The Top Paper Awards

 

Top Student Paper Award

The Top Paper Award recognizes the highest-rated papers submitted to the ICA Mobile Communication Division. Each year, the top-ranked papers, based on blind peer review scores, are featured in a special Top Papers Session held immediately before the Division's Business Meeting.

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Eligibility: Research papers (excluding extended abstracts) submitted to the ICA Mobile Communication Division for presentation at the ICA main conference.

 

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Top Student Paper Award

The Top Student Paper Award recognizes the highest-rated student-authored papers submitted to the ICA Mobile Communication Division. Selected papers are featured in a dedicated Top Student Papers Session, following the same blind peer review process as the Top Paper Award.

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Eligibility: Student-authored research papers (excluding extended abstracts) submitted to the ICA Mobile Communication Division for presentation at the ICA main conference.

 

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Winners Top Paper Award:​​​

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2026 Top Papers

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2025 Top Papers

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​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Award winning papers 

What is Constant Connectivity? Clarifying the Mobile Affordances That Underlie Potential Communication

Morgan Quinn Ross, Oregon State University

Joseph B Bayer, The Ohio State U

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"What Are You Looking At?!?" An Eye-Tracking Experiment on Anti-LGBTQIA+ Online Hostility Under Prototypical Mobile Information Consumption Conditions

Kevin Koban, University of Vienna

Melanie Saumer, University of Vienna

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Nominees

Mobile Media in Critical Situations: Insights Into Perceptions of Potential Users and Participants of a Usability Test

Paula Stehr, LMU Munich 

Annett Schulze, German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment​

Lyn Ermel, LMU Munich

Patricia Mueller, German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment

Doreen Reifegerste, University of Bielefeld

Constanze Rossman, LMU Munich​

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Mobile Technology, Solidarity Networks, and Networks of Care Among Refugees in Movement

E Gonzalez, San Diego State University

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2024 Top Papers

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Award winning paper

Momentary Motivations for Digital Disconnection: An Experience Sampling Study

Adrian Meier, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität

Alicia Gilbert, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

Julius Klingelhöfer, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität

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Nominees

Sharing is Caring: The Positive Role of Smartphone Co-use in Social Dynamics 

Anja Stevic, University of Vienna

Anneleen Meeus, KU Leuven​​

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Conflicting Norms around Mobile Media Dis/Connection and State Mindfulness: A Vignette Experiment

Minh Hao Nguyen, University of Amsterdam

Sarah Geber, University of Zürich

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Hybrid Spaces Revisited: Adjusting the Apertures of a Trifocal Lens 

Adriana de Souza e Silva, North Carolina State University 

Scott Campbell, University of Michigan

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2023 Top Papers

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Award winning paper

Person- and Situation-Specific Variance in Media Use: A Meta-Analysis

Anna Schnauber-Stockmann, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

Michael Scharkow, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

Veronika Karnowski, University of Technology Chemnitz

Teresa K. Naab, University of Mannheim

Daniela M. Schlütz, Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf

Paul Pressmann, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

 

Nominees

Does the Mere Presence of a Smartphone Impact Cognitive Performance? A Meta-analysis of the “Brain Drain Effect”

Douglas A. Parry, Setellenbosch University

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Should I Stay (Online) or Should I Go (Offline)? How Conflicting Norms of Disconnection and Availability Correlate With Mobile Media Use Across Generations

Sarah Geber, University of Zürich

Minh Hao Nguyen, University of Amsterdam

Moritz Büchi

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A Tale of Two Concepts. Differential Temporal Predictions of Habitual and Compulsive Social Media Use Concerning Connection Overload and Sleep Quality

Kevin Koban, University of Vienna

Anja Stevic, University of Vienna

Jörg Matthes, University of Vienna​

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2022 Top Papers

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Award winning papers 

Mobile Phones and Power Relationships: Understanding the Agentic Motivations and Strategies of North Korean Defectors by Gabrielle C. Ibasco, University of British Columia

Arul Chib, Erasmus University Rotterdam

Juhee Kang 

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Hybrid War, Hybrid Peace: Mobile Communication at the Frontline in Eastern Ukraine

Roman Horbyk, Södertörn University

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Nominees

Tracking the Temporal Flows of Mobile Communication in Daily Life

Morgan Quinn Ross, The Ohio State U

Joseph B Bayer, The Ohio State U

Lisa Rhee, The Ohio State U

Ivory Potti, The Ohio State U

Yung-Ju Chang, National Chiao Tung University

 

ScreenLife Capture: A Privacy-Respecting, Open-Source, and User-Friendly Framework for Collecting Screenome Data

Andrew Z H Yee, Singapore U of Technology and Design

Ryan Yu, Singapore U of Technology and Design

Sun Sun Lim, Singapore U of Technology and Design

Kwan Hui Lim, Singapore U of Technology and Design

Tien Tuan Anh Dinh, Singapore U of Technology and Design

Ryan Yu, Singapore U of Technology and Design

Lionell Loh, Singapore U of Technology and Design

Andre Hadianto, Singapore U of Technology and Design

Miguel Quizon, Singapore U of Technology and Design​

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2021 Top Papers

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Award winning paper

Smartphones as Actors: A New Digital Disability Care Actor-Network in China

Zhongxuan Lin, Jinan University

Liu Yang, Sun Yat-Sen University

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Nominees

A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Examining the Accuracy of Self-reported Digital Media Use

Douglas Parry, Stellenbosch U

Brittany Davidson, U of Bath

Craig Sewall, U of Pittsburgh

Jacob Fisher, U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Hannah Mieczkowski, Stanford U

Mobile Media, Glocal Intimacies, and the Contradictions of Access in the Philippines

Cecilia Uy-Tioco, California State U, San Marcos,

Jason Vincent Cabanes, De La Salle U

 

How and when do mobile media demands impact well-being? Explicating the integrative model of mobile media use and need experiences (IM3UNE)

Frank Schneider, U of Mannheim

Sarah Lutz, U of Mannheim

Annabell Halfmann, U of Mannheim

Adrian Meier, Johannes Gutenberg U of Mainz

Leonard Reinecke, Johannes Gutenberg U of Mainz

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2020 Top Papers

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Award winning paper

Digital Wellbeing as a Dynamic Construct

Mariek Vanden Abeele, Tilburg University

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Nominees

What determines instant messaging communication? Examining the impact of person- and situation-level factors on IM responsiveness and perceived stress

Leyla Dogruel, Mainz University

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Nomopobia and phubbing among Taiwanese emerging adults: Investigating affective smartphone use and family cohesion
Trisha T. C. Lin, National Chengchi University

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Mobile Networked Creativity: Understanding creativity as open communication

Adriana de Souza e Silva, North Carolina State University

Mai Nou Xiong-Gum, Furman University​

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2019 Top Papers

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Award winning paper

Wechat Use of Mainland Chinese Dual Migrants in Daily Border Crossing

Bei Ju, United Nations U-CS, MACAU

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Nominees

Participants More Than Words - The Integrative Power of the Mobile Phone as “a Reciprocal Technology” for Micromobilization

Jun Liu, U of Copenhagen, DENMARK

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Mobile but Not Mobilised? Differential Gains from Mobile News Consumption for Citizens’ Election Campaign Engagement

Jakob Ohme, U of Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS

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Tinder Passport and Grindr Explore: Traveling in the International Date-O-Sphere

Muira McCammon, U of Pennsylvania, USA

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