ESR Best Article of the Year Prize

The European Consortium for Sociological Research (ECSR) and the European Sociological Review (ESR) issue the Prize for the Best Article of the Year published in the ESR. The ESR is the flagship journal of the ECSR.

Criteria

The criteria on which articles will be evaluated are in line with the core aims of the ECSR, namely to stimulate rigorous empirical–theoretical sociological research in Europe.

More specifically, the papers will be assessed on the following criteria:

• Substantively interesting and relevant research problem;
• Good explanation of the contribution to the field;
• Rigorous use—and possibly development—of social scientific theory;
• Rigorous use of advanced research methods.

Regulations

1. For each volume (calendar year), one prize will be awarded, starting with papers published in 2016.
2. The jury for the prize consists of an ECSR board member (chair), an associate editor of ESR, and an external (non-Euro) member. The chair leads and organizes the work in the committee. Articles with (co-)authors in the committee are not eligible to win the prize, and standard conflict of interest rules apply.
3. All jury members nominate two articles to the chair of the jury. The (maximum of) six articles are then ranked by all three jury members, from 1 to N (with N nominated articles, 1 is highest). The winner is the article with the fewest points. In the event of a tie, the Chair of the ECSR offers an additional ranking, resulting in one winner and two runners-up.
4. The jury sends the list with the selected winner and runners-up to the ECSR secretary, who informs the ECSR Board.
5. The prize winners will receive a certificate and a cash prize of Euro 500.
6. The prize is handed out at the annual General ECSR Conference.
7. The papers of the winner and the two runners-up are made freely available (open access) on the ESR site at Oxford University Press for one year.

Winner(s) of 2024

Said Hassan, Camilla Hvidtfeldt, Lars Højsgaard Andersen, and Rebecca Udsen
Do refugee children impair the academic performance of native children in the school? Informative null results from Danish Register Data

RUNNER-UPS:

Chen-Hao Hsu: How women’s employment instability affects birth transitions: the moderating role of family policies in 27 European countries

Katy Morris: Where DESO Disappears: Spatial Inequality and Social Stratification at Labour Market Entry

Former winners

Prizes awared by the past unregistered ECSR network

Year	Name and article title
2023	WINNER: Irene Pañeda-Fernández for her 2022 article Natural Disasters and Preferences for Redistribution: The Impact of Collective and Abrupt Disruptions RUNNER UPS: Katrňák, Tomáš and Barbora Hubatková. Transitional Inequality Offset: Educational Expansion and Inequality of Educational Opportunity in European Countries between 2000 and 2018 Hjorth‐Trolle, Anders, Erik Rosenqvist and Anders Hed. Grading Practices and the Social Gradient in GPA: Quasi‐Experimental Evidence from Sweden
2022	WINNER: Dragana Stojmenovska and Paula England, for their 2021 article Parenthood and the Gender Gap in Workplace Authority RUNNER UPS: Bukodi, Erzsébet and John H. Goldthorpe. Primary’ Factors in Intergenerational Class Mobility in Europe: Results from the Application of a Topological Model Bernardi, Fabrizio and Gil-Hernández, Carlos J. The Social-Origins Gap in Labour Market Outcomes: Compensatory and Boosting Advantages Using a Micro-Class Approach
2021	WINNER: Arun Frey, for his 2020 article ‘Cologne Changed Everything’—The Effect of Threatening Events on the Frequency and Distribution of Intergroup Conflict in Germany RUNNER UPS: Fossati, Flavia, Anna Wilson, and Giuliano Bonoli. What Signals Do Employers Use When Hiring? Evidence from a Survey Experiment in the Apprenticeship Market. Gorleer, Sam, Piet Bracke, and Lesley Hustinx. The Organizational Field of Blood Collection: A Multilevel Analysis of Organizational Determinants of Blood Donation in Europe.
2020	WINNER: Nan Zhang, Amelie Aidenberger, Heiko Rauhut, and Fabian Winter, for their 2019 article Prosocial Behaviour in Interethnic Encounters: Evidence from a Field Experiment with High- and Low-Status Immigrants RUNNER UPS: Combet, Benita and Daniel Oesch. The Gender Wage Gap Opens Long before Motherhood. Panel Evidence on Early Careers in Switzerland. Heisig, Jan, Paul and Merlin Schaeffer. Why You Should Always Include a Random Slope for the Lower-Level Variable Involved in a Cross-Level Interaction
2019	WINNER: Javier G. Polavieja Perera, Mariña Fernández-Reino and María Ramos, for their 2018 article Are Migrants Selected on Motivational Orientations? Selectivity Patterns amongst International Migrants in Europe RUNNER UPS: Barone, Carlo, Moris Triventi, and Giulia Assirelli. Explaining Social Inequalities in Access to University: A Test of Rational Choice Mechanisms in Italy Shwed, Uri, Yuval Kalish, and Yossi Shavit. Multicultural or Assimilationist Education: Contact Theory and Social Identity Theory in Israeli Arab–Jewish Integrated Schools
2018	WINNER: Wojtek Przepiorka, Lukas Norbutas and Rense Corten, for their 2017 article Order without law: reputation promotes cooperation in a cryptomarket for illegal drugs
2017	WINNER: Jörg Dollmann, for his 2016 article Less choice, less inequality? A natural experiment on social and ethnic differences in educational decision-making