Military Science and Law Enforcement Section

Call for Papers
38th National Student Research Conference
Military Science and Law Enforcement Section

1. General Information, Organizers

Organizer of the event:

Széchenyi István University
Deák Ferenc Faculty of Law and Political Sciences
Faculty of Informatics and Electrical Engineering

Address: 9026 Győr, Egyetem tér 1.

The Section’s website address: otdk.hrt.2027.sze.hu
Section e-mail address: otdk-hrt.2027@sze.hu
Date of the event: April 7–9, 2027

The National Association for Student Research (OTDT), the Section Committee for Military Science and Law Enforcement of the OTDT and the organizing Széchenyi István University Deák Ferenc Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, and Faculty of Informatics and Electrical Engineering, hereby announce the 38th National Students Research Conference under the conditions of the following call.

The conditions for participation and application in the Military Science and Law Enforcement Section of the 38th OTDK are set out in the 38th OTDK General Call and in the present section call of the Military Science and Law Enforcement Section Committee.

2. Eligibility Criteria

2.1 Who is eligible to participate

For the 38th OTDK, students are eligible who at the time of the first round of the qualifying science/art field, faculty or institutional student research conference (hereinafter referred to as student research conference) following the registration period of the 37th OTDK and preceding the registration period of the 38th OTDK attended

• an integrated master’s program;
• a BA/BSc program;
• an MA/MSc program;
• a BProf (Bachelor of Profession) program;
• higher education vocational training,

and meet all the requirements of the 38th OTDK General Call and the Call of the Military Science and Law Enforcement Section (details can be found in Supplement 2 of the 38th OTDK General Call).

Study circles from cross-border universities and colleges can participate in the 38th OTDK under the same professional conditions as those in Hungary. Details are available in the General Call of the 38th OTDK.

The conference is also open to secondary school students in Hungary and across borders who present their research results at conferences of higher education institutions or national high school science student conferences (see Supplement 4 of the 37th OTDK General Call) and are nominated for the OTDK. The presentations of high school students will be classified in the section corresponding to their topic, and will be evaluated and awarded according to the internal rules of the host sections, following the same rules as the presentations of university and college students.

A thesis produced in the course of continuous TDK activity during BA and BSc education, can be entered to the 38th OTDK, if it meets the requirements of the Call and its Supplements and has been presented at a student research conference either during the BA/BSc or the subsequent MA/MSc training and has there been delegated to the OTDK.

The conditions for submitting bachelor’s theses, master’s theses, and theses written within integrated master’s programs are set out in Section 2.1 of Supplement 2 to the General Call of the 38th OTDK.

2.2. Formal requirements for participation and evaluation of TDK papers and presentations

Supplement 1 of the Section Call contains the formatting rules to be followed and the elements of the evaluation, with the following details:

• content and format requirements for TDK papers and abstracts,
• rules for the presentation of TDK papers in foreign languages,
• evaluation criteria and rules for the TDK paper and the presentation.

2.3. Submission of a TDK paper to another section

According to the General Call for the 38th OTDK, a TDK paper may only be submitted once and to a single section at the OTDK. Consequently, a TDK paper that has been submitted to another section cannot be submitted to the Military Science and Law Enforcement Section. If an author submits more than one TDK paper, they must declare during the submission process that there is no substantial or significant overlap between the papers. During the verification of applications, the Section Committee of the Military Science and Law Enforcement Section and the organizing committee examine the differences between multiple TDK papers submitted by the same author; if substantial and significant overlap is found, the author must choose which paper to present, and the remaining submissions will be withdrawn. If the student fails to make the declaration during the application process, all submitted papers will be disqualified. This rule does not prohibit the same author from submitting multiple distinct TDK papers to the Military Science and Law Enforcement Section.

3. Sessions/topics

3.1. Planned sessions/topics

1. Applied social sciences (ethics, communication, pedagogy, psychology, sociology)
2. Security and defense policy, culture
3. Security technology, History of security technology
4. Penitentiary services
5. Civil-military cooperation (CIMIC)
6. Tactics of military arms, Non-war military operations
7. Economic protection
8. Tactics, military strategy, military doctrines
9. Law of armed conflict, Military theory; Law enforcement law, Theory of law enforcement; Defense administration
10. Military technology, History of military technology
11. Military history, Law enforcement history and preservation of traditions
12. Infocommunications systems
13. Disaster and fire protection
14. Military and law enforcement leadership
15. Military and law enforcement logistics
16. Military health services and disaster medicine
17. Military electronics and robotics
18. Military and law enforcement training and sports
19. Cybersecurity, cyber defense
20. Environmental protection and environmental security
21. Criminalistics
22. Criminology
23. Psychological Operations (PSYOPS)
24. Private security, municipal policing
25. Migration
26. National security
27. International relations
28. Regional security
29. Law Enforcement (public order policing, traffic safety and traffic policing, border policing, administrative policing, crowd control operations)
30. Law enforcement in the European Union
31. Law enforcement and politics, criminal policy
32. Law enforcement crime prevention
33. Tactics of specialized units
34. Customs, tax and excise administration
35. Rural and social security

In addition to the areas listed above, social science or interdisciplinary TDK papers (e.g., ethics, communication, pedagogy, psychology, sociology, ergonomics, IT, etc.) related to the fields of the Military Science and Law Enforcement Section, but not explicitly military or law enforcement in nature, may also be submitted to the Military Science and Law Enforcement Section if they are prepared from the perspective of civil security and defense. During registration, students must indicate the most appropriate section, as well as any other suitable sections, in which they wish to present their paper.

3.2. Rules for the establishment of the final session assignment

The fundamental rules for the establishment of the final session assignment are included in the General Call of the 38th OTDK. The Military Science and Law Enforcement Section Committee may, based on the number of TDK papers received and their topic, merge some of the planned sessions/topics or create additional ones, so that the TDK paper may be assigned to a different session than the one indicated by the author(s) during registration. The condition for starting an independent section is the submission of at least 6 papers on the given topic, as specified in the General Call, with the requirement that at least 5 of the 6-15 papers assigned to the section be presented at the 38th OTDK. If the number of TDK papers to be presented in a given session is fewer than 5, that session may be merged with another session at the discretion of the Chair of the Military Science and Law Enforcement Section Committee. The organizing institution, with the agreement of the Military Science and Law Enforcement Section Committee, reserves the right to redirect TDK papers with content that does not align with the Military Science and Law Enforcement Section’s field of study, thanking the applicants and transferring the paper to the appropriate section of the 38th National Student Research Conference.

The final decision on the sessions, and the classification of the TDK papers will be made by the Military Science and Law Enforcement Section Committee. Students will be informed of this decision via the OTDT online system by March 10, 2027 (Wednesday) at the latest.

4. Application procedure

4.1. Steps of registration for applicants

4.1.1. Pre-registration of TDK papers

Following the institutional TDK conference, the upload of the TDK paper and the selection of the section must be completed within 30 days of the email specified in point 4 of Supplement 2 to the 38th OTDK General Call being sent. Also, participants who will be eligible to submit a TDK paper at a student research conference held within 30 days before the application deadline for the Military Science and Law Enforcement Section of the 38th OTDK must upload their TDK paper to the OTDT online system by the application deadline.

ATTENTION! Please note that uploading a TDK paper does not constitute an automatic entry to the 38th OTDK. Applications must be submitted during the registration period, following the steps described in the next section.

4.1.2. The application

Registration period: November 16, 2026 – January 20, 2027 (Wednesday), 16:00 (CET)

Registration deadline: January 20, 2027 (Wednesday), 16:00 (CET)

Students’ tasks during this period are:

• Filling in the information related to the uploaded application.
• Upload abstracts in English and Hungarian. (In the case of non-Hungarian native speakers, the abstract must be uploaded in English only.)
• On the abstract upload page, providing five keywords that do not appear in the title of the paper.
• Finalizing the application in the OTDT online system.

After the registration deadline for students (January 20, 2027, 16:00, CET) it will no longer be possible for students to upload application documents in the OTDT online system.

5. Tasks of the institution or faculty TDT Chair in relation to the 38th OTDK

5.1. Following the student research conference:

Uploading the documents of the student research conference and sending them to the OTDT Office according to point 3 of Supplement 2 of the General Call for the 38th OTDK.

5.2. Following the participants’ registration deadline:

• Approval of applications in the OTDT online system. (Applications are automatically approved, the TDT Chair only has to deal with this if they do not approve an entry.)
• Approval in the OTDT online system of the consolidated list containing the approved applications of TDK papers and their authors submitted to the Military Science and Law Enforcement Section, and/or its generation from the online system and signature with a qualified electronic signature, or printing and signing, followed by electronic upload to the OTDT online system. By approving/signing the consolidated list, the TDT Chairs also declare that all TDK papers and their authors included therein meet the requirements set out in Supplement 2 to the General Call of the 38th OTDK.

Deadline for institutional and faculty TDT Chairs to upload documents to the OTDT online system: January 25, 2027 (Monday) 16:00 (CET). After the deadline it will no longer be possible to upload application documents to the OTDT online system.

We are unable to accept TDK papers that do not meet the requirements outlined in the Military Science and Law Enforcement Section Call; such applications will be rejected.

Applications submitted individually are invalid.

6. Registration fee

The registration fees for the 38th OTDK will be determined at a later stage, subject to the availability of funding.

7. The awards that can be granted at the OTDK and the Special Prize of the Session Panel

A certificate of participation in the OTDK will be awarded to all authors and supervisors of each paper presented. In addition, a maximum of one third of the papers presented may be awarded one of the first, second and third places per section, taking into account that a maximum of one entry per session may be awarded first place. The Section Panel may award a special prize to those papers that do not achieve ranking but are judged by the Session Panel to be worthy of recognition on the basis of their professional merit, and which are judged to be immediately behind the winning applications. The authors of the winning papers and those of the papers receiving the Special Prize of the Session Panel will each receive a certificate for the ranking or the Special Prize of the Session Panel.

The total number of winning papers and papers awarded the Special Prize of the Session Panel may not exceed 50% of the total number of papers presented in a section. Further rules on prizes are set out in Supplement 3 to the General Call.

8. Submission of Pro Scientia Gold Medal application

The authors of TDK papers that have been awarded first place at the national conference may apply for the Pro Scientia Gold Medal, provided they meet the additional criteria set out in the call. Details are given in Supplement 5 of the 38th OTDK General Call. Deadline for submission of applications: May 14, 2027.

We invite and welcome all interested students and their masters!

Budapest, April 21, 2026

SUPPLEMENT 1 TO THE CALL FOR PAPERS
38TH OTDK
MILITARY SCIENCE AND LAW ENFORCEMENT SECTION

Formal and content requirements for TDK papers and presentations, and the rules for their evaluation

1. The language of the TDK paper and the presentation:

TDK papers to the Military Science and Law Enforcement Section can be submitted in Hungarian or English. The language of the TDK paper is the same as the language of the training attended by the applicant at the time of the qualification student research conference. Exceptions to this rule are Hungarian-language but international programs, where the language of the TDK paper may be either English or Hungarian. In the case of training in any other language, the language of the TDK paper may be either English or Hungarian. The language of the presentation is the same as that of the TDK paper. At the request of applicants, the Section Committee may investigate and grant exceptions to the above rules in individual cases. Regardless of the language of the TDK paper, Hungarian native speaker students must submit their TDK paper in Hungarian and English, while non-Hungarian native speaker students must submit their TDK paper in English only.

2. Content requirements for the TDK paper:

All TDK papers submitted to the 38th OTDK are subject to a plagiarism check, which is evaluated by a three-member special committee set up by the Military Science and Law Enforcement Section Committee, which reviews the results of the plagiarism check one by one. Applicants are reminded that plagiarism in any form is not allowed, and that their own works may not be quoted without a reference (prohibition of self-plagiarism). TDK papers that are proven to infringe copyright will be excluded from the 38th OTDK by the OTDT, with simultaneous notification to the nominating institution.

The use of AI in research is not restricted by the section, but it does use software to assess the role of AI in the drafting of the text of the TDK paper and the extent of its contribution, and then decides whether to reject it, in a similar way to the plagiarism check. The use of artificial intelligence must be declared in accordance with Supplement 6 of the General Call of the 38th OTDK.

3. Formal requirements for the TDK paper:

General requirements:

Within 30 days after the acceptance of the record of the student research conference, applicants must upload their TDK papers to the OTDT online system as described in Supplement 2, point 4 of the 38th OTDK General Call. Participants who will be eligible to submit a TDK paper at a student research conference held within 30 days before the application deadline for the 38th OTDK Military Science and Law Enforcement Section also must upload their TDK paper to the OTDT online system by the application deadline.

All TDK papers must include the closing date (month, year).

TDK papers that do not meet the minimum page limit set by the Military Science and Law Enforcement Section or exceed the maximum number of pages cannot be uploaded to the OTDT online system.

The TDK paper must be uploaded in PDF format. The maximum file size is 10 megabytes.

General formal requirements:

Font: Times New Roman
Font size: 12 pt
Line spacing: 1.5
Margin: 2.5

Section-specific requirements:

Minimum number of pages for the TDK paper: 30 pages.
Maximum number of pages for the TDK paper is 100 pages.

The number of pages given include cover page, supplements, appendices, bibliography, etc. The minimum and maximum number of pages of the TDK papers are checked by the OTDT online system when they are uploaded.

No additional supplement may be uploaded with the TDK paper. (This does not include any required declarations.)

Referencing method: as appropriate to the field.

Additional section-specific rules for the TDK paper:

TDK papers must be uploaded to OTDT’s online system anonymously, with an ID word. A sample cover page for the TDK paper is included in Supplement 1.

4. Printed TDK paper required: no

5. Rules for the abstract:

Only the body text of the abstract must be uploaded to the OTDT online system, other data (name(s) of the author(s), name of the institution, name of the supervisor(s), position, etc.) are generated by the OTDT online system.

The language of the abstract is English and Hungarian, for non-Hungarian native speakers English only.

The abstract should be at least 1,500 and no more than 2,500 characters per language.

A short summary of the student’s self-assessed achievements – about 500 characters – should be presented within the abstract.

6. Evaluation rules for the TDK paper:

Submitted TDK papers will be evaluated in writing by three reviewers, based on the following criteria:

• the topicality of the subject of the TDK paper (max. 10 points);
• content evaluation of the TDK paper (max. 20 points);
• formal requirements for the TDK paper (max. 10 points);
• usability of the results obtained (max 10 points).

A maximum of 50 points in total can be awarded in the written evaluation. The total score is the arithmetic average of the scores given by the three reviewers. If the average score of the three written evaluations is less than 40% of the points available, the TDK paper cannot be presented at the 38th OTDK. If the written evaluation is not ready by the 10th day before the conference, the TDK paper cannot be excluded from the 38th OTDK for this reason. Evaluations will be made available to the authors by the Military Science and Law Enforcement Section organizers via the OTDT online system after the conference.

The oral presentation of the TDK papers will be evaluated by the Session Panel, based on the following criteria:

• the presenter’s subject knowledge (20 points);
• structure of the presentation (15 points);
• style of presentation, methodological evaluation, debating skills (10 points);
• time management (5 points).

Time frame of presentations: 15 minutes for the presentation, 10 minutes for discussion, debate, and questions.

During the evaluation of the presentation a maximum of 50 points can be awarded in total, the total score being the arithmetic average of the scores given by the reviewers.

TDK papers must be presented in person at the venues of the panel sessions of the Military and Law Enforcement Section. In the case of multi-authored papers, all authors should attend the presentation where possible. Online presentations may be permitted only in exceptional and justified cases, subject to approval by the Section Committee. If the author – or, in the case of multiple authors, at least one author – is unable to present the paper in person, they may request permission from the Section Committee to present it online. The possibility of online presentation is subject to individual assessment. Requests for online presentation must be submitted no later than 15 days before the start of the conference.

APPENDIX 1 TO THE CALL FOR PAPERS
38TH OTDK
MILITARY SCIENCE AND LAW ENFORCEMENT SECTION

• Appendix 1

• 38th OTDK Military Science and Law Enforcement Section Call
• Supplement 1
• Appendix 1