The Research Association on Monetary Innovation and Community and Complementary Currency Systems (RAMICS), in partnership with the International Journal of Community Currency Research (IJCCR) and the Bibliography Databank of Community Currency Research (CC-literature), announces the launch of the first edition of the RAMICS’ Best Paper Award on monetary innovation and complementary currency systems.

This initiative aims to promote research that improves the present understanding of the state, the development and the potentialities of monetary innovation, complementary currency systems and any case of money-based social exchange systems as well. It takes place in the framework of RAMICS biennial congresses. In addition, it seeks to facilitate and strengthen the relationships between those who act in the field of complementary currency research and the movements of activists on the subject, articulating research and practice, rigorous academic reflection and promotion of social change.

Consequently, RAMICS’ Fifth International Congress on Monetary Innovation and Complementary Currency Systems, to be held in Japan – Hida-Takayama, on Sept. 11-15^th, 2019, will introduce the first edition of this Best Paper Award, for a paper written in English, considering criteria of originality, relevance, and academic quality.

 Selection process

The selection will take place considering the papers accepted by the international scientific committee of the Congress, and presented during the Congress.

The winner of the award will be announced during the Congress in attendance of the author or at least one author if the paper is co-authored.

The jury may renounce to grant the award if it considers that the competing papers do not meet the expected quality and relevance requirements.

Contest rules

Research norms of an academic paper

Please remember that an academic paper is not a social commentary, an opinion or a “blog”. An academic paper begins with a thesis – the writer of the academic paper aims to persuade readers of an idea or solution to a problem, based on empirical qualitative or quantitative evidence or on theoretical and conceptual analysis. A paper should be structured on a research question that is presented and explained in the introductory section, with reference to the existing literature.

Academic writing should present the reader with an informed argument. The research process is not simply collecting data, evidence, or “facts,” then copy-and-pasting” this preexisting information into a paper. Instead, the research process is about the investigation — asking questions and developing answers through serious critical thinking and thoughtful reflection.

Conditions to be part of the contest

– Articles should be original unpublished material, and not submitted for publication elsewhere.

– Essays will be accepted written English

– Provisional versions or works that have obtained a local, national or international prize will not be accepted.

– The articles must be submitted to RAMICS Congress for presentation, then accepted and presented.

– The applying papers must follow the presentation guidelines that will be circulated in the call for papers of the Congress.

Topics of the papers

– The articles should be based on the thematic areas proposed in the call for papers and guidelines of the RAMICS 5th Congress.

– The work may consist of an analysis of cases and/or theoretical reflections related to the suggested topics.

– Presentations of an individual or collective authorship with no more than three authors will be accepted. In the case of collective essays, the award will be the only one per work.

 The award

The awarded paper will receive an amount of 300 euros. The amount is not per author but per paper, and in the case of multiple authorship, the authors should share this amount.

The awarded paper will be published in the issue of the International Journal of Community Currency Research (IJCCR) that corresponds with the proceedings of the Congress. It will be indexed consequently in the Bibliography of Community Currency Research (CC-literature).

The winners are committed to delivering the final essays adapted to the editorial standards of RAMICS/IJCCR.