‘Organization Studies’ Seeks to Award Impactful Student Papers

Viewed over the span of decades, it’s common to expect a researcher’s work to demonstrate it has helped society. In recent years, the quest for societal impact has enveloped all of the academic workforce, from early careerists and practitioners on up. But what about students – can their work also show societal impact?

It can, and the journal of the European Group for Organizational Studies, along with Social Science Space parent SAGE Publishing, is honoring master’s and doctoral students whose conference and workshop papers from the last year show real or potential impact on the larger world.

The Organization Studies and SAGE Student Paper Impact Award is awarded annually to reward post-graduate students (i.e. master and doctoral students) who have written a paper that has generated considerable societal impact (e.g. on societal, environmental, and policy matters).

The prize is worth $1,000. The winner will be announced at the annual European Group for Organizational Studies Colloquium and be listed on the Organization Studies website. The winner will talk about their research on the Organization Studies YouTube channel.

Submission deadline for the 2022 prize is November 15, 2022, for papers presented at conferences and workshops in the previous academic year.

The multidisciplinary journal Organization Studies publishes top-quality theoretical and empirical research on understanding organizations, organizing, and the organized in and between societies. It is included in the Financial Times Top 50 journals list. The journal is a product of the European Group for Organizational Studies, which itself has a long history of recognizing and improving student writing, whether through its professional development workshops to help these same students hone their manuscript-writing skills or its long-standing Best Student Paper Award.

​​The be eligible for the Student Paper Impact Award, the student needs to be the single or first author of the submitted paper and the paper itself must come from a post-graduate dissertation or master’s thesis not more than 12 months old on November 15, the closing date of this call.

Societal impact, for purposes of this award, is defined as a beneficial, demonstrable, material, and substantive effect generated by the research reported in the paper on the wider society and the environment with the ultimate goal of creating a better world. In documenting that impact, submissions must show at least one of the following features:

• The research process leading to the presentation of the research paper generated the impact
• The impact was co-created with an individual, organization, or community beyond the research and academic community (e.g. local community and/or administration, government, professional body, professionals and practitioners) while maintaining research integrity and independence;
• The impact was generated with methods, tools, practice and any other means of dissemination, showing creativity and novelty;
• The research has resulted in policies benefiting individuals, organizations, and societies;
• The impact may be actual (i.e. already tangible) or potential, if sufficient evidence for substantive prospects of impact is provided.

Students can nominate their own work or others can nominate a student’s work; each submission must include an “impact narrative” offering evidence of actual or potential impact. Details on submitting the paper can be found on the award website.

The editors-in-chief of Organization Studies will appoint a panel of judges for the award that will include the editors-in-chief as chairs, former and current members of the journal’s editorial team, representatives from SAGE Publishing and practitioners engaged in relevant societal work.

For more information email osofficer@gmail.com.