Social Sciences Section

Call for Papers
38th National Student Research Conference
Social Sciences Section

1. General Information, Organizers

Organizer of the event:

Corvinus University of Budapest

Venue of the Section: …………………………
The Section’s website address: …………….
Section e-mail address: …………….
Section phone number: ……………
Date of the event: April 1-3, 2027.

The National Association for Student Research (OTDT), the Section Committee for Social Sciences of the OTDT and the organizing Corvinus University of Budapest hereby announce the Social Sciences Section of the 38th National Student Research Conference under the conditions of the following call.

The conditions for participation and registration in the Social Sciences Section of the 38th OTDK are set out in the General Call of the 38th OTDK and in this Call of the OTDT Social Sciences Section Committee.

2. Eligibility Criteria

2.1 Who is eligible to participate

In the 38th National Student Research Conference (OTDK), TDK papers and authors (in the case of multi-author TDK papers, all authors) may participate that meet the conditions specified in the General Call for the 38th National Student Research Conference (details are provided in Supplement 2 of the General Call for the 38th OTDK.)

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 (for details see Supplement 4 of the General Call for the 38th OTDK) and are nominated for the 38th OTDK. A detailed description of the participation of secondary school students is available in the General Call of the 38th OTDK.

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.

In the case of the Social Sciences Section of the 38th OTDK, TDK papers submitted to and accepted for the conference must be presented orally in person at the session – following the preliminary written evaluation; however, in exceptional and duly justified cases, presentation via an online channel may also be accepted. The decision to allow an online presentation is made by the Chair of the OTDT Social Sciences Section Committee – after consultation with the Organizing Committee – based on the request and justification submitted by the applicant student.

2.2. Requirements for TDK papers and evaluation

Supplement 1 to the Section Call includes:

• The content and format requirements for TDK papers and abstracts.
• Rules for the presentation of TDK papers in foreign languages.
• Evaluation criteria of the TDK paper and the presentation.

3. Sessions/topics

3.1. Planned sessions/topics

1. Cultural and social anthropology
2. Media and communication studies
3. International studies
4. Political Science
5. Social work
6. Social pedagogy
7. Social policy, public policy
8. Sociology

During the application process, students must indicate which session would be the most suitable for presenting their TDK paper, as well as another session that could also be appropriate.

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 Social Sciences 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 session is the receipt of at least 6 TDK papers from at least 2 institutions in the given topic, on the condition that at least 5 of the 6 to 15 papers will 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 Social Sciences Section Committee.

The Social Sciences Section Committee reserves the right to reject TDK papers that do not fall within the field of the Social Sciences Section and, with appreciation for the application, to redirect them to a different section of the 38th National Student Research Conference that is more appropriate for the TDK paper’s field. The acceptance of TDK papers recommended for another section based on differing academic fields will be decided by the relevant section committee, and acceptance is not automatic.

It is the responsibility of the student to ensure the correct academic classification of their TDK paper. We advise students to make their decision regarding the selection of the scientific field with care and, if possible, to seek the opinion of their advisors as well as institutional student research leaders. For multi- and interdisciplinary papers, the academic field selected should be the one that represents the largest percentage of the topic, theoretical-literature background, and methodology in the TDK paper.

The Board Social Sciences Section Committee also reserves the right to reject a TDK paper without written review. Rejection without review is only possible if the TDK paper

a) does not specify or delineate the topic under investigation, or does not clearly state the research question; or

b) has an incoherent line of reasoning (e.g., the TDK paper analyses unrelated topics, or the structure does not meet general and professional communication standards); or

c) lacks coherence in its main parts (e.g., the literature review is unrelated to the specified topic or research questions; the research methodology is evidently unsuitable for answering the research questions); or

d) does not go beyond a simple summary of easily accessible literature findings and cannot be considered an independent research presentation.

e) The execution, style and presentation of the paper do not meet generally accepted academic standards (e.g. the paper is not structured into chapters, or the numbering of chapters is inconsistent; most tables/figures are not the author’s own but inserted from the literature), and the paper contains an unacceptably high number of typographical, editing and formatting errors.

Students will be notified of the rejection via the OTDT online system, with reference to the above criteria. No appeal may be made against the Section Committee’s decision to reject.

The Social Sciences Section Committee will make the final decision regarding sessions and the classification of TDK papers, and students will be notified of this decision through the OTDT online system by xxxx xx, 2027, at the latest.

4. Application process

4.1 Steps of registration for applicants

4.1.1. Pre-registration of TDK papers

Following the institutional student research conference, the upload of the TDK paper and selection of the section must be completed within 30 days of the email specified in point 4 of Supplement 2 of the General Call for the 38th OTDK. 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 Social Sciences 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: 16 November 2026 – 13 January 2027 (Wednesday), 16:00 (CET)

Students’ tasks during this period are:

• Filling in the information related to the uploaded application.
• Uploading the abstract.
• On the abstract upload page, providing five keywords that do not appear in the title of the paper.
• After completing the data entry and uploading the abstract, finalizing the registration in the OTDT online system.

After the registration deadline for students – 13 January 2027 (Wednesday), 16:00 (CET) – it will no longer be possible for students to upload application documents in the OTDT online system.

4.2. Additional tasks for students who have obtained a pre-degree certificate or are expected to obtain a pre-degree certificate in the semester of registration

Students who obtained a pre-degree certificate between the qualifying institutional TDK conference and the 38th OTDK must declare the date of obtaining their pre-degree certificate in the OTDT online system during the application process (those who are expected to obtain their pre-degree certificate in the semester of application, after the application deadline, must indicate that they are expected to obtain it in the semester of application).

In the case of students who qualified at ETDK, FTDK, KTDK, or VMTDK conferences, the expected date of finalizing the application to the 38th OTDK must be indicated as the date of the pre-degree certificate, as this has already been verified upon their acceptance to the qualifying conference.

5. Tasks of the 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 Supplement 2 of the General Call for the 38th OTDK.

5.2. Following the participants’ registration deadline, by 16:00 on January 18, 2027 (Monday):

A) Approval of participant registrations in the OTDT online system (all registrations are automatically approved in the system, so action is only required if the institution/faculty does not wish to delegate a submitted TDK paper to the OTDK).

B) Approval in the OTDT online system of the consolidated list containing the approved applications of TDK papers and their authors submitted to the Social Sciences 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.

We are unable to accept TDK papers that do not meet the requirements outlined in the 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.

We invite and welcome all interested students and their masters!

Budapest, 21 April 2026.

SUPPLEMENT 1 TO THE CALL FOR PAPERS
38TH OTDK
SOCIAL SCIENCES SECTION

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

TDK papers can be submitted in Hungarian and English. The language of the presentation is the same as that of the TDK paper.

2. Content requirements for the TDK paper:

The content of the TDK paper submitted to the 38th OTDK must be identical to the paper with which the author(s) of the paper has (have) qualified for participation in the 38th OTDK at student research conference.

All TDK papers submitted to the OTDK are subject to a plagiarism check, which is evaluated by a three-member special committee set up by the Social Sciences Section Committee, which reviews the results of the plagiarism check one by one. We specifically draw the attention of applying students to the fact that plagiarism is not permitted in any form; even one’s own work may not be cited without proper referencing (prohibition of self-plagiarism).

To avoid plagiarism and simultaneously ensure anonymity, we recommend the following note in the footnotes for sections identical to those in a thesis/dissertation: “This chapter/subchapter/excerpt matches the chapter/subchapter/excerpt of the author’s thesis/dissertation submitted/defended under the title […]”

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.

Rules on the use of artificial intelligence

the guidelines on the ethical use of artificial intelligence set out in Supplement 6 to the General Call of the 38th OTDK shall apply. If the Section Committee can prove that a significant portion of the paper is generated by artificial intelligence, it will be treated as a plagiarized work.

3. Formal requirements for the TDK paper:

General requirements

Time for uploading: within 30 days after the acceptance of the student research conference, as described in Supplement 2, point 4 of the General Call of the 38th OTDK.  Students who gain eligibility with their TDK paper at an institutional TDK conference held within 30 days before the registration deadline of the 38th OTDK Social Sciences Section must upload their TDK paper to the OTDT online system by the registration deadline at the latest.

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

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

TDK papers that do not meet the minimum page limit set by the Social Sciences Section or exceed the maximum number of pages cannot be uploaded to the OTDT online system.

General formal requirements

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

Section-specific requirements

Minimum number of pages for the TDK paper: 20
Maximum number of pages for the TDK paper: 60
The main content of the TDK paper — excluding the cover page, table of contents, bibliography, and appendices — should be between 20 and 40 pages.
Non-content sections may not exceed 20 pages.
It is not allowed to upload a supplementary document.
The reference format must comply with professional standards (e.g. Harvard style).
A 10-point font and single line spacing can be used in the bibliography, tables, and appendices.
Figures and tables must be numbered and referenced accordingly in the text.
Only the title, the names of author(s), and the date of completion may appear on the cover page.

4. Rules for the abstract:

The abstract should concisely summarize— in the following order—the context of the research, the main research questions and/or claims of the paper, the methods used to address the questions or substantiate the claims, the steps of the research process and the independent results achieved, and the conclusions drawn.

The abstract must be uploaded to the OTDT online system. (The other data: names of authors, institution, supervisor, etc. are generated by the online system).

The abstract must be identical to the abstract included in the paper. (If the paper does not include an abstract: the language of the abstract must be the same as the language of the paper.)

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

5. Evaluation rules for the TDK paper:

The submitted TDK paper will receive at least two independent written and quantified evaluations. The scoring criteria, along with the maximum points available, are as follows:

A third reviewer must be invited if the difference between the scores awarded by the reviewers exceeds 15 points.  If no third reviewer is invited, the written score is the average of the scores given by the two reviewers. If a third reviewer is invited, the written score is determined as follows:

• If the difference between the highest and the middle score is the same as the difference between the middle and the lowest score, the written score is equal to the middle score.
• In all other cases, the written score is the average of the two closest scores.

At the 38th OTDK, only those TDK papers with a written score of at least 30 may be presented.

At the 38th OTDK, the results of the TDK paper must also be presented orally. At the conference, participants will have 15 minutes to present their TDK paper (presentation), followed by a 15-minute discussion. The evaluation criteria for the oral presentation are as follows:

The final score of the TDK paper is determined by the sum of the average of the two or more written scores and the points earned in the oral presentation.

The organizers of the Social Sciences Section will strive to have the written evaluations ready by the 10th day before the conference, but if this is not the case, the TDK paper will not be excluded from the OTDK for this reason. Evaluations will be published by the Organizing committee of the Social Sciences Section via the OTDT online system. The written review will be made public 10 days prior to the conference.

• 38th OTDK Social Sciences Section Call
• Supplement 1