The DGOF Best Paper Award 2023
to recognize outstanding scientific contributions in online research
[THIS YEAR’S APPLICATION IS CLOSED! THE REVIEW PROCESS HAS ALREADY STARTED!]
The German Society for Online Research (DGOF) annually recognizes outstanding scientific contributions in online research through the DGOF Best Paper Award for a researcher or group of researchers.
The DGOF by-laws define “online research” as any type of research about computers or other devices that are connected by a network, in particular the Internet. Online research includes online based data collection (e.g., web surveys in online panels), mobile research with smartphones, tablets, and wearables, and the collection and analysis of social media data, administrative data, data from passive measurements, and other Big Data sources.
The prize will be awarded to a paper that provides a fundamental scientific contribution to the advancement of the methods of online research. Topics that are suitable for the award can be found in the program of the annual General Online Research (GOR) conference (www.gor.de). Both theoretical/conceptual and empirical/methodological papers are considered for the award. Papers that do not focus on online research but, for example, merely use online data collection (e.g., through a web survey) to answer a substantive research question will not be considered.
The award is worth Euro 500 and will be presented at the annual GOR conference. An abstract (and, if available, a preprint) of the award-winning paper will be posted to the DGOF website (www.dgof.de). To be considered for the award, papers must be published in an outlet that uses a peer-review process (e.g., peer-reviewed journal, full papers in peer-reviewed conference proceedings, refereed book chapter) at the time of submission. Papers written in German or English and published not earlier than 2022 (if the paper was published online-first, then the online-first publication date counts) can be submitted for the DGOF Best Paper Award 2023.
To be considered for the DGOF Best Paper Award 2023, please fill in the following application form by 31 January 2023. In addition, please send the following material to office@dgof.de (subject line: “DGOF Best Paper Award 2023”):
- Copy (PDF) of the published paper
- CV of corresponding author
The winner will be selected by a committee installed by the DGOF board. All decisions are final and not subject to legal appeal.
You can also download this call here to share it with colleagues.
For questions, please contact the DGOF office at office@dgof.de
This is the Jury of the DGOF Best Paper Award 2023







Assistant Research Prof. Christopher Antoun (University of Maryland)
Prof. Dr. Nicola Doering (Ilmenau University of Technology)
Prof. Dr. Florian Keusch (University of Mannheim), Jury Chair
Dr. Henning Silber (GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences)
Associate Professor Clemens Stachl (University of St. Gallen)
Assistant Prof. Dr. Bella Struminskaya (Utrecht University)
Chan Zhang, PhD (Zhejiang University)
Award Sponsor 2023
Wir danken herzlich unserem diesjährigen Award Sponsor, der Fakultät für Soziologie an der Universität Bielefeld:

We heartily congratulate the 2023 DGOF Best Paper Award Winner:
Michael P. Kim, Christoph Kern, Shafi Goldwasser, Frauke Kreuter, Omer Reingold for their paper
„Universal adaptability: Target-independent inference that competes with propensity scoring“
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS)
Accessible on https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2108097119
Past Winners
Award Winner 2022
Simon Munzert, Peter Selb, Anita Gohdes, Lukas F. Stoetzer and Will Lowe for their paper
„Tracking and promoting the usage of a COVID-19 contact tracing app“
Nature Human Behavior, 5, 247-255
Accessible on https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-01044-x
Award Winner 2021
Clemes Stachl, Quay Au, Ramona Schoedel, Samuel d. Gosling, Gabriella M. Harari, Daniel Buschek, Sarah Theres Völkel, Tobias Schuwerk, Michelle Oldemeier, Theresa Ullmann, Heinrich Hussmann, Bernd Bischl und Markus Bühner for their paper
“Predicting personality from patterns of behavior collected with smartphones”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117 (30), 17680-17687
Accessible on PNAS: https://www.pnas.org/content/117/30/17680.short
Award Winner 2020
Felix Henninger, Yury Shevchenko, Ulf K. Mertens, Pascal J. Kieslich and Benjamin E. Hilbig for their paper
“lab.js: A free, open, online study builder”
Behavior Research Methods (10.31234/osf.io/fqr49)
The preprint is accessible on PsyArXiv: https://psyarxiv.com/fqr49
Award Winner 2019
Diana Steger, Ulrich Schroeders and Timo Gnambs for their paper
“A meta-analysis of test scores in proctored and unproctored ability assessments”
European Journal of Psychological Assessment (Advance online publication. doi:10.1027/1015-5759/a000494)
The preprint is accessible on PsyArXiv: https://psyarxiv.com/wxj4y/