The International Neuroethics Society (INS) and the International Youth Neuroscience Association (IYNA) are pleased to announce a call for submissions for the Neuroethics Essay Contest in 2023. Now in its 10th year, the contest promotes interest in neuroethics among students and trainees around the world.
Four submission categories are available:
- IYNA-INS High School Neuroethics Essay
- General Audience Essay
- Academic Essay
- Video Essay – NEW THIS YEAR!
One winner from each category will be selected in September and receive a free 1-year INS student membership ($30 value) and a $250 prize. Winners who are able to attend the next INS Annual Meeting will also have their meeting registration fee waived. (All amounts are in U.S. Dollars and may be subject to transfer fees.)
Essays must be submitted by July 7, 2023. Incomplete or late submissions will not be accepted. Please review all eligibility and submission requirements below. We especially encourage submissions from students and trainees from underrepresented groups.
Contact INS staff (administrator@neuroethicssociety.org) with questions or requests for accommodation. Contact Ashley Thommana, managing editor of the IYNA Journal (athommana@youthneuro.org), with any questions or requests for accommodation if you are submitting in the IYNA-INS High School Neuroethics Essay category.
Share the Call
Share the call for essays with colleagues and students who are interested in neuroethics. We will have images and documents available in multiple languages. Thank you for helping to spread the word.
Author Eligibility
Education Level
Participation in the contest is open to any student in high school or secondary school student, any post-secondary student, and any postdoctoral fellow or similar early-career trainee from anywhere in the world. Students must be currently enrolled in school, accepted to a program for a future term, or preparing to apply to graduate programs.
Those included in the definition of ‘post-secondary student’ or ‘early career trainees’ during the Spring 2023 semester may submit an essay to either the Academic or General Audience categories. Authors may submit two different essays — one to each category.
Students in high school or an equivalent secondary school program during the Spring 2023 semester must submit their essays to the IYNA-INS High School Neuroethics category.
‘Post-secondary student’ includes those enrolled in a degree-granting program at the undergraduate, graduate, or professional level. This also includes those enrolled in pre-university institutions such as CEGEPs, sixth form colleges, lycées, etc. Examples of ‘early-career trainees’ include recent graduates serving in a postdoctoral position, medical residents or fellows, postbaccs, judicial law clerks or articled students at law firms, research assistants, and contract or sessional lecturers/instructors in their first or second years out of graduate training.
Students taking a temporary break or gap year from their studies and prospective students who are actively applying to education programs are eligible to participate in the contest. Students who have been accepted to an education or training program for an upcoming semester are also eligible.
Professionals are not eligible to participate in the contest. For the purposes of contest eligibility, individuals who are solely employees and not engaged in a training program are considered professionals and are not eligible to participate in the contest.
Discipline / Status
There are no restrictions regarding an author’s program or area of study as long as their essay meets all requirements outlined below. The committee encourages essay submissions from authors training in fields such as neuroscience, law, medicine, philosophy, psychology and many other social and natural sciences. Authors from all countries and regions are encouraged to participate, and we especially welcome applicants from underrepresented or marginalized groups.
Contest winners are warmly encouraged, but not required, to attend the upcoming INS Annual Meeting. Participation in the contest does not preclude future submission of an extended version of the manuscript to academic journals or other scholarly or general audience publications.
Authors do not need to be members of the INS or IYNA to submit an essay.
If you have questions about eligibility, contact INS staff (administrator@neuroethicssociety.org).
Essay Topic & Requirements
Essay submissions can cover any topic in neuroethics and should address a focused problem at the intersections of the mind and brain sciences, ethics, and law. Example topics include, but are not limited to: neuroenhancement, neurolaw, neurology, moral psychology, moral philosophy, neuro/brain stimulation, ethics of neurodegenerative illness, neurogenetics, neurotechnology policy and regulation, philosophy of mind, clinical ethics in psychiatry and neurosurgery, neural imaging, big data and neuroscience, brain–computer interaction, military applications of neurotechnology, and free will.
The committee makes no in-principle restrictions regarding neuroethical topics and encourages authors to take creative approaches with their essays. We encourage you to review previous winning essays as you put together your contest submission.
IYNA-INS High School Neuroethics Essay
Submissions to the High School competition should explore the relationship between ethics, neuroscience, and society in plain language for the general public. Essays should be based on reliable primary and secondary sources — Wikipedia and similar sources are not acceptable. Essays must be written in English by a single author. Essay length may not exceed 1,000 words. An abstract and references do not count toward the total word count.
Essay for a General Audience
Essay submissions to the General Audience category should explore a topic or story at the interface between ethics, neuroscience, and society in plain language for the general public, as might be found in a magazine or news outlet aimed at non-specialist audiences. Essays addressing neuroethical topics of high social significance are particularly welcome. Essays must be written in English by a single author. Essay length may not exceed 1,000 words excluding references and disclosures.
Academic Essay
Academic essay submissions should critically explore a current issue in neuroethics through rigorous, evidence-based argumentation. Essays should be succinct, polished final drafts that represent original, unpublished work and are suitable for publication in a topically-appropriate scholarly journal. Essays produced for or derived from previous coursework are eligible for submission as long as they meet all other requirements. Essays must be written in English by a single author. Essays may not exceed 2,000 words excluding references and disclosures.
Video Essay
Video essay submissions are an audio-visual equivalent of a creative arts-based essay. They should explore a topic or story at the interface between ethics, neuroscience, and society in plain language for the general public. Video essays can include audio, visual, textual material to convey a narrative, story or poetic text. Your own video material, voice-overs, still images, music and other creative pieces may be included in the video. Appropriate credits must be provided for any content that is not produced by the submitter. Videos can be in English, Spanish, French, German, KiSwahili, isiXhosa or Yoruba but must have subtitles in English. Videos should be a minimum of 5 minutes and maximum of 7 minutes in length and should be shared/uploaded as an mp4 file. Essays must be by a single person. References and disclosures should be displayed at the end of the video, which does not count toward the time requirement.
Submissions
Submissions must be received by July 7, 2023, at 11:30 p.m. EDT. Incomplete or late submissions will not be accepted. The deadline has been extended in previous years, but this is not guaranteed.
Essays for the IYNA-INS High School Neuroethics Competition category must be submitted to the IYNA Journal, and should follow the IYNA Format Guidelines. (Links to the contest and submission webpages will be provided soon.) Contact Ashley Thommana <athommana@youthneuro.org>, managing editor of the IYNA Journal, with any questions about the submission and review process.
Essay submissions for the Academic, General Audience and Video categories must be uploaded through the online form. Written essays should be a submitted as a doc, docx or pdf file. Authors are encouraged to use the essay format document (docx) to ensure your submission includes all required information on a cover page and no identifying information on any other page so your submission can be easily anonymized for the review process. Video essays should be shared/submitted as a mp4 file or authors may provide a link to a video publicly available on YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, etc. Contact INS staff <administrator@neuroethicssociety.org> with any questions about the submission process for the Academic, General Audience and Video categories.
Selection Process
All essays will be judged on their originality and structure of argument, conceptual clarity, rigor of defense, quality of writing, and conclusions as outlined in this year’s scoring rubric. Video essay will not be judged on their production quality.
Submissions undergo an anonymous review by two or more referees from the INS Student/Postdoc Committee or by a panel of judges chosen by the IYNA Journal Editorial Team. Contest referees include students and postdocs from the fields of neuroscience, law, medicine, philosophy, and other areas of the sciences and humanities. All decisions made by the INS Student/Postdoc Committee and the IYNA judges are final.
Notification of the contest winners — one from each submission category — will be emailed to all participating authors by September 1. See winners and honorable mentions from previous contests.
Publishing
Winning and honorable mention essays will be posted on the contest website and may be considered for publication by another institution appropriate for the topic discussed. Recent winning essays have been published online by the Dana Foundation and past winners have gone on to publish essays in other outlets such as Scientific American. All submissions to the IYNA-INS High School Neuroethics category will be considered for publication in the IYNA Journal.
Participation in the contest does not preclude future submission of a version of the manuscript to other magazines, academic journals, or other scholarly or general interest publications.
Curriculum / Assignment
Educators are encouraged to incorporate the Neuroethics Essay Contest into their curriculum or coursework. For an existing essay or written assignment, consider mentioning the essay contest and the range of topics that fit the broad definition of neuroethics. If looking for a new approach to bridge humanities and the sciences or to have students investigate the philosophical and ethical considerations related to the brain, consider developing an assignment that fits the submission requirements of the contest. Essays produced for or derived from previous coursework are eligible for submission.