Each year the Journal of Australian Political Economy (JAPE) offers a $2000 prize to encourage young scholars to convert their research work into a publishable article.
‘Young’ in this context is defined in terms of the experience of the applicant. Applicants may be of any age, although they must be in at least their third year of undergraduate study in political economy or a related social science subject. They may have already completed their degree and/or be progressing to a Masters degree. Students who are completing an honours thesis and would like the experience of doing further research during part of the following year (or the year after) are particularly welcome to apply. Applicants cannot be established academics.
The normal project undertaken by recipients of this Award is to develop a thesis or other research findings into a publishable article of about 8,000 words [e.g. for submission to the Journal of Australian Political Economy]. That might mean condensing an existing honours thesis, or it might mean developing just one part of a thesis into a stand-alone article.
The winner of each year’s Award may have the opportunity to spend some time in a University for this purpose. This could be the Department of Political Economy at the University of Sydney, for example, because it has the biggest group of political economy academics in Australia. However, other places could be possible, according to the winner’s preference and region of residence. Having that connection with a university is not a necessary condition placed on the recipient of the Award, however, and she or he would not have any employment relationship with the university.
Would you like to apply? If so, you should send an email to JAPE’s editorial coordinator, Frank Stilwell [frank.stilwell@sydney.edu.au], attaching: [1] your curriculum vita, including academic record; [2] a statement of about 200-400 words indicating the research topic or writing project on which you propose to work; [3] an indication of the proposed time and location/s where this would be undertaken; and [4] a brief statement by an academic with whom you have had prior contact (e.g. a thesis supervisor) stating her/his willingness to provide some personal guidance if you are successful in getting the Award.
Applications normally need to be submitted by the last day of November each year.
Note: for 2020, because of COVID, this deadline for the current year’s applications has been extended to December 18th.
A committee, comprising members of the JAPE editorial committee, will review all applications and select the winner. The criteria for selection will include: [1] evidence of the applicant’s capacity to undertake good quality work in political economy; [2] the nature of the proposed project, including its political economic significance; and [3] the committee’s assessment of the project’s prospects for successful completion.
This Award process has resulted in the publication of some excellent articles in previous years. Let’s keep the momentum going….
Yaku | Oct 16 2020
Is there any limit to the time we can propose to do it? No more than six months for instance.
Frank Stilwell | Oct 16 2020
There’s no official time limit. However, it would make sense to aim to complete the project within about 2-3 months. For someone who has already written, say, an honours thesis on a political economic topic, that should be enough time to convert its principal findings into a publishable article. If the process continues beyond that, the likelihood of bringing it to fruition tends to recede.