Deadline extended to Monday, December 16th at 11:59pm ET
Student Scientific Paper Submission Portal
$1,000 in cash prizes! Plus free RESNA student membership for finalists
Overview
RESNA holds a Student Scientific Paper Competition (SSPC) each year. Full time students in either an undergraduate or a graduate academic program are encouraged to submit a manuscript to the competition. Submit your paper through the online Student Scientific Paper submission process. Your submission will be reviewed and scored by a panel of reviewers who are experts in area(s) relevant to its topic. There is $1,000 available in cash prizes plus free RESNA student membership for finalists.
Presentation of Accepted Papers
Authors of accepted Student Scientific Papers will be expected to present their work at a RESNA event. For 2025, that is RehabWeek Chicago, May 12-16. The winning submissions of the competition will be presented in a special Platform Session. All other submissions that are accepted will be asked to present their work as a poster for RehabWeek 2025.
Publication Options
Accepted scientific papers will be posted on RESNA’s website and will be publicly available as part of our online proceedings. Winners of the Student Scientific Paper Competition are required to have their entire paper published in the online proceedings, not just their abstract or plain language summary. The abstracts or plain language summaries of accepted papers will also be published in an issue of RESNA’s Assistive Technology Journal.
Authors of non-winning accepted papers may select between publication of their full paper as submitted or a shorter abstract or plain language summary in the online proceedings. The abstract or plain language summary option is ONLY for authors who plan future submission to scholarly journals and wish to avoid strict restrictions on "prior publication" established by some journals (e.g., Archives of PM&R and some medical journals).
- All authors considering the abstract or plain language summary-only publication option should investigate the requirements of their targeted journal, and students are encouraged to consult with their advisor.
- Authors who wish to submit their paper to the RESNA Assistive Technology Journal do not need to limit their publication to an abstract or plain language summary, as the online proceedings are not considered to be prior publication by the Journal editors.
Eligibility
- Any research substantially performed while the lead author(s) is/are full time student(s) in either an undergraduate or graduate academic program is eligible for the competition.
- More than one paper can be submitted to the competition, but no student will receive more than one honoraria per year.
- The same paper cannot be submitted to both the Student Design and Student Scientific Paper competitions.
- When submitting a paper, the author must include a Letter of Certification from a faculty member verifying that the first author was a student and carried out a majority of the work presented in the paper.
Template & Sample Papers
Scientific Paper Template: Student Scientific Papers must be formatted according to the RESNA Template.
Sample Paper: Authors should review the sample papers in order to gain the clearest idea about style and layout guidelines.
Style Manual: Authors can also refer to the Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) (6th Edition) style guide for citation and reference information.
STUDENT PROGRAMS SPONSOR
If you are interested in sponsoring RESNA Student Programs, please contact execoffice@resna.org for information about the 2025 program.
To visit the Student Scientific Paper's website archive and Read about our past winners, visit...
For additional questions about the RESNA 2025 Student Scientific Paper Competition contact info@resna.org.