We’re Inviting You to Share Your Story of Impact

Here at SAGE, we believe that social and behavioral science matters, and we’re looking for stories from researchers that recount how their work has made a difference in a way that the public or policymakers could appreciate. As part of a SAGE project to demonstrate, measure and promote this impact, we’re looking for short write-ups from members of the social science community that we can share widely to make the case that our disciplines routinely provide knowledge that can be used to improve the human condition.

Specifically, we’re asking you to write roughly 500- to 1,000-word accounts about your own research and your own experiences. We want to know what you studied, how you studied it, and how the lessons learned from that were applied – or could be applied – to public issues or to other researchers aiming to demonstrate impact. We’re not asking for research articles (although if the work did result in a report or journal article please include the link) but more accounts that support the idea that our labors matter greatly. If you received any public funding along the way, please mention that, too. If you’d rather present your story in audio, video, multimedia or another way that translates to an online environment, please do so.

We plan to publish the best of these accounts at www.socialsciencespace.com and elsewhere, and are offering an award/honorarium in the amount of US$500 to the authors of those we do publish. Submissions we publish will be selected based on the impact of the writing or presentation, as well as the strength of the underlying research. We will draw from the authors of the very best accounts and ask them to blog further about social and behavioral science impact with us. Among the characteristics we’ll be looking for in the essayists offered additional blogging opportunities are our assessment how impact was highlighted based on your account, and writing flair.

Please include the words ‘Impact Contest’ in the subject line, and send your submission to socialsciencespace@sagepub.com. You can also ask questions there. To be eligible for consideration, submissions should be the original work of the author and not previously published or submitted to any other publication (although we’re happy to see you share or republish the posts later).  Authors of accepted submissions will be asked to sign a publishing agreement granting SAGE the right to publish your submission.

And while we’re always interested in hearing your impact stories, the deadline to participate in this contest ends on December 2 at 6 p.m. Pacific time, and authors of accepted submissions will be notified by email no later than 6 p.m. Pacific time on December 18.