Student Paper Competition

Calling Students

Submit Your Work to the
Second Annual URISA Student Paper Competition

Are you an undergraduate, graduate, or Ph.D. student? Are you interested in a career using geographic information systems, information technology, geospatial technology, planning or community development? If yes, your writing and research should be recognized and shared with your peers. Submit a paper to the second annual student paper competition sponsored by the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA).

URISA promotes the effective and ethical use of spatial information and information technologies for the understanding and management of urban and regional systems.

URISA seeks to encourage students in a variety of academic disciplines to write and publish papers for the URISA membership and others in the spatial technologies industry. To promote this objective URISA has established a student paper competition.

Winning papers will be posted on the URISA web site and announced through various URISA publications and communications. URISA will award students cash prizes for best student authored papers. Winners will be recognized at the URISA Annual Conference in New Orleans, LA, October 7-10, 2008.

Prizes: (May be more than one winner for each prize category)

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

The following types of papers are encouraged:

• Comprehensive literature review on a spatial technology and its application.
• Application of spatial statistics.
• Application of an implemented spatial technology and its demonstrable impact on a public or private sector organization.
• Treatment and development of 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.

Application areas of particular interest to URISA members include but are not limited to the following:

• community health
• remote sensing
• economic development
• safety or homeland security
• emergency response · social justice
• environmental planning and resource management
• social or health service delivery
• geographic information systems
• transportation
• infrastructure management
• urban land use planning and management
• neighborhood preservation and development
• utility systems and management

The URISA Student Paper Committee will review all papers and winners will be notified by August. Winners will be recognized during the awards ceremony at URISA 2008 in New Orleans, LA. Only papers meeting the evaluation criteria will be considered.

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

Criteria include:
1. demonstration of expertise and understanding of information technology and its application
2. explanation of how the paper contributes to a larger body of work in the field
3. demonstration of innovative approach and critical thinking
4. quality of writing and presentation of the material

Submission
When submitting the paper, send it as an email attachment to info@urisa.org in Microsoft Word format.

Include “URISA Student Paper Submission” in the email subject field. URISA will not accept submissions in paper form.

Provide all requested information in your submission and follow the submission guidelines. Incomplete or unformatted submissions will not be considered. The submission deadline is June 9, 2008.

2007 submissions and winners

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.

Prizes
Prizes will include cash awards, complimentary annual URISA Conference student registration, a citation that is awarded during ceremonies at the conference. The winning papers may also be published in an upcoming issue of the URISA Journal following URISA Journal's publication policies and process. URISA may reprint the papers on the website or in any other format or venue it sees fit. Credit will be given to the author. Multiple prizes may be awarded depending on the strength of the submissions. URISA maintains the right to withhold any or all prizes if papers do not meet accepted standards.

There are detailed specifications for submitting papers. Please follow the formatting guidelines if you submit. If you have any questions regarding materials submission, please contact info@urisa.org.

Policies
1. Authors retain full but non-exclusive rights in their papers and may submit them for publication in other venues if their papers are not chosen to be published in the URISA Journal.

2. Submissions may have been produced as part of an academic assignment. The only stipulation is that no other third party holds the copyright for the submitted material. The author will retain the intellectual copyright and may submit it for an assignment or to other venues following the competition.

3. Authors are granted liberal permission to print out or retain an electronic copy of any provided paper for personal use provided that any copy is maintained or printed in entirety and the original publication and citation information is maintained with the paper.

4. Submitters do not need to be members of URISA. URISA encourages all authors to become student members of URISA for only $25 per year.