The Social Media Analytics Section of INFORMS announces the 2024 Best Student Paper Award to recognize excellence among its student members. Four finalists for the Best Student Paper Award will be selected to make presentations at the INFORMS Annual Meeting in Seattle, WA. The winner will be announced at the Social Media Analytics business meeting later at the conference. First prize is $250, second prize is $150, third prize is $75, and fourth prize is $50. All finalists will receive an award certificate and a three-year free Social Media Analytics membership.
The broad criteria for selecting the recipient of the Social Media Analytics Best Student Paper Award are:
(a) Academic significance (originality, depth, and completeness of the work and potential impact on future research);
(b) Engineering or business relevance (importance of the problem and its impact on engineering or business practice).
Eligibility Requirements and Application Process:
· Award nominees must be a student member of the Social Media Analytics Section.
· The paper must be in the field of Social Media Analytics.
· The student must be the main author. Moreover, a formal, signed statement by the student's advisor should be submitted along with the paper affirming that the majority of the original results presented in the paper are due to the student rather than the advisor or other collaborators involved in the work.
· The paper must be completed during the student’s undergraduate or graduate studies.
· Previous finalists who wish to compete again should submit an entirely different paper.
· The student must present the paper at a special session at the annual INFORMS conference. Finalists may not be announced until other INFORMS sessions are already organized. Thus, papers considered for this competition may be simultaneously submitted to other sessions at the INFORMS conference. If a finalist is scheduled to present in another session, then they will present the paper twice: once in the Social Media Analytics Best Student Paper Competition session and once in their previously scheduled session.
· The Social Media Analytics Section does NOT own copyrights of the paper. However, the paper must be available to the Social Media Analytics Section to be posted on their web page.
· Submitted Paper Format: The paper should be in a blind format with out author identifications. It should be single-spaced in 11 point Times Roman or Times New Roman typeface. Margins should be one inch or more. Papers should begin with a 50-word abstract and should not exceed 12 pages including tables, figures, references, and appendices.
· The submission deadline is July 15, 2024. Submissions and inquiries can be directed to Lingshu Hu at lhu@wlu.edu. Please include the phrase #SMABSPA in the email subject.
· Finalists will be notified by August 31, 2024.