The International Sociological Association (ISA) announces the organization of the Seventh Worldwide Competition for Junior Sociologists.

The winners will be invited to participate in the XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology which will take place in Toronto, Canada in July 2018. By Junior Scholars ISA means people who obtained their first Master's degree (or an equivalent graduate diploma) in sociology or in a related discipline, less than 10 years prior to March 31, 2017. 

In case of joint or multiple authorship, this rule applies to all authors of the submitted paper.

Candidates must send:

• An original paper that has not been previously published anywhere.
• The paper should be no more than 6,000 words in Word format.
• An abstract (maximum 500 words) with five key words must be included in the paper.
• Notes and the bibliography should appear at the end of the text.

Papers which do not conform to these rules run the risk of being rejected.

The papers should be focused on sociological issues. The phenomena examined may be social, economic, political, cultural or of any other kind, but their interpretation or analysis must show a sociological orientation (for instance, through the identification of social processes underlying the phenomena under scrutiny, critique of common sense interpretations or of well-established theories, etc.). Empirical research papers must go beyond descriptive reporting of results to broader, analytical interpretations.

Papers will be judged according to:

• perceptiveness with which issues are treated
• the quality of empirical materials presented
• the consistency with which an analytic framework is used
• the originality of ideas
• the clarity of style

The winners of the previous Competitions will not be considered.

4. Papers are expected to be written in one of the official languages of the ISA (English, Spanish and French). However, papers are also admitted in other languages. Papers written in other languages will be assessed by scholars competent in these languages. Where necessary the papers of finalists will be translated into one of the official languages of the ISA.

5. An electronic file of the paper and a cover letter (in .doc or .pdf) should be e-mailed as an attachment to Dr. Elena Zdravomyslova at  zdrav@eu.spb.ru by Friday, March 31, 2017. The subject of the message should be "Junior Competition 2018".

In order to protect anonymity during the selection process, authors should not put their name on the paper itself, but the cover letter should include their family name (capital letters), first name, sex, date of birth, mother tongue, degrees, e-mail address, mailing address where they can be reached and (optionally) their present occupation. All this information should be given in one of the official languages of the ISA (English, French, or Spanish). An electronic acknowledgement of the electronic submissions will be given.

6. Initially, a Committee will consider which papers reach a sufficiently high standard to be issued with a letter of official commendation and be listed on ISA website.

Each language Jury will then preselect (by September 2017) a maximum of three papers. These finalists will receive Merit Award Certificates, a four-year membership in the ISA, and a paid registration to the XIX World Congress of Sociology in Toronto, Canada in July, 2018. All authors thus preselected will also be invited to participate in a five-day seminar prior to the Congress. The ISA, however, cannot guarantee to cover costs for their travel and accommodations.

Out of the preselected finalists, the Grand Jury chaired by the ISA President Margaret Abraham will select up to five winning papers. Their authors will be offered a travel grant to participate in the World Congress. In case of multiple authorship, the subvention will have to be shared.

Additional information may be obtained from Elena Zdravomyslova at  zdrav@eu.spb.ru, Coordinator of the Competition.

Committee of the Seventh ISA Worldwide Competition for Junior Sociologists:

• Rosemary Barberet, City University of New York, USA 
• Marina Kurkchiyan, University of Oxford, UK
• Chin-Chun Yi, Academia Sinica, Taiwan
• Elena Zdravomyslova (Coordinator), European University St. Petersburg, Russia
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