Neuroethics Essay Contest 2026

AI tools

Large language models and generative AI are acceptable only where the work still involves a significant and original contribution from you. You may use these tools to help frame your thoughts, copy edit, translate, and typeset. Do not use them to generate content, and check carefully for distorted or hallucinated references, concepts, and claims.

If you used an AI tool at any point, you must disclose at the end of your text which tool you used and how. Do not list an AI tool as an author or co-author. AI-generated figures and tables are not permitted.

Citations

Original work is the goal, but draw on existing research to get there: primary research articles, review papers, books, and other scholarly sources. This matters most for Academic essays. Strong essays show how they relate to existing work — discussing similarities, drawing out differences, or synthesizing several sources to support a point.

Use any citation style you like, as long as you stay consistent. For example, in APA style, this source:

Gleeson, P., Cantarelli, M., Marin, B., Quintana, A., Earnshaw, M., Sadeh, S., Piasini, E., Birgiolas, J., Cannon, R. C., Cayco-Gajic, N. A., Crook, S., Davison, A. P., Dura-Bernal, S., Ecker, A., Hines, M. L., Idili, G., Lanore, F., Larson, S. D., Lytton, W. W., Majumdar, A., … Silver, R. A. (2019). Open Source Brain: A Collaborative Resource for Visualizing, Analyzing, Simulating, and Developing Standardized Models of Neurons and Circuits. Neuron, 103(3), 395–411.e5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2019.05.019

could appear in your essay as:

Researchers have recently developed the Open Source Brain platform for “sharing, viewing, analyzing, and simulating standardized models from different brain regions and species” (Gleeson et al., 2019).

“et al.” signals that the paper you are citing has multiple authors. We care far more that you cite your sources than that you follow every rule of a style perfectly.

The contest is open to any high school or secondary school student, any post-secondary student, and any postdoctoral fellow or similar early-career trainee, anywhere in the world. You must be currently enrolled, accepted to a program for a future term, or preparing to apply to graduate programs. Your education level determines your category.

High school / secondary school students

If you were in high school or an equivalent secondary program at any point between January and July 2026, submit to the High School category.

Post-secondary students and early-career trainees

Post-secondary students include anyone enrolled in a degree-granting program at the undergraduate, graduate, or professional level, as well as students at pre-university institutions such as CEGEPs, sixth form colleges, and lycées. Early-career trainees include recent graduates in postdoctoral positions, medical residents and fellows, postbaccs, judicial law clerks and articled students at law firms, research assistants, and contract or sessional lecturers in their first or second year out of graduate training.

If either description fit you at any point between January and July 2026, you may submit to the Academic or General Audience categories — up to two essays total, one per category.

Breaks, gap years, and applicants

Students on a temporary break or gap year, prospective students actively applying to programs, and students already accepted for an upcoming semester are all eligible. Follow the guidelines for whichever category best matches your most recent studies. You may not submit to the High School category if you graduated from high school before January 2026.

Professionals and former students

Professionals are not eligible. For contest purposes, anyone who is solely an employee and not currently engaged in a training program counts as a professional.

Field of study and membership

There are no restrictions on your program or area of study, as long as you meet the education level requirements and your submission meets all requirements. You do not need to be a member of the INS or IYNA to enter.

Questions about eligibility go to staff@neuroethicssociety.org.

All four categories are submitted through the online form. Review every eligibility and submission requirement before you write, and again before you upload.

Written essays

• Submit as a doc, docx, or pdf file.
• Use the essay format template (docx) so your cover page carries all required information and no identifying details appear anywhere else. This is what allows your essay to be anonymized for review.
• Name your file Essay-2026-SURNAME-Category.pdf

The template's cover page asks for your essay title, name, academic institution, department or major, and academic level, plus a details block with your word count and any disclosures. An abstract is optional — it is not required for the contest, though the IYNA Journal and some other publications do ask for one, so it is worth drafting.

Video essays

• Upload an mp4 file, or provide a link to a video publicly available on YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, or similar.

Deadline

Essays must be submitted by August 21, 2026, 11:30pm PDT. Incomplete submissions are not accepted. The deadline is not uncommonly extended by 10 days, but this is never guaranteed — plan for the original date.

Open the submission form ›

Essays are judged on originality and structure of argument, conceptual clarity, rigor of defense, quality of writing, and conclusions, following this year's scoring rubric. Video essays are not judged on production quality.

See the scoring rubric for written essays (pdf) and video essays (pdf).

Review process

Every submission goes through anonymous review by two or more referees from the INS Student/Postdoc Committee, or by a panel of judges chosen by the IYNA Journal Editorial Team. Referees are students and postdocs from neuroscience, law, medicine, philosophy, and other areas of the sciences and humanities. All decisions are final.

Results

Winning and honorable mention submissions are emailed to all participating authors by November 2026. You can browse winners and honorable mentions from previous contests.

After the contest

Winners are warmly encouraged, but not required, to attend the upcoming INS Annual Meeting. Entering does not prevent you from later submitting an extended version of your manuscript to academic journals or other publications. You may enter in future years regardless of prior participation, though past winners cannot win again in the same category — they are still welcome to submit and may receive an honorable mention.

Winning and honorable mention essays are posted on the contest website and may be considered for publication elsewhere, at an outlet suited to the topic. Recent winning essays have been published online by the Dana Foundation, and past winners have gone on to publish in outlets such as Scientific American.

Everyone who submits to the IYNA-INS High School Neuroethics category may opt to be considered for publication in the IYNA Journal.

Entering does not prevent you from later submitting a version of your manuscript to other magazines, academic journals, or scholarly and general interest publications.