges are particularly looking for exciting, innovative and scholarly work, which challenges existing perspectives; poses new research problems and develops answers that offer 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:
- their scholarly interest and originality
- analytical and, where appropriate, methodological rigour
- quality, coherence and structure of argument
- publishable quality following one set of relatively minor revisions, and where necessary, clarification/improvement of language.
Please note: If the judges conclude that none of the submitted papers meets the required standard, the prize will not be awarded.
Past winners
In 2018 the prize was won by Angie Gago with paper entitled “The discursive deconstruction of the Irish social partnership model during the Eurozone crisis”.
Tijs Laenen, the winner of the prize in 2017 says the following about winning the prize:
“In addition to being an honourable recognition of your hard work, the JESP/ESPAnet Doctoral Researcher Prize is a great opportunity to take one of your papers to the next level. At the ESPAnet conference in Rotterdam, where I presented my paper for the first time, I was already under the impression that it was well received. Some of the participant’s words of praise even convinced me to submit to the prize. The detailed feedback of the anonymous reviewers, however, made me realize that much work remained to be done, as they made it clear that there was still ample room for improvement. Thanks to their stimulating feedback, the paper evolved from a Dutch case study to a study whose findings and implications stretch far beyond the Netherlands, and hopefully inspires future research on the link between welfare institutions and welfare attitudes in other countries. To all PhD-students who are in doubt of submitting their paper to the JESP/ESPAnet prize, I can only tell: If you want to better your work, do not hesitate to participate!”
For further information please contact editors@jesp.eu.