Research Conference: Call for Papers

Contest Information

Credible opportunities for youth, specifically high school students, to publish research in the fields of public policy, politics, and law are very minimal. This lack of opportunity leads to a systemic under representation of youth perspectives in the literature and deprives youth of valuable learning opportunities to conduct research: a problem that institutions in the sciences have addressed, while the social sciences generally lag behind.

The conference will take place virtually on September 16th, 2024, with exact times released once the conference program is finalized, and all accepted authors expected to attend the conference prepared with a presentation. The presentation must be no longer than 15 minutes, and an additional five minutes will be allocated for other participants to ask questions. 

The conference proceedings, consisting of the papers presented at the conference, will be published in a special issue of the Institute for Youth in Policy’s Journal of Policy Analysis. Participants may opt to present their paper but only have their abstract published in the proceedings (although we still need the full paper submission for acceptance), in which case they forfeit their eligibility for conference awards.

The rubric for conference awards will be sent to attendees, but will generally consist of the novelty of the research, the severity of the research question, the impact of the paper on the existing literature, the soundness of the research methodology, and the impact that the author has in the conference (by having an impactful presentation, actively asking questions on others presentations, etc.).

The top three winners from each category (political science, public policy, and law) will be recognized with a certificate of merit, and listed on the website. The overall winner from each category will additionally receive guaranteed admission to YIP’s next fellowship cohort with a direct pipeline to a YIP staff role. If you do not wish to be admitted to the fellowship, YIP will make an effort to find you a satisfactory role in a partner organization or another research project if able.