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Please note that Government and Opposition no longer publishes Special Issues.
The journal has recently completed its transition to a fully open-access, online-only, continuous publication model. As a result, we no longer publish issues, whether special or regular. However, we are pleased to offer an alternative: articles on a shared theme can now be brought together in an online special collection. These collections have become an increasingly important feature of the journal.
What does this mean for authors?
All submissions are now treated uniformly. Articles intended for a Special Collection are not evaluated under separate standards; instead, every manuscript undergoes the same desk review process and is refereed individually as a stand-alone contribution, according to our usual criteria.
Under this model, articles that form part of a Special Collection are published individually as soon as they are accepted, rather than appearing together at a single point in time. Any introductory piece intended for publication as an article must also go through the standard peer-review process. A Special Collection will only be formally assembled once we are confident that at least six contributions have successfully passed peer review. Importantly, articles that are accepted and published will remain part of the journal’s continuous publication stream, even if the collection as a whole does not reach the six-article threshold. Consequently, once authors commit to publishing with us, submissions cannot be withdrawn for placement in another journal.
Finally, we ask that all manuscripts proposed for a Special Collection make a substantive contribution beyond a single-country focus. While the journal does publish country-specific studies, these must engage clearly with broader debates in comparative politics. This is particularly important in a continuous publication model, where each article must stand on its own while also contributing to a wider scholarly conversation. We may desk-reject submissions focused narrowly on a single country if we believe they are unlikely to attract sufficient attention from our readership, and we may instead recommend more specialized outlets. This is an important consideration for any authors planning to submit country-specific work.
If you are interested in submitting a proposal for a Special Collection or have further questions, please contact the G&O editors, Isabelle Hertner and Erik Jones.