STUDENT RESEARCH COMPETITIONS AT SWPA

Currently enrolled students may submit their original research as entries in the Psi Chi or SWPA Student Research Competitions. All competition finalists are scheduled for talks in the SWPA program. Note, however, that the two competitions are separate, and authors must indicate which of the competitions to which they would like to submit their abstracts.

Psi Chi Regional Research Award Competition

Students who are Psi Chi members should submit their abstracts to the Psi Chi competition in the submission process. Psi Chi gives at least twelve $400 Psi Chi Regional Research Awards. This is the largest monetary award given at SWPA’s student research competition, so all students who are members of Psi Chi should submit their work to that competition. Students who receive the Psi Chi Regional Research Award will be scheduled for 20-minute talks. All submissions to the Psi Chi competition that are not selected as Regional Research Awards will automatically be forwarded for inclusion in the SWPA Student Research Competition.

Send questions regarding the Psi Chi Regional Research competition to Dr. Karenna Malavanti: southwesternvp@psichi.org

To submit an abstract to the Psi Chi Competition, during the abstract submission process, students should indicate by selecting the appropriate registration options (i.e., checkboxes) that they (1) wish to submit their abstract to the Psi Chi program, (2) are Psi Chi members, and (3) would like to submit their abstract to the Psi Chi Competition.

Note that while the Psi Chi Competition and the SWPA Student Competition are separate, those not selected for a Psi Chi Regional Research Award will automatically be included in the SWPA Student Research Competition.

SWPA Student Research Competition

Students who are not Psi Chi members and wish to be considered for an award should submit their abstract to the SWPA Student Research Competition, which is open to both graduate and undergraduate students. This competition will grant twelve $100 Finalist awards. Finalists in the SWPA Student Research Competition will be scheduled as 20-minute talks. Each of these presentations will be judged by at least three SWPA professional members according to a common rubric. The ratings of these judges will be combined to determine one graduate winner and one undergraduate winner for the SWPA student research competition, each of whom will be awarded an additional $100.

A portion of submissions to the SWPA Student Research Competition that are not selected as Finalists but are identified as exemplars of high-quality student work will be selected for inclusion in the SWPA Student Research Showcase Poster session. Students who are members of Psi Chi will be provided a badge to include on their poster when they make their presentation. Selection as a Research Showcase Poster comes with a certificate and a $25 award.

Submissions to the SWPA Student Research Competition that are not selected as Finalists or as a Research Showcase Poster will be evaluated for inclusion in the program. Those who are accepted will be placed in General SWPA Student Poster sessions. Submissions that fail to meet the standards of this review process will not be accepted for inclusion in the program.


NOTICE: Students will receive an email informing them of the status of their submission. Students should pay careful attention to this email as it will designate the category to which their submission has been assigned.

Submissions will be assigned to one of the following categories (as described above):

    1. Finalist in the SWPA Student Research Competition
    2. SWPA Student Research Showcase Poster
    3. General SWPA Student Poster
    4. Not Accepted

Send questions regarding the SWPA Student Research Competition to Dr. Jonali Baruah, President-Elect, at baruah@tarleton.edu

Guidelines for Submissions

The submission guidelines are the same for both the Psi Chi and SWPA student competitions. A faculty member must sponsor each entry but should not be listed as a co-author. The student author(s) will be listed as such, and the faculty sponsor will be listed separately as the sponsor. Faculty sponsors may serve as collaborators as the project is carried out, but the writing of the abstract and the creation of the presentation must be the student’s effort. If you wish to have a faculty co-author, then you should submit your work to the SWPA general program, not to the student research competition.

At least one author on the submission must have paid their student member registration fee to be eligible to submit, but all authors on the project must have paid their student member registration in order to attend. The submitting author can register and pay their registration fee using the registration portal. The link to the registration portal can be found on your member's profile homepage. 

Submissions must be empirical reports and must consist of the four following clearly delineated sections: Problem, Method, Results, and Conclusions. Every summary should specify the importance of the problem to the current literature, the procedure used or planned for use to collect data, the final or preliminary findings of the research (or the plan for analysis if data collection is not yet complete), the relevance of the findings or predicted findings to the original problem, and the implications of the research. Do not include Tables and Figures, but describe results in the submission. Priority will be given to projects reporting final or preliminary results.

Word length: the summary should be 500 words. Submissions longer than 500 words will not receive consideration. Previously presented or published work is ineligible.

Remember that while the Psi Chi Competition and the SWPA Student Competition are separate, those not selected for a Psi Chi Regional Research Award will automatically be included in the SWPA Student Research Competition.

Policies for Competitions

    • SWPA will cancel a given competition if the competition in question receives an insufficient number of entries.
    • Psi Chi submissions that are not one of the 12 Regional Research Award winners are automatically included in the SWPA Student Research Competition.
    • The Awards Committee for the SWPA Student Research Competition will select 12 Finalists. Non-finalists will be evaluated for the Undergraduate Research Showcase poster session.
      • Qualifying criteria for the Student Research Showcase are:
        • Submissions must adhere to all the criteria in the “Guidelines for Submissions” above
        • Summaries must use past research to pose a novel question in the “Problem” section
        • Summaries must describe in the “Method” section a research design that is suitable for answering the question raised
        • Summaries must present either preliminary data that have already been collected with some initial analyses of those data or a clear plan for analysis of the data that is appropriate. Preference will be given to completed projects.
        • Summaries must indicate how the results or expected results speak to the question raised and link to future research.
        • The summary must be well-written.

Award levels

  • Psi Chi  Regional Research Awards
    • At least 12 awards given
    • $400
    • Scheduled for a 20-minute talk at SWPA
  • SWPA Student Research Competition Awards
    • 12 Finalists selected (proportional among undergraduate and graduate submissions)
    • $100
    • Scheduled for a 20-minute talk at SWPA to be judged by 3 professional SWPA members
    • One graduate and one undergraduate talk will be selected for “Best Project” awards, which also comes with an additional $100
  • Undergraduate Research Showcase Posters
    • Present in the Undergraduate Research Showcase Poster session
    • $25
    • Certificate
  • Non-qualifying papers: Papers that are not selected for any of the above awards will be evaluated to determine if they are acceptable for general presentation at SWPA. Such papers will carry the designation Student Research Submission in the published program. All Psi Chi poster presenters will be given a badge to include either in their PowerPoint (for talks) or on their poster. This badge is given regardless of how the submission places in the competition.

Principles of Fair Judging

  • At least two judges will screen all summaries and evaluate any talks under consideration for an award.
  • Any judge who has another relationship with the student will recuse him/herself from all aspects of judging that project. Such a person will not comment to other judges about the student or the paper during the review process and will not chair any review session during which that paper is considered.
  • “Another relationship” exists when a student is pursuing academic work under the direction of a judge or when a student is in an academic program in which the judge has supervisory responsibilities for the faculty member who is directing the student’s work. “Another relationship” also exists when there are personal connections between the student and a judge that others could perceive as producing bias (e.g., family, friend, or professor).
  • Any student or other SWPA member who perceives the possibility of bias should communicate that concern to the Awards Committee Chair (President-Elect, Dr. Jonali Baruah) who will then adjust the review process to eliminate the bias.

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