2016 Political Research Quarterly Annual Report
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Political Research Quarterly 2016 Activity Report Clarissa Rile Hayward, Co-Editor Jeanette M. Mendez, Co-Editor James Scott, Co-Editor Jacob A. Mauslein, Associate Editor Connor Alford & Jonnathon Hicks, Editorial Assistants (Spring 2016) David Huntsman & Jonnathon Hicks, Editorial Assistants (Fall 2016) Department of Political Science Oklahoma State University Stillwater, OK 74078 E-Mail: [email protected] Website: http://prq.sagepub.com/ Presented to the Editorial Advisory Board WPSA Annual Meeting, April 13-15, 2017 Vancouver, Canada Overview On July 1, 2014, Political Research Quarterly (PRQ) officially transitioned from Washington State University (WSU) to Oklahoma State University (OSU). PRQ underwent further transition on September 4, 2015 when Jason Maloy, former co-editor and part of the OSU team, resigned his position and Clarissa Hayward (Washington University in St. Louis) and James Scott (Texas Christian University), joined Jeanette Mendez (OSU) as co-editors. The 2016 calendar represents the first full year of editorial management for this team, which retains Jacob Mauslein as Associate Editor and two Editorial Assistants (M.A. students at OSU). Members of the WPSA Executive Council, especially President Julie Novkov, Executive Director Richard Clucas, and Associate Director Elsa J. Favila, have been extremely helpful. We would also like to thank Mark Button at the University of Utah, as well as the staff at SAGE Publications, for their support and guidance throughout the transition process. In line with WPSA’s emphasis on scholarly diversity and pluralism, 2016 involved continued steps to raise the journal’s profile among scholars across various fields of study, particularly targeting efforts to increase PRQ’s visibility across under-represented subfields (with respect to PRQ’s history) in accordance with our original strategic plan/proposal. Building on the steps we implemented in 2015 to expand our editorial board to increase the presence of International Relations, Comparative Politics, and Political Theory within PRQ, we took additional steps in 2016 to strengthen our board. As some of our existing board members’ terms expired, we took the opportunity to fill positions with strategically selected members who further contribute to the expansion of PRQ’s profile (see our full editorial board list at the end of this report). We also held roundtable panels at the 2016 WPSA meeting to address publishing in PRQ and data transparency for both qualitative and quantitative scholars, hosted a “Meet the Editors” roundtable with fellow journal editors from APSR, JOP, and PGI, and conducted a well-attended journal board meeting at the 2016 APSA meeting. We also continued our efforts to expand the journal’s database of invited reviewers, and made systematic outreach efforts in the Political Theory, International Relations and Comparative Politics subfields, while continuing our efforts in the traditional areas of strength for the journal. A key element of these efforts involved attendance at specialized conferences where our editors engaged in efforts to publicize the journal and recruit manuscripts. In 2016, our editors attended meetings of the Southern Political Science Association, International Studies Association-Midwest conference, Association for Political Theory, International Studies Association, Great Plains Political Science Association, and the Jean Monnet Conference (Scotland). These outreach efforts are long-term efforts that we expect to yield increasingly positive results in the future. Reflecting the strong bond between WPSA and PRQ, winners of the seven paper awards for each annual meeting of WPSA receive an expedited review process (i.e., an automatic “Revise and Resubmit” invitation) in PRQ. In addition to continuing this practice, we informally reached out to authors of many papers at 2016 conferences such as WPSA, APSA, ISA, ISA-Midwest, and the APT to urge them to consider PRQ as a potential venue for publication. We see this kind of outreach as a way to accentuate the notion that the conference can be a stepping-stone to publication after a rigorous peer-review process. 2 Finally, following a productive editorial board meeting at APSA in the fall, we began a PRQ Twitter account -- @PRQjournal. We use this account to publicize new articles when they are available on OnlineFirst, as well as to collaborate with WPSA and sister journals to bring events and scholarship to our followers’ attention. We began the Twitter account in late 2016, and currently have 145 followers as of the end of March 2017. Overall, we believe that PRQ’s influence within the discipline remains steady and significant at the end of both transitions (from WSU to OSU and then among editors in September 2015). Manuscript Submissions PRQ received 411 original submissions in 2016. The total for the year equaled submissions from 2015 and was near a record high for the journal, slightly lower than 2014, but far above the average from 2007-2013. The data reported below for manuscript submissions include field breakdowns, processing times, and decision ratios. In addition to 411 original submissions, we report data for 110 revised manuscript submissions in these sections. Figure 1. Original Manuscript Submissions, 2007-2016 500 438 450 411 411 383 400 367 375 355 342 350 314 319 300 250 200 Number of Manuscripts of Number 150 100 50 0 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Thus, submissions are healthy and steady. Moreover, in the first quarter of 2017, manuscript submission is significantly ahead of the pace from 2016, suggesting the likelihood of further increase for the current year. We anticipate remaining at or around 400-450 submissions this year which, given the structural constraints of our page limits in the journal, is a good level to maintain. This number keeps our acceptance rate on par with top journals, between 10-15%. A sizable increase in submissions above this level would mean an even lower acceptance rate. 3 PRQ uses nine primary field categories for classifying manuscripts and reviewers. These are: • American Politics • Comparative Politics • Gender, Race, and Identity • International Relations • Methodology • Political Theory • Public Administration • Public Policy • Public Law When authors submit their research in the SAGEtrack online system, they are asked to select one of these categories as a primary field that best represents the nature of their research. Figure 2 (below) presents the breakdown of original submissions by the nine primary fields for 2016. Figure 2. Original Manuscript Submissions by Primary Subfield, 2016 Public Policy Public Law 5% 3% Public Admin. 2% Political Theory 10% American Politics Methodology 35% 1% International Relations 9% Gender, Race, & Identity 9% Comparative Politics 26% Overall, these numbers are quite similar to 2015. Our three targeted subfields remained at 45% of our submissions cumulatively; while IR submissions declined, PT and CP submissions increased. We continue to accelerate our efforts to increase IR submissions. In order to capture more accurately the substance of manuscripts in future reports, since July 2014 we allow more than one field to be counted per manuscript. Counting more than one field 4 per manuscript (the “open count” method) fits the stated goal of our editorial application by encouraging research that straddles or crosses subfield boundaries. It also may give a truer picture of the contents of manuscripts than counting only the single self-identified field (the “single count” method), which sometimes forces authors to make a difficult choice between fields when submitting their manuscript. Table 1 (below) presents all-fields data for 2016. These open-count numbers are not strictly comparable with the single-count data presented above, but they will provide a baseline for comparison in future annual reports. There are three categories of interest: original submissions, revised submissions, and printed articles. The open-count method is designed to reflect the reader’s perspective more realistically: what percentage of all manuscripts may strongly appeal to readers interested in any given field? Table 1. Original Manuscripts using “Open Count” Method, 2016 Percentage of all Manuscript Type Primary Field Secondary Field Total Fields Manuscripts American Politics 145 57 202 49.15% Comparative 107 40 147 35.77% Politics Gender, Race, & 37 18 55 13.38% Identity International 38 10 48 11.68% Relations Methodology 5 7 12 2.92% Political Theory 39 19 58 14.11% Public 7 9 16 3.89% Administration Public Law 14 6 20 4.87% Public Policy 19 27 46 11.19% Summary 411 193 604 146.96% These data show that, on average, about half of the new submissions in 2016 made a substantial appeal to more than one field (hence the ratio of all fields to the number of manuscripts adds up to over 140%). Unsurprisingly, each field’s percentage share is higher than with the single-count method, reflecting the reality that around half of submitted manuscripts do hold substantive interest for more than one field. These figures also show that our targeted subfields saw increased submissions of about 7%, from just over 57% to just under 62%. Finally, we would like to acknowledge that PRQ receives and accepts submissions from around the world. In 2016, while 71.6% of new submissions came from the United States, 3.2% came from the United Kingdom, 2.9% were submitted from Canada, and between 1% and 1.96% came from China, Denmark, or Sweden. (For more details, see the 2016 SAGE publisher’s report.) 5 Processing Times Both editorial teams have maintained a streamlined review process to ensure timely decisions on manuscripts. The average time in review at the journal, from submission to first decision, remains slightly under two months for original submissions. The average time in review for revised manuscripts is 51.5 days, which is up somewhat from 2015, but still under two months. Figure 3 (below) provides data on the average number of days between manuscript submission and editorial decisions for both original and revised manuscripts.