Seymour Sudman Student Paper Award Information/Process
See past Sudman Student Paper Award Winners.
The 56th Annual Seymour Sudman Student Paper Award honors the best student paper presented at the AAPOR annual conference. The award is given as a tribute to Seymour Sudman, in memory of his many contributions to survey methodology, his leadership in the AAPOR community and his teaching and mentoring of students.
To be eligible for the award, students must submit a full paper for review by the Sudman Student Paper Award Committee. Membership in AAPOR is not required to participate in the competition, but applicants are expected to join at the time of the conference. The award committee will consider all papers that relate to the study of public opinion, whether they focus on theory, substantive findings, research methods, and/or statistical techniques used in such research. Students are limited to one submission each as the primary author.
A single prize of $750 will be awarded to the winning paper at the conference, along with waiving the conference registration fee for the primary author. The author(s) of the winning paper will be given the opportunity to present the paper at the conference. Up to two other papers may receive an Honorable Mention designation with each receiving a $100 cash prize.
Authors must be current students (graduate or undergraduate) at the time of submission, or must have received their degree during the preceding academic year. The research must have been substantially completed while all authors were enrolled in a degree program. AAPOR will give preference to papers based on research not published or presented at the national conference of another organization.
The nomination period for the 2023 Sudman Award is now open. Submissions will be accepted from July 1, 2022 until January 15, 2023 at 11:59 pm ET.
Students interested in having their papers considered for the Seymour Sudman Student Paper Competition must:
- Submit a full paper to the award committee by completing the online application, submitting a full paper, and submitting a statement from a faculty advisor by the deadline.
- Note that full papers must:
- Be less than 6,500 words (not including the title page, abstract, tables, references and appendices);
- Include a blinded and unblinded copy. The blinded copy should contain a title page and abstract, but all identifying information about the author, acknowledgements, and other identifiers should be removed;
- Include all information required by the AAPOR Code of Professional Ethics & Practices;
- Include a statement regarding whether the paper has been presented elsewhere, published, or accepted for publication at the time of submission;
- Your submission should include a statement from a faculty advisor attesting to the role that all authors played in conceptualizing the study and writing the paper.
A panel of researchers from AAPOR’s membership, drawn from academic, government and commercial sectors, will judge the papers.
To submit an application visit the award nomination and application page here. For any questions, email info@aapor.org.