2013 Student Paper Competition

Submission Guidelines

Deadline:  June 3, 2013

Back to Main Student Competition Page

Paper submissions will undergo a two-step review process. The Review Committee will screen submissions and recommend no more than six papers for the second stage. Remaining papers will undergo a more rigorous review by a committee of academic and pracititioner members of URISA.

The top three papers will receive an award of a one-year membership in URISA and free registration to GIS-Pro 2013 (note that travel is not included). In addition, the top three papers will be forwarded to the URISA Journal Editor, with the possibility of being published in the highly-respected publication. Winning papers will be announced to the URISA membership and greater GIS Community through press releases. The top three paper authors will also be asked to present their work at GIS-Pro 2013 (as a formal paper or luncheon presentation) for added recognition.

The objective of the Competition is to challenge students to demonstrate the development and effective use of Geographic Information Systems in both their field of study and in the community.

The following types of papers are encouraged:

• Comprehensive literature review on a geographic information science, geospatial technologies and their application.
• Application of spatial statistics.
• Application of an implemented geographic information system or other spatial technology and its demonstrable impact on a public or private sector organization.
• Treatment and development of geographic information systems, spatial technologies and theory.

Theses will not be accepted. A summary paper based on a thesis or research performed while completing a thesis, is acceptable.

In order for the Student Paper Committee to fairly evaluate each system, specific criteria must be adhered to. Criteria include:

• Demonstration of expertise and understanding of geographic information science, geospatial technologies and their application.
• Explanation of how the paper contributes to a larger body of work in the field
• Demonstration of innovative approach and critical thinking
• Quality of writing and presentation of the material

Eligibility: All full-time students (applies to students who are currently enrolled as graduate or postgraduate students and have 9 credit hours or more or are undergraduates and have 12 credit hours or more of courses) are eligible to submit. Applicants must provide proof of student status with either a letter from department chair or copy of college or university course schedule for current or immediate past quarter or semester.

• Student-Faculty Authored Papers: When more than one author is listed on the paper, a student applicant must be the primary author (listed first). If the other authors are faculty members, the authors must provide a letter affirming that the student applicant contributed to over 50 percent of the content.

• Multiple Authored Papers: If students are submitting a paper written by a group, a corresponding author must be identified. This author will speak on behalf of all the other authors. If a multiple-authored paper wins the competition, the corresponding author will receive the prizes. Prizes are transferable and distribution will be left up to the corresponding author. URISA will not involve itself in issues regarding prize distribution among groups.

Quick Reference for Manuscript Guidelines

• Papers should be in 12-point, Times New Roman font.
• Page numbers should be at the bottom of each page.
• There is no maximum or minimum length but the papers should be of scholarly quality.
• The author(s) contact information should precede the title and abstract.
• Papers must have a primary student author who has contributed more than 50% of the content (see Eligibility).  
• The author must submit the paper. There is no third party submission.
• There should be 1-inch margins surrounding the paper.  
• All images and figures should be numbered and cited within the text.
• References must be included at the end of the document.  

All artwork, graphics, photographs, etc. are preferred in high-resolution format and must be embedded in the document. Minimum graphic size is 300 dpi at the size you would like the image to appear in print. (Sending a larger size is acceptable as we can reduce its size as necessary.

Manuscript Formatting Requirements

1. Abstract.
Next should come a one-paragraph abstract of approximately 150 words. For a research article, describe the primary objective of the work, any hypotheses tested, methods used, primary results of the work and primary conclusions. No acronyms should be included or defined in the abstract.

2. Style.
Use US conventions for forms of spellings and styles of punctuation.
Use acronyms sparingly. However, when used they should be spelled out the first time followed by the acronym in parentheses. Example: American Bar Association (ABA). Proper names with acronyms should have the first letters capitalized. Example: National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Non proper names or phrases should NOT have the first letter capitalized. Example: triangular irregular network (TIN).
Use emphasis sparingly. In the article submission and in the web version, emphasis should be shown with an underline. Numbers above 10 should use the numeric form (e.g.,10, 26, 46380,etc.). Numbers below ten should be spelled out unless used in a table or used to describe a unit of measure (e.g., 8 acres).

3. Citations in the Text.
Within the text, references should be cited by using the author’s name and year of publications. For example: Many employers and corporations have chosen to pursue a hands-off policy (Taylor 1915).

When using direct quotations, also include the page number(s). For example: "City planning and unified architectural design," according to Tunnard and Reed (1953:131), "were lost to these new communities."

Long quotations (five or more lines of typescript) should be indented five spaces. The text within a long quote should have a smaller font size than the body of the text. Since one is using 12-point font for the body, use a 10-point for the long quotation.

For two co-authors of a single work, cite both authors. For example: (Egenhofer and Frank 1992). For more than two co-authors, cite the first author and add et.al. For example: (Loveland et.al. 1991).

Multiple References to more than one work of a single author in the same year should be listed as a and b. For example (Goodchild 1998a, b).

Multiple references in the text should be listed chronologically rather than alphabetically. For example: (Zube 1973, Harley 1990, Frank 1994b, Black 1997).

4. References.
References should be listed at the end of the text and not as footnotes. References should be alphabetized by the authors’ last names. When an author has more than one publication, arrange the references by placing the most recent one first. If more than one reference appears for a single author in a single year, label them a and b. For books, be certain to include place of publication and publisher; for a journal include volume, issue or month, and pages; for a proceedings include place of the conference, date and pages. Use only initials for first names of authors but do not abbreviate other words in the reference. If a reference is available in both a hard copy journal and on the internet, provide both references. Please refer to the following example references.

If necessary, explanatory notes may be used in addition to references. If used, these should be numbered consecutively and must be included just before the reference listing under a section titled: Notes.

5. Headings in the Text.
For the electronic version of the article and for submission for review, all text including titles and headings in the article must be left justified. A sample template showing heading and appropriate spacing of text is available.

In Brief

All headings are in bold. A single line space is inserted between all paragraphs.

6. Tables, Figures and Images.
All tables must be consecutively numbered throughout the article and each must have a title that explains its purpose without resorting to the text. The number and title should appear under the table and should not be incorporated in the graphic. Tables should be inserted by the author in appropriate locations in the text.

The same rules apply for figures.
Wherever possible, place the references to tables or figures at the end of a sentence. Try to avoid sentences such as " Table 1 shows that…" Instead use "the data indicate that all species were susceptible ( Table1)."

Collected figures for insertion will need to be in high resolution format and will be no less than 300 dots per inch (DPI). The figures should be embedded in the document in the location where they will appear in the paper (small and about a quarter of a page).

Figures should always be cited within the text, preferably near the figure. Primary figure citation will always be on the same page as the figure unless the format does not allow for it.
 
The font size for the figure legends will be smaller than the body text. Since the body text is 12-point, the font size should be around 10-point.
Every table, figure and image needs a figure legend and the figure legend will always go below the figure.

7. About the Author.
A section at the end of the article but right before the references will be included titled: About the Author. This should include a two or three sentence biographical sketch summarizing the author’s education, professional positions, current affiliation, and research interests. Also, contact information will be listed in this section if the article is accepted for publication. Contact information should include a postal address and an email address.

8. Acknowledgments.
May be included in a section titled: Acknowledgements. All acknowledgements in the paper should be placed only in this section.

9. Appendices.
Should be in an accepted style format with proper alphabetization, indentation, and referencing.

Example References:

(a) Reference to a book

Black, C. L., Jr., 1997, A New Birth of Freedom: Human Rights, Named and Unnamed (New York: Grosset/Putnam).

Longley, P.A., M.F. Goodchild, D.J. Maguire, and D.W. Rhind (Eds.), 1999, Geographical Information Systems (New York: John Wiley and Sons).

Monmonier, M., 1991, How to Lie with Maps (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).

(b) Reference to an article in a journal

Egenhofer, M. and A. Frank, 1992, Object-Oriented Modeling for GIS. Journal of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association, 4(2), 3-19.

Harley, J.B., 1990, Cartography, Ethics and Social Theory, Cartographica, 27(2), 1-23.

Loveland, T.R., J.W. Merchant, and D.O. Ohlen, 1991, Development of a Land-Cover Characteristics Database for the Coterminous US. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, 57(11), 1453-1463.

(c) Reference to a chapter in a book or article in a proceedings having a volume editor

Obermeyer, N.J., 1999, Measuring the Benefits and Costs of GIS. In Longley, P.A., M.F. Goodchild, D.J. Maguire, and D.W. Rhind (Eds.), Geographical Information Systems, (New York: John Wiley and Sons), 2, 601-610.

Laurini, R., 1994, Sharing Geographic Information in Distributed Databases. In Salling, M.J. (Ed.), URISA 1994 Annual Conference Proceedings, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, August 1994, 1, 441-454.

(d) Reference to an article in a proceedings without a volume editor

Chong, A., 1997, Extending the Role of Digital Image Landbases in Hybrid GIS, ACSM/ASPRS Annual Convention and Exposition Technical Papers, Seattle, Washington, April 1997, 2, 11-20.

Nebert, D. and J. Fullton, 1995, Use of Z39.50 to Search and Retrieve Geospatial Data. Proceedings of the Second Annual Conference on the Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries, Austin, Texas, June 1995, 107-114. http://www.fgdc.gov/clearinghouse/pubs/dli95/DLIpaper395.html

Sui, D., 1998, GIS and Society: A Tetradic Analysis from McLuhan’s Law of Media, GIS/LIS ‘98 Proceedings, Fort Worth, Texas, November 1998, CD-Rom

(e) Reference to an article on the Internet not published in a hard copy volume

Weiss, P.N. and P. Backlund, 1996, International Information Policy in Conflict: ‘Open and Unrestricted Access’ versus ‘Government Commercialization’, Conference on Information, National Policies, and International Infrastructure, Harvard Information Infrastructure Project, January 1996, http://ksgwww.harvard.edu/iip/GIIconf/weiss.html.

(f) Reference to a source on the Internet

U.S. Copyright Office, Report on Legal Protection for Databases (August 1997), http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/cpypub/db4.wp

Federal Geographic Data Committee, http://www.fgdc.gov/