Student Paper Competition 2024 - Call for Proposals

Verbal Behavior Special Interest Group The Association for Behavior Analysis International

Student Paper Competition DEADLINE: Friday March 1, 2024

The VB SIG Student Paper Competition provides monetary awards for research papers in verbal behavior led by a graduate or undergraduate student. A submitted paper must be original research/work in the area of verbal behavior with an undergraduate or graduate student as the first author. Due to the ongoing challenges associated with conducting empirical research studies, for 2024, conceptual papers, tutorials, and meta-analyses, as well as empirical research projects will be considered.

Submissions are restricted to current students or individuals within one year of graduating from the school in which they conducted the research. There is a limit of one paper per student. Note that this competition is for papers that have not yet been published or accepted for publication. However, you may submit papers that have been submitted for publication but have not (yet) received final acceptance.

Eligible proposals may be relevant to any topic in verbal behavior (e.g., private events, rule-governed behavior, assessment, second language acquisition, primary or secondary verbal operants) and may include work with non-human animals.

Submissions will be blindly reviewed by advanced verbal behavior researchers and scholars. The reviewers typically identify the top three papers. Awards for these papers will be announced, and plaques and monetary prizes will be distributed at the VB SIG business meeting during the 2024 ABAI conference. All award winners will be asked to present in the VB SIG symposium at ABAI 2025.

Proposal Format

1. Cover Page: Include title, affiliation, author (mailing address, email, phone number), advisor/faculty mentor (office address, email, phone number), and confirmation of current VB SIG membership.

2. Unpublished Manuscript: Submissions must be double spaced and be submitted without the author’s name or affiliation. Submissions must adhere to APA publication guidelines and must not exceed 30 pages, not including references and figures. References and figures must not exceed 15 pages.

3. Letter of Verification: The student’s research advisor must send an email to the address below verifying that the student was responsible for the vast majority of the work.

4. Please submit a blinded version of the paper separate from the title page.

Proposals submitted without any one of the criteria listed above will not be reviewed. The proposals will be blindly reviewed by a panel of experts in verbal behavior using the criteria outlined above.

Note: Award nominees must be current VB SIG members.

Please send questions, submissions, contact information, and advisor emails to: thevbsig@gmail.com. In the subject line please include: “Attn: Research Competition Coordinator”

Notification of award status will be no later than April 14, 2024.

Best of luck to all student researchers who submit a verbal behavior paper!