The Scope
Submitted essays must be relevant for the interdisciplinary field of consciousness studies, and in particular should concern one or more of the following topics:
· Conceptual and methodological challenges
· Metaphysics and phenomenology of consciousness
· The sense of self
· Consciousness and emotion
· Norms and abnormalities in the study of consciousness
· The phylogenetic, ontogenetic and historical development of consciousness
· Consciousness and language
· Social dimensions of consciousness
For further details on the exact nature and intended scope of each of these topics, applicants are referred to the CNCC original Call for Proposals.
Two Tracks: Theoretical Analysis & Empirical Research
The competition will be structured along two parallel tracks, and each author must submit his/her work under one and only one of these tracks (although the essays could and should pertain both, as explained in what follows):
· Theoretical Analysis track: Essays submitted to this track are expected to provide original theoretical insights (including criticisms of previous models) and/or new conceptual models relevant for consciousness studies. Although theoretical analysis should be the core aim of the essays in this track, it is also highly desirable that they are well grounded in empirical findings and/or highlight relevant consequences for empirical research. This suggests that contributions within this track will come also, although not exclusively, from disciplines such as philosophy, cognitive science, cultural studies, history of the ideas, and social sciences.
· Empirical Research track: Essays submitted to this track are expected to present new empirical findings, experimental designs, and empirically oriented methodologies for the study of different facets of consciousness, and/or a review of the author’s own work in this area, if considered of enough significance. Although empirical research should be the core aim of the essays in this track, they are also required to provide relevant insights to the current debate on consciousness, and such insights must be adequately emphasized in the submitted papers. This suggests that contributions within this track will come also, although not exclusively, from disciplines such as experimental psychology, neurosciences, anthropology, computer science, and ethology.
A winning essay will be selected from each of the two tracks, and each winner will be awarded a prize of € 1.500 and will be published on the journal PSYCHE. Other finalist essays will also be considered for publication.
Submission
Each author can submit no more than one contribution, and only in one of the two tracks (see above). Essays must be demonstrably the product of the applicant’s own research efforts: joint contributions are also accepted, but only provided that (1) the applicant is the main and first author of the paper, and (2) it is clear that the applicant’s contribution is substantial with respect to previous works of his/her colleagues, and is not limited to glossing on such works.
Submitted essays must be in English and no longer than 8.000 words (notes and references included), and they must describe original work, i.e. not yet published or submitted for publication elsewhere, although they may have been presented at conferences, workshops, symposia, and the like.
Only electronic submission will be considered. Authors should made their submission as e-mail attachments to cncc-award[at]esf.org . Only the following electronic formats will be accepted: Word document (.doc), Rich Text Format (.rtf), or Portable Document Format (.pdf). Documents larger than 1MB might not be accepted. Authors will be acknowledged reception of their submission. Each submission should include two files: an identification sheet (download the form here) and the essay itself. The identification sheet must include: the track under which the essay is intended to compete (only one, either Theoretical Analysis or Empirical Research); the author’s name, affiliation and contact details, including a valid e-mail address; the title of the essay and a short abstract of it, no longer than 200 words. The essay document, on the other hand, must be carefully prepared for blind reviewing, and authors are to avoid including any information in the body of the paper or references that would identify their identity or their institutions. Both the title and abstract of the paper should appear in the essay document.
The closing date for submissions to be received is 15 February 2008, 12 pm GMT. The essays will be blindly peer-reviewed by no less than two independent reviewers each, nominated by the organizers of the CNCC Award. At the end of the reviewing phase (expected date: 31 May 2008), six finalist papers will be short-listed, three for each track. Their authors will be notified and invited to present their work at the final event of the CNCC Essay Award, to be held in Edinburgh on 28 June 2008. These presentations will be commented upon by the members of the jury (three CNCC-members, plus three non-CNCC scholars), and the winners will be announced. The ESF will be happy to cover the finalists’ costs for attending the Edinburgh event.
Both the finalist papers and their commentaries will be published as a special issue of PSYCHE during the year 2009. Minor revisions and format adjustments might be required for editorial purposes before final publication.
The jury reserves the right not to award one or both prizes if none of the essays meet the required standards. The same applies for subsequent publication on PSYCHE.
The ESF reserves the right to publish on line in electronic format all submitted contributions that will be judged of adequate value from the Organizing Committee, possibly exceeding the six finalist papers. These papers will be made available freely for download from the ESF-CNCC website. Permission to publish will be required in writing by the ESF to the authors of all accepted contributions, but this will not entail transfer of copyright – that is, authors will retain copyright on their own contributions.
Eligibility and Evaluation procedure
Failure to comply with any of the requirements indicated above is likely to result in exclusion from the evaluation phase of the competition, due to ineligibility. Decisions on eligibility issues are sole responsibility of the Organizing Committee of the CNCC Essay Award. Authors of ineligible submissions will be notified as soon as the ineligibility issue is discovered, and the reasons motivating their exclusion from the competition will be duly motivated. The Organizing Committee decisions on these matters are final.
The two-tiered evaluation process will always remain blind, and all essays will be judged and rated on academic merit. In particular, the following criteria will be considered as crucial:
· Originality
· Conceptual soundness
· Empirical soundness
· Scholarly quality
· Interdisciplinarity
The first stage of evaluation will consist in blind peer-reviewing from no less than two independent experts, selected by the Organizing Committee. Aside from providing detailed comments on each of the criteria listed above, each reviewer will be asked for an overall rating of the essay. On the grounds of these ratings, the Organizing Committee will compile a ranking, and the six top papers will be short-listed as finalists and passed on to the Award Jury. All authors will then be notified of the result of this first evaluation, and they will receive copy of the reviewers’ comments and rates to their essays.
In the second and last stage of evaluation, the Award Jury will assess and discuss the six finalist essays, along the same criteria highlighted above, and will reach a verdict on the winner of each track. Each member of the jury will also prepare a commentary on one of the six finalist essays, to be presented at the final event in Edinburgh.
Organisers & Contacts
Members of the Organizing Committee:
Fabio Paglieri, ISTC-CNR Roma
Manos Tsakiris, UCL London
Tillman Vierkant, University of Edinburgh
Members of the Award Jury:
Tim Bayne, Oxford University, UK
Cristiano Castelfranchi, ISTC-CNR Roma, Italy
Thomas Goschke, Technical University of Dresden, Germany
John-Dylan Haynes, MPI for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences Leipzig, Germany
Joëlle Proust, Institut Jean-Nicod Paris, France
Kai Vogeley, University of Cologne, Germany
Contact details:
All inquiries on the CNCC Essay Award for Junior Scholars should be addressed to cncc-award[at]esf.org
