This report takes a look back at the journal’s work from January 1 through December 31, 2019. That wraps up two years and seven months of our four-year contract with the association to run Perspectives on Politics. Like before, we’ll go over editorial and technical updates from this year and share some key stats about submissions, editorial choices, impact, and the book review section.
Come June 2020, the journal will start its fourth year based at the University of Florida. We’re thinking about staying on for another two years but that’s ultimately up to the association to decide. We’ve had a great working relationship with both APSA’s offices in Washington, DC and Cambridge University Press. Big thanks to them for their ongoing support and advice. Thanks also go to our managing editor, editorial assistants, and Cambridge’s top-notch production team Footnote
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who keep us on track with page counts and deadlines. We’ve built up a solid backlog of accepted articles and essays that should carry us well into next year.
KEEPING THEMATIC ARTICLE GROUPS GOING
One thing that’s really stood out during our time editing is publishing themed collections-special issues or sections around particular topics. This year was our first try sending out a call for papers for such an issue, which turned out great. The call titled “Trump: Causes and Consequences” pulled in more than 130 submissions-enough content to fill two issues (17:2 and 17:3). We were happy to see submissions covering different subfields too-not just American politics but political theory, comparative politics, international relations as well. Some pieces even involved collaboration across subfields or looked at US politics through comparative theories of regime change.
Besides these planned special issues, we still put together special sections here and there from individual author submissions when they fit together nicely. Moving fully to First View last year helped because we could publish online while waiting for related pieces to clear production earlier on. Along with the Trump-themed issues, we published special sections on “Issues in Qualitative Research” and “Perspectival Political Theory.” Table 1 sums up all special sections from 2019 with links to their contents.
Table 1 Special Sections in Volume 17 (2019)
In the intro for “Perspectival Political Theory,” associate editor Daniel O’Neill laid out what kind of political theory work we want in the journal going forward. We’re open to many approaches as long as it tackles real problems affecting public life-that fits our role as a “political science public sphere.” Like always, we push authors to think broadly about why their work matters beyond their niche fields-and use language anyone in political science can follow without jargon. Our goal is that political theory articles are accessible not just within academia but also reach wider audiences-and encourage cross-field conversations within political science as well as between scholars and politics practitioners.
Our second call for papers focused on “Celebrity and Politics.” It was originally planned as a smaller special section but got such good responses that it grew into a full special issue instead. One of our board members Samantha Majic took charge here-she proposed the topic and acted as guest editor. Although fewer papers came in this time (a few dozen), all major subfields were represented.
That collection appeared as issue 18(1), published early in 2020. It covers a wide range of topics using diverse methods.
Looking ahead to 2020, we have two more special sections lined up. Issue 18(2) will include three articles called “Whither America?” exploring whether populism & polarization are here to stay or just temporary trends in US politics; issue 18(3) will focus on how violence plays different roles in politics (“The Uses of Violence”). Footnote
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PROMOTING THE JOURNAL
Embargo Dates
Since fully switching over to First View publication for articles/reflections last year, every piece now has an exact publication date set ahead of time so authors know when their work goes live. About ten to fourteen days before release (the embargo date), we email authors letting them know their publication date plus details about how we’re promoting it-and encourage them coordinate any publicity efforts with ours too. The idea is that by syncing promotion efforts like this everyone reaches a bigger audience.
Adding Emails To Book Reviews
Working with Cambridge Press we’ve started including book reviewers’ email addresses alongside reviews so reviewers get notified once their reviews appear online-not just told which issue it’ll be in like before. This helps us keep everyone better informed once things are actually published.
Twitter Growth
When we took over the @Po Ppublicsphere Twitter account back in 2017 it had just over one thousand followers; by February 25th, 2019 it grew close to three thousand (2,957). We tweet whenever new First View content or issues drop-and ask authors if they have Twitter handles so we can tag them too when sharing their work.
Facebook Reach
Our biggest Facebook post reach last year was Feb14th with around 2,291 people seeing posts announcing volume17(1). Next highest was May13th at about1543 views when volume17(2) came out. Then after moving completely over to First View mid-year post reach depends more on individual article popularity than whole issues now.
TECH UPDATES
Dataverse Datasets
By February2019 we’d posted59 datasets onto our Dataverse page (https://dataverse. harvard. edu/dataverse/perspectives), including580 files like replication materials, datasets, and read. me documents. Board member Reşat Bayer suggested reaching out last APSAMeetingto invite past authors(pre-volume17)to upload replication files there. We’ve heard back from eight groups interested so far, and we’re coordinating linking those files properly through Cambridge Core pages.
Letting Reviewers Know Decisions
We’ve always given peer reviewers access to other readers’ reports sent to authors, but previously didn’t notify reviewers directly when final decisions came down starting December2019, we began sending decision letters directly informing reviewers how manuscripts fared reminding them they can see all reviewer reports sent out.
First View Publication
In2019we started posting all articlesand reflectionson First Viewbeforeofficialissue releases. This required clearingout accepted article backlogs. That process kicked off slowly then wrappedupwithour Summer Splash eventwidely promotedon Twitterand Facebook. After Summer Splash, we releasedanother23articleson First Viewbeforeyearend. All toldwepublished45articlesandreflectionsin2019thoughmostwill appearin2020issues.
SUBMISSIONS AND REVIEW PROCESS
Submission Numbers
For thesecond straightyearsubmission numberswentupin2019(see Table2). Wegot356newplus94 revised manuscripts. Total processed hitanewrecordwhile revised submissionscame down slightly. Togetherthisis33more thanin2018. Journal keeps getting more international submissions-firsttimeeverover45%fromoutside US(seetable3).
Table20 Manuscript Submissions per Year
Table30 Number Manuscripts Received Based On Corresponding Author Location
We’re still publishing lots of non-US based authors. In volume17(2019), about17%ofauthors worked outside US. Downfrom26.8% peakin16(2018). Footnote
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We figure lower acceptance rate outside US probably comesdown todifferencesinfamiliaritywithpublishingconventionsin English-journals.
Editor has been active talking tothe internationalcommunityaboutjournalstandardsandprofile. Lastyearhe spokeatmajorinternationalmeetingslike Conferenceon European Studies(Madrid)and World Congressfor Associationforthe Studyof Nationalities(New York). Laterthisyearhelivestalksat WZBBerlin Social Science Centerand International Councilfor Central East European Studies(Montreal). Addingmoreinternationalboardmemberslikely helped raiseprofiletoo, andmaybe boostedinternationalsubmissions.
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We strivefortimelyhelpfulreviews. Onceamanscriptissentforexternalreview, wetrytogetfourreviewers. Occasionallywedecideearlyifinitialreviewsclearlysayno. Papersoftengothroughmultiple revise-and-resubmit rounds. Weaimtoreturntothesamereviewersincludingthosewhohadconcernsbutagreedtoreviewrevisions. Iftherearefewerthan tworeviewersonreviseversions, weaskboardmemberstoreplaceothers. Everyweekwemonitorprogressclosely. Tableshowssincewebeganedits(June1st ,
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Table4 Average Days In Review Process
Editorial Decisions
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TITLE: Report From Perspectives on Politics Editors – Highlights From 2019
CONTENT:
This year’s annual update looks back at everything done between January first through December thirty-first of twenty nineteen – that’s two years plus seven months into our four-year run working with APSA editing Perspectives on Politics.
As usual we’ll cover editorial stuff along with tech changes made this year plus give you important stats like submission rates,
decision-making breakdowns,
impact factor info,
plus how things went with book reviews.
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This report looks back at what happened during January thru December twenty-nineteen – marking almost three years into our four-year deal editing Perspectives on Politics alongside APSA.
Like previous yearly summaries,
we’ll talk editorial progress,
tech updates,
alongside stats about submissions,
editorial decisions,
impact factors,
and book reviews coverage.
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This report reviews activities running January first through December thirty-first twenty-nineteen – nearly three years completed under our four-year contract editing Perspectives on Politics for APSA.
As usual,
we highlight key editorial advances along technical improvements made this past year;
also summarizing submission numbers;
editorial decisions;
journal impact measures;
plus developments involving book review content.
And June twenty-twenty starts our fourth calendar operating year hosting operations at University Florida campus.
We’re mulling extending tenure extra couple years though final say rests solely with association itself.
Relations remain productive among APSA Washington DC team alongside Cambridge University Press staff whose continued guidance remains appreciated greatly – likewise thanks go warmly towards managing editor/editorial assistants coupled superb Cambridge production crew Footnote^1 whose hard work ensures meeting page limits/publication deadlines consistently achieved.
We’ve built large reserve inventory comprising accepted front-end works ranging across articles/reflection essays ready pushing smoothly throughout upcoming calendar period.
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