Political Studies Review
British Government and Politics | Politics & International Relations | Politics (General)
Political Studies Review (PSR) provides a unique intellectual space for rigorous high-quality peer reviewed original research across political science and the study of politics in related fields that aims at stimulating wide-ranging debate and cutting-edge discussion of current disputes and issues in the discipline within the UK and internationally. The journal seeks to demonstrate the essential utility of political science through enhancing understanding and dialogue both within the political science profession, across disciplinary subfields and outside the scholarly community. PSR welcomes original and rigorous research articles, far-reaching and stimulating state-of-the-art articles, and shorter contributions presenting early results, new ideas, or interesting hypotheses that had to be rejected. PSR is one of the Political Studies Association’s flagship journals.
The PSA acknowledges the prevalence of systemic bias and unequal power dynamics within academia and publishing. The PSA believes that the promotion of equality and diversity should be core values for the practice of politics as well as the study, teaching and writing of politics. We are passionate about supporting inclusion in the academy and wider society through our publishing activities.
Working with our journal editors and publishing partner SAGE, we are doing this by:
- Publishing and amplifying content from diverse, global perspectives, including women, scholars of colour, LGBTQIA+ people, disabled people, and historically marginalised communities.
- Working to increase diversity of our journals’ editorial boards, peer review processes and author bases.
- Ensuring that our content and communications are inclusive and accessible, challenging bias and stereotypes.
Read more about the Read more about the RSC cross-publisher group (which includes SAGE as a member).
Submit your manuscript today at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/psr.
Political Studies Review (PSR) provides a unique intellectual space for rigorous high-quality peer reviewed original research across political science and related fields. It aims to stimulate wide-ranging debate and cutting edge discussion of current disputes and issues in the discipline both within the UK and across the globe. The journal seeks to demonstrate the essential utility of political science through enhancing understanding and dialogue both within the political science profession, across disciplinary subfields and outside the scholarly community. It therefore aims to be more eclectic in terms of content, style and subject matter to maximise public reach.
Political Studies Review publishes seven types of contributions.
(1) Original Research Articles: The journal is a forum for innovative, rigorous and original work of significance to the discipline. Such work may be theoretical in nature, comparative in focus, and/or it may cut across traditional scholarly fields and push disciplinary boundaries.
(2) Early Results: Many research projects produce exciting early results where the immediacy (and impact) is then lost as researchers seek to fashion full-length articles. In the Early Results section, authors can release early findings from projects without excessive theoretical setup or a long literature review. In essence, these articles will be akin to working papers, where the results will ultimately feature in full articles with an extended argument (in other journals or in PSR). This will provide not only a means by which early findings can be published, but also an arena in which new ideas can be explored, promoted and tested.
(3) Symposia: PSR welcomes collections of short pieces based on symposia that are early versions of what may become more extensive articles. Such symposia will be subject to an expedited review and publication process (limited to one reviewer and one editor).
(4) New Ideas: The journal welcomes articles that explore new ideas and directions for study. These short-form pieces should offer commentary on the discipline with academic rigour, stimulating debate and further reflection.
(5) The Null Hypothesis: Many research projects produce results where the hypotheses are rejected but where the results are nonetheless interesting. PSR publishes papers where there were sound theoretical reasons for stipulating hypotheses, but where these hypotheses had to be rejected.
(6) State of the Art articles: The journal also hosts significant and encompassing state-of-the-art reviews, with the objective of revisiting and evaluating existing research agenda and the potential for setting new agendas on significant issues across the discipline.
(7) Book Reviews: PSR publishes book reviews of recent volumes on cutting-edge topics on an ad hoc basis. Book reviews are published online only.
Further Details
As editors, we encourage a pluralistic approach where current empirical and theoretical problems across the subfields of politics are addressed in an innovative, reflexive and insightful manner. We therefore welcome submissions across a wide-range of methodological or theoretical frameworks in political science but which conform to the highest standards of scientific rigour and research ethics. All published material will include technical research reports and appendices, where applicable, to enhance replicability. The journal is committed to high quality peer reviewing, from enhancing new ideas and promoting promising scholarly research, to nurturing broader public discussion and publicising important scholarly topics, ideas and innovative practice in political science.
PSR particularly encourages contributions from early career researchers.
| James Dennis | Universidade Lusófona, Portugal |
| David Norman | University of Portsmouth, UK |
| Nora Siklodi | University of Portsmouth, UK |
| Dafydd Townley | University of Portsmouth, UK |
| Lana Chikhungu | University of Portsmouth, UK |
| Seoyoung Choi | Yonsei University, Korea |
| Isabelle Cockel | University of Portsmouth, UK |
| Robert Frith | University of Portsmouth, UK |
| Olli Hellmann | University of Waikato, NZ |
| Melita Lazell | University of Portsmouth, UK |
| Charles Leddy-Owen | University of Portsmouth, UK |
| Zara Martin | University of Portsmouth, UK |
| Frank Reichert | The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong |
| Pedro Dutra Salgado | University of Portsmouth, UK |
| Aleksandra Sojka | University Carlos III of Madrid, Spain |
| Octávio Amorim Neto | FGV-Rio, Brazil |
| Phillip Ayoub | University College London, UK |
| Teresa Bejan | University of Oxford, UK |
| Shaun Bevan | University of Edinburgh, UK |
| Andre Blais | Université de Montréal, Canada |
| Adrian Blau | King's College London, UK |
| Ching-Chang Chen | Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Japan |
| Svitlana Chernykh | Australian National University, Australia |
| Young Chul Cho | Kangwon National University, South Korea |
| Jungmin Choi | Yonsei University, South Korea |
| Scarlett Cornelissen | Stellenbosch University, South Africa |
| Nicole Currato | University of Birmingham, UK |
| Jennifer Curtin | University of Auckland, New Zealand |
| Sarah de Lange | University of Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Fabrizio Gilardi | University of Zurich, Switzerland |
| Jane Gingrich | University of Oxford, UK |
| Clodagh Harrington | University College Cork, Ireland |
| Oliver Heath | Royal Holloway, University of London, UK |
| Evelyne Hübscher | Central European University, Austria |
| Beate Jahn | University of Sussex, UK |
| Will Jennings | University of Southampton, UK |
| Meryl Kenny | University of Edinburgh, UK |
| Caroline Leicht | University of Glasgow, UK |
| Naoko Matsumura | Kobe University, Japan |
| Gail McElroy | Trinity College Dublin, Ireland |
| Liam McLoughlin | University of Liverpool, UK |
| Peace Medie | University of Bristol, UK |
| Laura Morales | Science Po, France |
| Doron Navot | University of Haifa, Israel |
| Alejandro Peña | Universidad Di Tella, Argentina |
| Jennifer Piscopo | Royal Holloway, UK |
| Miriam Ronzoni | University of Manchester, UK |
| Anupama Roy | Jawaharlal Nehru University, India |
| Andrew Rudalevige | Bowdoin College, USA |
| Katja Sarmiento-Mirwaldt | Brunel University, UK |
| Sabine Saurugger | Sciences Po Grenoble |
| Laura Shepherd | University of Sydney,Australia |
| Mark Kaye | University of Portsmouth, UK |
Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Political Studies Review
Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/psr to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Political Studies Review will be reviewed.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this journal.
As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.
- What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Special Issue Policy
1.4 Writing your paper - Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Declaration of conflicting interests
2.5 Data - Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving - Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Supplementary material
4.4 Reference style
4.5 English language editing services - Submitting your manuscript
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions - On acceptance and publication
6.1 SAGE Production
6.2 Online First publication
6.3 Access to your published article
6.4 Promoting your article - Further information
Before submitting your manuscript to Political Studies Review, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
Political Studies Review provides unique intellectual space for rigorours high-quality peer reviewed original research across political science and the study of politics in related fields athat aims at stimulating wide-ranging debate and cutting edge discussion of current disputes. We therefore welcome submissions across a wide-range of methodological or theoretical frameworks providing they are relevant for the research question and conform to the highest standards of ehtics.
(1) Original research articles: the journal is a forum for innovative, rigorous and original work of significance to the discipline with a comparative focus and/or which cut across traditional scholarly fields and push forwards disciplinary boundaries.
Original research articles are no more than 8000 words in length includive of all notes and references. Shorter research notes are also welcome.
(2) Review articles: The journal is also the setting for significant and encompassing state-of-the-art reviews on significant issues across the discipline. Articles that either review recent developments in a specific field of research or confront various bodies of research on a specific issue or concept is particularly welcome.
Review articles are no more than 5000 words in length inclusive of all notes and references.
(3) Professional Sections: PSR publishes three sections dedicated to the profession which appears once a year in rotation on the impact of political scie, teaching and departmental activities, and methods to stimulate wide-ranging debates on crucial issues in the profession. The sections comprise of two or three brief contributions, which examine complementary or contrasting views on topical and debated issues for the profession. The Section Associate Editors welcomes suggestions for contributions at any time.
Contributions to the Sections are no more than 3000 words in length all included.
(4) Book Reviews: PSR publishes a topical series of book reviews per volume to enhance a core topic in each PSR volume. Book reviews are commissioned only and they are published online only. For book review submission, see guidelines.
Every year, Political Studies Review (PSR) accepts proposals for one special issue to appear in each volume of the journal. The next deadline by which proposals should be sent to the PSR editorial team is January 31 2018 for publication in 2019. Guest Editors who wish to submit a Special Issue should email a proposal to PSR at psr@bath.ac.uk by this date.
The Editorial team will consider the pool of Special Issue submissions received by this deadline. Their selection will be based upon which proposal in their judgement has the most potential in terms of:
a) the quality of the individual papers submitted,
b) the extent to which the proposed Special Issue as a whole makes an original, coherent and creative contribution to the field.
c) the extent to which the proposal stimulates wide-ranging debate and cutting edge discussion of a current dispute or issue in the discipline that appeals to a broad audience in political science in the UK and internationally
d) the extent to which the proposal seeks to bridge the intellectual boundary of why political science matters through enhancing understanding and dialogue both within the political science profession, across disciplinary subfields and outside the scholarly community.
Proposals should be a maximum of 3,000 words long in total and should include the following information:
• Full contact details and a short biography of the Guest Editor(s).
• A proposed title for the Special Issue.
• A clear frame or rationale which includes: the theoretical framework and empirical content of the Special Issue; its relationship to existing literature and how the contribution will advance knowledge in politics; claim to be original in approach and/or thinking; saliency to politics field. We would expect this rationale should to be around 800-1,000 words in length.
• A list of contributors: include institutional affiliations and short biography and confirmation of their commitment to the Issue.
• Abstracts for each paper (350 words max each)
• Provide details of the origin of the proposal, e.g., a workshop, conference, research project etc.
• The current stage of development of the proposed issue. This should including clear milestones for its completion such as a) submission of first drafts by individual authors to Guest Editors; b) submission of revised papers to Guest Editors following two external reviews per paper; c) submission of the draft Special Issue to the PSR Editorial team for collective external review purposes prior to final decision.
Political Studies Review is committed to promoting gender equality in the profession. PSR strongly encourages the submission of special issue proposals with a gender-balanced pool of contributors.
The Special Issue will be processed via Scholar One and guest editors are expected to use the Scholar One system for the entire editorial process.
The SAGE Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources.
1.4.1 Make your article discoverable
When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
Political Studies Review adheres to a rigorous double-blind reviewing policy in which the identity of both the reviewer and author are always concealed from both parties.
The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor/Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.
All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.
2.4 Declaration of conflicting interests
Political Studies Review encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway.
SAGE acknowledges the importance of research data availability as an integral part of the research and verification process for academic journal articles.
Political Studies Review requests all authors submitting any primary data used in their research articles alongside their article submissions to be published in the online version of the journal, or provide detailed information in their articles on how the data can be obtained. This information should include links to third-party data repositories or detailed contact information for third-party data sources. Data available only on an author-maintained website will need to be loaded onto either the journal’s platform or a third-party platform to ensure continuing accessibility. Examples of data types include but are not limited to statistical data files, replication code, text files, audio files, images, videos, appendices, and additional charts and graphs necessary to understand the original research. The editors can also grant exceptions for data that cannot legally or ethically be released. All data submitted should comply with Institutional or Ethical Review Board requirements and applicable government regulations. For further information, please contact the editorial office at PSR@bath.ac.uk.
SAGE is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the SAGE Author Gateway.
3.1.1 Plagiarism
Political Studies Review and SAGE take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
3.1.2 Prior publication
If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a SAGE journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the SAGE Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
Before publication, SAGE requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. SAGE’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants SAGE the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than SAGE. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the SAGE Author Gateway.
3.3 Open access and author archiving
Political Studies Review offers optional open access publishing via the SAGE Choice programme. For more information please visit the SAGE Choice website. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit SAGE Publishing Policies on our Journal Author Gateway.
Political Studies Review offers optional open access publishing via the SAGE Choice programme. For more information please visit the SAGE Choice website.
Authors retain copyright of your SAGE Choice article. SAGE will publish your article under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license (CC BY-NC) which allows others to re-use the work without permission as long as the work is properly referenced and the use is non-commercial. Authors required to publish under a CC BY licensing by their funder can publish under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) which allows use of the work for commercial purposes.
If you require a CC BY NC-ND license, please contact the SAGE Production Editor at jo.obrien@sagepub.co.uk
PSA Statement on CC-BY
Please be aware that the Political Studies Association (UK) have issued the following statement about the CC-BY licence:-
The Political Studies Association endorses the principle of freedom of choice and is thus prepared to offer authors choosing to pay an Article Processing Charge under Online Open the option of publishing under a CC-BY licence. However, the Association wishes to draw the attention of authors to the following risks associated with CC-BY licences:
- Lack of requirement under the terms of the current CC-BY licence (version 3.0) for other parties to give any indication as to how the original work has been modified in any derivative product
- Lack of protection against poor translation
- Lack of recourse against the work being quoted out of context
- Lack of recourse against the work being reprinted in anthologies where the context is offensive to the author
- Lack of recourse against intermediaries republishing work for commercial gain
For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit SAGE Publishing Policies on our Journal Author Gateway. Your rights as an author are outlined below:
- You retain copyright in your work.
- You may do whatever you wish with the version of the article you submitted to the journal – version 1.
- You may not post the accepted version (version 2) of the article on your own personal website, your department’s website, the repository of your institution, the repository of another institution or a subject repository, until 24 months after first publication of the article in the journal.
- Once the article has been accepted for publication, you may use the accepted article (version 2) for your own teaching needs or to supply on an individual basis to research colleagues, provided that such supply is not for commercial purposes.
- You may use the accepted article (version 2) in a book you write or edit any time after publication in the journal.
- You may not post the published article (version 3) on any website or in any repository without permission from SAGE.
- When posting or re-using the article please provide a link to the appropriate DOI for the published version of the article on SAGE Journals (http://online.sagepub.com).
All commercial or any other re-use of the published article should be referred to SAGE. More information can be found at:http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
When posting or re-using the article, you should provide a link/URL from the article posted to the SAGE Journals Online site where the article is published: http://online.sagepub.com and please make the following acknowledgment: ‘The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in <journal>, Vol/Issue, Month/Year by SAGE Publications Ltd, All rights reserved. © [The Author(s)]
4. Preparing your manuscript for submission
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit SAGE’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.
Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from SAGE after receipt of your accepted article.
This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files.
Political Studies Review adheres to the SAGE Harvard reference style. View the SAGE Harvard guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the SAGE Harvard EndNote output file.
4.5 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using SAGE Language Services. Visit SAGE Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
Political Studies Review is hosted on SAGE Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/psr to login and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process SAGE is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities ensuring that their work is recognised.
We encourage all authors to add their ORCIDs to their SAGE Track accounts and include their ORCIDs as part of the submission process. If you don’t already have one you can create one here.
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the SAGE Author Gateway.
6. On acceptance and publication
Your SAGE Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate. Please note that if there are any changes to the author list at this stage all authors will be required to complete and sign a form authorising the change.
Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the SAGE Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.
6.3 Access to your published article
SAGE provides authors with online access to their final article.
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The SAGE Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice. In addition, SAGE is partnered with Kudos, a free service that allows authors to explain, enrich, share, and measure the impact of their article. Find out how to maximise your article’s impact with Kudos.
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Political Studies Review editorial office as follows:
Political Studies Review
Department of Politics, Languages and International Studies
University of Bath
Claverton Down
Bath
BA2 7AY
United Kingdom