Student Paper Competition

The Student Paper Award celebrates outstanding scholarly achievements among emerging researchers in the field. This prestigious accolade recognizes the exemplary contributions of students who have demonstrated exceptional skill, creativity, and scholarly rigor in their academic work. Each year, the award highlights papers that exhibit innovative thinking, substantive research findings, and significant potential to impact the field. By honoring these young scholars, we aim to encourage and inspire the next generation of leaders and innovators in their pursuit of academic excellence and contribution to the advancement of knowledge in their respective disciplines.

• A paper may be submitted by a current student (undergraduate or graduate), or a recent graduate (less than one year since graduation). 
• A person submitting a paper must have conducted the research while enrolled as a student.
• Each individual has only one opportunity to win the award.
• Advisor Letter: The student must be the first and primary author of the paper. The submission must be accompanied by a letter (or email) from the student's advisor indicating the student met the criteria for first authorship as outlined by the APA guidelines.
• Document Length: The paper must meet APA publication guidelines and must be prepared as if for submission to a peer-reviewed journal. The text must be 25 typewritten pages or less (not including references), and the entire document must be 50 pages or less.
• Document Format: To facilitate blind review, the manuscript must be sent as a Word document directly to the competition coordinator who will remove the title page and distribute copies of the paper to reviewers. The manuscript may not contain information pertaining to the author or his or her affiliation. Note: reviewers are not required to provide comments.

The winning nominee will:

• receive a $1000 award
• attend the BABAT speaker’s dinner
• receive an award at the conference commemorating their accomplishment.