I. INTRODUCTION
PS: Political Science & Politics is in its 56th year of publication. PS occupies a unique niche among the APSA portfolio of publications as an outlet for brief and non-technical articles featuring new research, political science commentary, and research on timely political and social events, research into and discussion of the political science discipline, and scholarship on teaching and pedagogy.
This is our final publication report, concluding eight years of service as editors. We want to thank our Board members, the APSA Council, the Association leadership, especially Steve Smith and Jon Gurstelle, and our publication partners at Cambridge University Press, for supporting our work.
We owe a debt of gratitude to our managing editors: Barbara Walthall was the heart and soul of PS for many years, Celina Szymanski joined PS immediately after receiving her Master’s Degree at Appalachian State University and took over as managing editor after Barbara retired, and Marah Schlingensiepen, who succeeded Celina and has worked to ensure a seamless transition to the new editorial team at Wake Forest University. Their contributions have been a vital part of the journal’s continued success. Over our eight year tenure, we hope we have successfully stewarded the journal during a period of rapid change in the profession and in the academy. We could not have anticipated in 2014 that by the end of our term as editors, all APSA journals including PS would have moved to electronic distribution. PDF readership was an issue we examined in our first survey of readership in 2015, and the approach of fully electronic distribution is something we tried to prepare for by working with Cambridge, the publications team at APSA, and our Board. We still think there are significant opportunities in electronic publishing to add visually compelling content, allow for more easily accessible ancillary and supplementary materials, and provide links and connections for readers to engage with content. We continue to advocate for coordination and communication between the editorial teams at all the APSA journals. It was our initiative that resulted in data collection on the demographics of authors and peer reviewers, which has allowed more accurate and reliable information about publication and peer review biases. We also advocate for substantially similar policies across the journals on issues such as data deposit and transparency. Standardization makes things easier for authors and reviewers, improves the ability of the Council and members of the profession to review and compare editorial performance and evaluation, and reduces the load for editorial teams.
We leave this agenda to our successors! Over the past six months, we worked closely with the new editorial team to prepare for a smooth transition. We were excited to hear about their plans for the journal moving forward. We expect some measure of continuity combined with a new burst of energy and innovation. We remain available as a resource for the new team when they take over the journal in September 2022. PS is one of the primary outlets for research on the profession, and we’ve been proud to continue publishing important articles and symposia highlighting the challenges of broadening and diversifying our profession (and academia) and combating conscious and unconscious biases in hiring, promotion, and peer review. We feel an important sense of responsibility to provide an outlet for disciplinary debates, but this has also opened up PS to some controversy as debates that first appear in our pages spill out into social media. We thank our Board, the Publications Policy Committee, and the APSA leadership for helping us navigate these discussions.
As examples, we have recently published and have upcoming symposia on:
-
• Two symposiums on Structuring Inclusion into Political Science
-
• The Present and Future Trajectory of Political Science and the Academy in Central Europe
-
• Forecasting the September 2021 German National Election
-
• Forecasting the 2022 French Presidential Election
-
• Two Spotlights in From the Sections, one examining scholars working at the nexus of legislative studies and race and ethnic politics, and a second explores research on racial and ethnic politics as it applies to legislative studies.
-
• The Enduring Quest for Equity in Political Science
-
• Political science is somewhat unique among academic disciplines because we cannot turn away from a turbulent political world, and some of this turbulence will inevitably spill onto our pages.
We urge anyone who has comments, suggestions, and criticisms to forward these to the editorial team at ps@apsanet.org.
DIVERSITY EFFORTS
PS supports the diversity efforts of APSA and our discipline, and we are proud that we continue to attract a diverse author pool. We continue to make headway in attracting more submissions from international scholars and featuring articles that address the concerns of contingent scholars. We are particularly proud of a recently published symposium led by Dr. Tatyana
Table 1: Demographic Profile of Author Submission (N= 269)
Ruseva and Dr. Joanna Skrzypczyńska, The Present and Future Trajectory of Political Science and the Academy in Central Europe. We also continue to publish research from a substantial number of young scholars who are working outside of academia and are currently not in a tenure track position. This past year 38.5% of our contributors are not serving in tenure track positions. Finally, we are proud to note the percent of authors in PS representing minority race/ethnicity communities. This past year 38.7% of our authors identify as a race or ethnicity other than European/Anglo White. More can and will be done.
II. EDITORIAL HIGHLIGHTS
A. Overview
As shown in table 1, submission rates to PS have grown by 75-100% since we took over as editors in fall of 2014. We appear to have leveled out to 175-200 submissions annually. We are concerned there may be a slight drop in submissions this year due to COVID-19, but at the time of this writing, we appear to be on pace for 200-250 this year. With the transition to online courses and cancellation of several academic conferences in Spring 2020 due to COVID-19, the submission and peer review acceptance rates for PS significantly declined. Submission and reviewer acceptance rates have generally returned to the pre-COVID-19 rates, but we will continue to monitor these closely as the Fall semester opens.
Table 2: New Submissions to PS through Editorial Manager
B. PUBLICATION HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PAST YEAR:
This past year we published a variety of interesting and engaging articles. Below are listed a few of the more notable articles published this year in the pages of PS which provide a snapshot of the timeliness and diversity of issues addressed in the pages of PS.
Politics Section
-
• Weyland, K. (2022). Why US Democracy Trumps Populism: Comparative Lessons Reconsidered. PS: Political Science & Politics, 55(3), 478-483.
-
• Viskupič, F., & Wiltse, D. (2022). The Messenger Matters: Religious Leaders and
-
• Overcoming COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy. PS: Political Science & Politics, 55(3), 504-509.
-
• Hale, H. (2022). A “Terrific Symbol”: Physical Personalization of Pandemic Relief Enhances Presidential Support. PS: Political Science & Politics, 55(2), 251-256.
-
• Cervas, J., & Grofman, B. (2022). Why Donald Trump Should Be a Fervent Advocate of Using Ranked-Choice Voting in 2024. PS: Political Science & Politics, 55(1), 1-6.
-
• Potthoff, R. (2022). Clashes Involving National Popular Vote, Hare (“RCV”), Maine, Alaska. PS: Political Science & Politics, 55(1), 22-27.
Profession Section
-
• Crabtree, C. (2022). Symposium: Building Community and Improving Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Political Science Through Virtual Workshops. PS: PoliticalScience & Politics, 55(3).
-
• Kim, S., Lebovits, H., & Shugars, S. (2022). Networking 101 for Graduate Students: Building a Bigger Table. PS: Political Science & Politics, 55(2), 307-312.
-
• Barham, E., & Wood, C. (2022). Teaching the Hidden Curriculum in Political Science. PS: Political Science & Politics, 55(2), 324-328.
-
• Jackson, J., Juárez Pérez, M., Scott, J., & Wong, D. (2022). Introduction to A Dialogue on the Status of Junior Women of Color in the Discipline. PS: Political Science & Politics, 55(2), 361-363.
-
• Franceschet, A., Lucas, J., O’Neill, B., Pando, E., & Thomas, M. (2022). Editor Fatigue: Can Political Science Journals Increase Review Invitation-Acceptance Rates? PS: Political Science & Politics, 55(1), 117-122.
-
• Grossman, J. (2022). Cite the Good Cite: Making Citations in Political Science More Transparent. PS: Political Science & Politics, 55(1), 129-134.
Teacher Section
-
• Bianco, W., & Canon, D. (2022). Symposium: Lessons Learned from Political Science Textbook Authors. PS: Political Science & Politics, 55(3), 623-623.
-
• Nonnemacher, J., & Sokhey, S. (2022). Learning by Doing: Using an Undergraduate Research Lab to Promote Diversity and Inclusion. PS: Political Science & Politics, 55(2), 413-418.
-
• Ayoub, P. (2022). Reverse Research Design: Research Design in the Undergraduate Classroom. PS: Political Science & Politics, 55(2), 424-428.
-
• Bayer, R., Turper, S., & Woods, J. (2022). Teamwork within a Senior Capstone Course: Implementation and Assessment. PS: Political Science & Politics, 1-6.
-
• Siena, S., & Roman, T. (2022). Fighting Fake News: Using Peer Discussion Groups to Build News Media Literacy. PS: Political Science & Politics, 1-7.
III. STAFFING AND EDITORIAL BOARD
The PS: Political Science & Politics staff consists of a portion of two editors’ time and a full-time managing editor as well as a part-time editorial associate. Co-editor Phillip Ardoin is based at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina and co-editor Paul Gronke is based at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Marah Schlingensiepen took over as Managing Editor in January. She earned her PhD in political science from the Univeristy of Florida in 2021 and has extensive experience working as an editorial assistant for Perspectives on Politics and serving as Interim Managing Editor for PS in 2021. Madelyn Dewey is Associate Editor of Political Science Today and serves as a liaison between official APSA news and events and the journal. PS is further supported by part-time student assistants at Appalachian State and Reed College. Our current editorial board includes 23 scholars who represent a diverse set of universities and colleges, research interests, methodologies, and perspectives of the APSA membership.
We would like to thank the members of our editorial board for their dedication and service to the journal and the profession.
New Board Members (pending approval at Council meeting September 2022):
Candis Watts Smith, Duke University
Austin Strange, University of Hong Kong
Zaynab El Bernoussi, International University of Rabat
Michelle Taylor-Robinson, Texas A&M University
Lena Wängnerud, University of Gothenburg
Arthur Spirling, New York University
Rebecca Reid, University of Texas at El Paso
Kristina Mitchell, San Jose State University
Cristobal Rovira Kaltwasser, Universidad Diego Portales (Santiago de Chile)
Jane Sumner, University of Minnesota
Julieta Suarez Cao, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Oumar Ba, Cornell University
Nazita Lajevardi, Michigan State University
Andrew Szarejko, Wartburg University
Zachariah Mamphilly, City University of New York
Jennifer Cyr, Universidad Torcuato di Tella
Adam Levine, Johns Hopkins University
Rebecca Glazier, University of Arkansas, Little Rock
Bernard Fraga, Emory University
Andrea Benjamin, University of Oklahoma
Kelly Bauer, Nebraksa Wesleyan University
Amy Niang, The Africa Institute
Murad Idris, University of Michigan
Chris Sabatini, Chatham House
Continuing Term:
Charity Butcher, Kennesaw State University
Jonathan DiCicco, Middle Tennessee State University
Lisa Sanchez, University of Arizona
Eric Loepp, University of Wisconsin, Whitewater
Matthew Moore, California Polytechnic State University
We wish to thank the following editorial board members, whose term of service ends at the 2021APSA Annual Meeting, for their service, time, and dedication to PS.
Justin Esarey, Wake Forest University
Kevin Esterling, University of California, Riverside
(Brett) AshleyLeeds, Rice University
Yalidy Matos, Rutgers University, New Brunswick
Barbara Norrander, University of Arizona
Joseph Roberts, Roger Williams University
Dawn Teele, University of Pennsylvania
Renee Van Vechten, University of Redlands
James Druckman, Northwestern University
Robin Harding, University of Oxford
Natalie Jackson, Director of Research at PRRI
Ellen Key, Appalachian State University
Sarah Khan, Yale University
Thomas Leeper, Facebook Core Data Science
Tehama Lopez Bunyasi, George Mason University
Brian Smentkowski, University of Idaho
Yael Zeira, Syracuse University
IV. PRODUCTION AND DELIVERY
PS has a good working relationship with our publisher, Cambridge University Press. Brian Mazeski replaced Katrina Swartz as our production manager at Cambridge University Press and continues to provide excellent service. The production of The Association section of PS (People, Association News, Gazette, Business sections) is completed in-house by APSA staff, (Madelyn Dewey), publishing associates. The Association section requires more layout and design features than the front, which consists only of peer-reviewed content.
Table 3: Turnaround Time from Submission to Review (Days)
Table 4: Turnaround Time from Acceptance to Publication (Days)
**The 2021/2022 averages include all content, i.e., content that may have been embargoed for a later date, on hold waiting for missing files, or waiting for OA transactions to clear (meaning the average is likely increased due to occasional articles that take longer than others to finalize). Additionally, because contract completion occurs after acceptance, delays due to authors not completing their contract are likely also a factor.
V. SUBMISSIONS BY ARTICLE TYPE
In 2021, PS published 118 articles, 77 symposia, 38 spotlights, 21 From the Sections, and 2 special reports. In 2022 to date, PS has published 93 articles, 26 symposia, 1 spotlight, and 1 special report. The acceptance rate of 63.7% for 2021 was in line with our traditional rates. While the rate of acceptance is high in comparison to other APSA journals, this is partially the consequence of a significantly high acceptance rate of symposia. While all symposia submissions do undergo a double blind peer review, the review of symposium proposals filter out most manuscripts which might be ultimately rejected.
Table 5: Final Disposition on Submissions, by date of final decision
VI. PUBLICITY AND OUTREACH
PS joined the Twitterverse in January 2018. We now have over 6,000 followers, up almost 1,500 followers from last year, and we continue to build our follower base. Our handle is @ps_polisci. A typical Tweet involves an image with the newly published article’s title and author names, a featured quote from the article, and a link to the FirstView publication. We try to tag (@) authors to increase exposure and encourage authors to retweet the links. The managing editor runs the PS-Twitter, in consultation with the APSA editorial associate. The APSA-run Political Science Now blog (www.politicalsciencenow.com) continues to feature PS content, especially symposia, spotlights, and research about the profession. PS articles have been featured in news media and other publications including Inside Higher Ed, The Washington Post’s “Monkey Cage,” and National Public Radio, among others.
Table 6: Symposia and Spotlights Published in PS
Table 7: Top-10 List of Altmetric Attention Scores for Articles Published in 2021
Table 8: Total Altmetric Mentions 2018-2020
