We’re excited to announce the Student Data Scrollytelling Contest, a new competition this fall showcasing innovative storytelling with data. Scrollytelling lets readers uncover a narrative as they scroll—layering visuals, zooming into maps, animating graphics, and pairing text with media to create an engaging experience. Check out some of the organizers’ favorites:
- Scientific Proof that Americans are Completely Addicted to Trucks
- The Coming California Megastorm
- The Playbook Used to ‘Prove’ Vaccines Cause Autism
- 24 Hours in an Invisible Epidemic
- America’s Mental Health Crisis, Mapped
- The Historical Cost of Light
Students may submit projects from coursework, independent research, or personal explorations. We’re looking for creativity, clarity, and impact—whether the goal is to inform, persuade, or inspire.
Key details:
- Deadline: Friday, December 20, 2025
- Eligibility: Open to students at all levels, working individually or in teams
- Prizes: Cash awards for top entries
Who may participate?
- The competition is open to any student globally.
- Students may work individually or in groups (max group size of 5). All participants must be students at the time they made their scrollytelling story but may have recently graduated.
- The scrollytelling story must have been completed during 2024 or 2025.
- Each student can be the corresponding author or a co-author of only one project submitted for this competition.
The winning projects will be featured on the CAUSE web site, and cash prizes of up to $250 will be awarded to winning projects!
Getting Started with Data Scrollytelling
Students are welcome to use any tool to author their document. We list a few options below.
Closeread (free): Closeread allows you to author scrollytelling documents in a plain text format that can include code (R, Python, Shiny, or Javascript). It is an extension of Quarto and will be familiar to students accustomed to authoring computational notebooks.
StoryMaps: StoryMaps is a code-free way to create scrollytelling, web-based stories that integrate with ArcGIS. Other media and content can be embedded as well. Ask your institution if you have institutional access.
Prepare a Submission
Submission details will be published here by the send of September.
Judging:
Each project will be judged by multiple judges. The judges have expertise in communicating with data but do not necessarily have expertise in the applied domain of your paper. Therefore, you should construct a story that is understandable to a reader with little knowledge of any applied domains that relate to your story.
Some general characteristics that the judges may look for include:
- Compelling narrative
- Sound interpretation of data
- Effective use of scrollytelling
- Visual polish