APSR

The report of the editor of the American Political Science Review is published in PS and can also be obtained from the APSA offices and on the web site. An external committee named by the Council to review the performance of Lee Sigelman's editorship strongly recommend his reappointment for a second term, a recommendation the Council enthusiastically adopted this spring.³

Perspectives on Politics

APSA's newest journal, Perspectives on Politics, also con tinues to receive high acclaim, broadly succeeding in its aim to “publish articles that clarify the political significance of ac cumulated research regarding a particular area of the world, an important policy problem, a deep normative conflict, or a significant institution or process.” Jennifer Hochschild, the inaugural Perspectives editor, signaled that she would not renew her term of editorship. Susanne Rudolph, in consort with President-Elect Margaret Levi and the Council, has named a search committee to recommend a new editor. The book reviews, also published in Perspectives, have remained under the editorship of Greg McAvoy for the year, and a new editor will be named as part of an overall Perspectives editorial team.

PS: Political Science and Politics

PS remains APSA's journal for symposia and articles on current developments in politics and political science, forum for professional development and teaching issues, and journal of record for developments in the Association. Even with Per spectives on Politics in place, PS is continuing to receive numerous and high quality symposia proposals and remains an intellectually lively and current journal.

Other Publication Initiatives

APSA's initiative in partnering with other domestic and international political science associations to form PROL, Political Research OnLine, has led to a major new resource for early scholarship. Over 15,000 current papers on early research in politi cal science are now available in an open access, full-text searchable database, at www.politicalscience.org. The effort has also led to a new generation of collaboration among political science associations, including, at this stage, the Midwest PSA, the Western PSA, the Southern PSA, the International Political Science Association, and the International Studies As sociation.

Annual Meeting Policy and Planning

The APSA Annual Meeting remains the single largest meeting for the exchange of political science scholarship in the world. Annually, 6,000 atten dees meet for scholarship, professional development, research planning, teaching, and exchange of research and teaching resources. We gathered this year in Chicago, the city where the annual conference first convened, for our 100^th meeting.

Awards, Funds, and Lectures

APSA awards are also a way to recognize, and indi rectly encourage, excellence in scholarship. APSA directly presents 19 awards; organized sec tions administer another 75. Currently, $814,567 is held in endowed funds to support APSA awards. This year the Council has authorized the addition of an award for the best paper in Perspec tives in Politics to the mandate of the Eulau Award committee, formerly limited to APSR. Cam bridge University Press has generously offered to sponsor this new award until an endowment can be raised.

Congressional Fellowship Program

The APSA Congressional Fellowship Program represents the Association's preeminent effort to link political scientists with active public life, therein strengthening research careers, teaching, and public policy.⁵

Now in its 51^st year, the program has turned its attention to increasing the diversity of, and expanding the enrichment opportunities available to, its participants. Thanks to aggressive recruiting efforts on various professional and association web sites, the number of journalist ap plicants has doubled over the past two years and the incoming class includes several African-American, Native American, Latino, and Arab-American Fellows. Senior Fulbright scholars from China, the Czech Republic, India, and Mexico add their unique perspectives as well.

Recognizing that potential applicants increasingly turn to the Internet to research their options, Director Jeff Biggs and Program Associate Sarah Dougherty have made major im provements to the fellowship's web site. These include clarifying application guidelines, improving and updating program descriptions, streamlining index pages, posting important legal information for current fellows, and adding quotations, photos, and graphics. The staff has also added a section specifically tailored to program alumni listing classes and office assignments by year. Email listservs have helped fellowship alumni keep in touch with one another after the fellowship has concluded, when the “multiplier effect” begins to take on more meaning. Last year, the staff initiated a six-page alumni newsletter, complete with photos, to keep former Fellows abreast of program developments and to stimulate contributions. The staff continues to email individual letters to 750-plus personal office chiefs of staff and majority/minority com mittee staff directors encouraging them to “host” Fellows. As a consequence, the 2003–2004 Fellows broke new ground in key committee assignments and offices of senior members which seldom add Fellows to their senior staffs. The especially tailored two-day Congressional Research Service (CRS) Seminar on Senate and House legislative procedures was particularly valuable as a surprising number of Fellows got involved in legislative drafting.

As an important “bridge” connecting those who teach about politics, those who write about politics, and those who work in politics, the fellowship expanded its public engagement role. Early in the orientation, the Fellows participated in a daylong CRS-sponsored symposium on changes in the role of the House Speaker. Featured guests were former Speakers Wright, Foley, Gingrich, and Hastert. Another example of the program's reach includes the 2004 publi cation of War Stories from Capitol Hill, a new volume in the Prentice Hall “Real Politics in America” series. In addition to Editors Colton C. Campbell (CFP 1989–1990) and Paul S. Herrnson (CFP 1989–1990), all contributors were fellowship alumni. Biggs and CFP alumnus John Pitney of Claremont McKenna served as advisers for a 25th anniversary C-SPAN survey on the usefulness of cable network coverage to political science. The Legislative Studies Section served as the survey's audience.

Centennial Center and Programs

APSA's newest venture linking political science with public resources and issues lies in the opening of the Centennial Center for Political Science and Public Affairs in the APSA building in Washington. The foremost purpose of the Center is to support research scholars needing access to international and domestic political and policy resources in Washing ton by providing workspace and collegial interaction. We anticipate, however, that the Center will also play a significant role in linking political science scholarship to the political and policy community in Washington through seminars, speakers' series, workshops, and dialogue. By bringing scholars from different countries, fields, and areas of practice together, we expect that the Centennial Center will expand the boundaries of scholarly and public understanding and practice—building another “bridge” connecting those who teach about politics, those who write about politics, and those who work in politics.

Personnel Services and Placement

The agreement among political science depart ments, codified in the APSA ethical standards, that all academic positions at the assistant and associate levels be listed in one commonly accessible site is a core building block of the political science community. Job listings are managed online, and are now accessible to all APSA mem bers without additional fees. Job listings are free for departments belonging to APSA's departmental services program, and are priced at market rates for others. Listings are also integrated with options for job-seekers to post resumes online, and in turn to arrange interview opportunities at the APSA Annual Meeting.

APSA's coordination of the political science academic job market is also a major new area of collaboration among domestic political science departments. The APSA job listing web site has opened to allow other scholars to schedule interviews at other association meetings, an operation which has begun at the Southern, Northeastern, and Western society meetings.

Diversity

Perhaps one of the highest priorities we have in the profession is to assure that the community of political science scholars is as inclusive as possible. This goal applies to the composition of the professoriate, the graduate student classroom, and to the practicing world of political science, as well as to the content of scholarship and approaches taken by the discipline.

APSA initiatives include Minority Fellowships for doctoral study, a Minority Identifica tion project for recruiting new doctoral students, active support of the Ralph Bunche Institute hosted and sponsored by Duke University and the National Science Foundation, the efforts of Status Committees in the profession for Asian Pacific Americans, Women, African Americans, Latinos y Latinas, and Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, and the Transgendered, and those of Organized Sec tions on Race, Ethnicity and Politics and on Women and Politics, and that of the related group, the Indigenous Studies Network.

These are significant efforts, but we have much more to do in support of minority re cruitment, including important efforts needed to support the retention and professional advancement of underrepresented groups. This year, we plan to organize a program review for APSA's major diversity programs to better understand how they have accomplished the goals of recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups. This Advisory Committee will begin its work in the fall of 2004.

Professional Career Materials

There are a number of APSA efforts underway to ad dress issues affecting the academic workplace for political scientists. APSA is a member of the Coalition on the Academic Workforce that addresses issues faced by part-time and adjunct fac ulty in the profession. We have participated in a forum on the subject at the AAC&U conference in Seattle for academic deans and faculty and have advised AAUP in the formulation of its new statement on this topic.

The Departmental Services Committee, and the Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession, have cooperatively focused on questions of building familyfriendly workplaces in the academy. A report from the Committee on the Status of Women is forthcoming in PS, and other materials are in preparation.

The Association has also continued to promote programs to identify “questions to ask” for students entering graduate school and for faculty seeking academic positions. These pro grams were originally named the registering and rostering initiatives and have been renamed for clarity. They call on academic departments to commit to answering sets of questions about their programs, and they encourage student and job applicants to ask probing questions that can help assure that future placement will be a good fit for candidate and institution. These programs have generated great response from the membership. We now have approximately 179 universities enrolled in the Job Candidate Questions to Ask program and 44 schools in the Graduate School Questions to Ask program.

Mentoring

The Task Force on Mentoring instituted a formal mentoring program for graduate students and faculty. A new mentor database allows faculty and graduate students to network for career development. The APSA Mentor Database connects interested graduate stu dents and faculty with political scientists in the field to counsel on matters of the profession. Information on political scientists willing to act as mentors is stored in the database. Individuals seeking a mentor can contact APSA to receive a report listing avail able mentors, contact information, a short biography, and topics on which the mentor has specialized experience.

The APSA Task Force on Mentoring was also successful in securing a National Science Foundation SGER (Small Grant for Exploratory Research) in March 2004 to develop a workshop addressing women's advancement in political science. This workshop had the following goals: (1) to clarify the key advancement problems confronted by women in political science; (2) to explore the origins of women's differential rate of advancement by prestige of the university and by sub-field in political science; and (3) to identity the key barriers to women's academic success at different transition points. A report from the workshop findings will be available in the fall of 2004 and materials have also been posted on the web site.

Ethics

One of the foundational activities of the Association in supporting the professional community is the articulation of statements of professional ethics for political sci entists. The Committee on Professional Ethics, Rights, and Responsibilities stands ready to re spond to grievances that fall within its jurisdiction, including helping protect the human rights of scholars in other countries. While legal and resource constraints often inhibit the Association's ability to investigate in depth or to apply public sanctions, the Committee can serve as a source of moral suasion, as a sounding board, and as a problem solver.

The enterprise of political science is built from more than individual and Association contributions. There are important institutional building blocks as well. APSA works in this vein directly with organized sections and related groups that operate within the associations, academic departments, and other institutions that supply, coordinate, or lobby for research support.

Organized Sections and Related Groups

One of the most effective recent develop ments within the APSA community has been the growth of organized sections. Sections, estab lished initially in 1981, assumed a major responsibility for organizing Annual Meeting panels in their areas in 1989. This year two new section journals came into existence, a new Journal on Teaching and Learning in Political Science, sponsored by the Undergraduate Education Section, and the journal Gender and Politics, spon sored by the Section on Women and Politics. In sadder news, the Ecological and Transformational Politics Section came to an end because it could not maintain required minimum membership level.

Academic Departments

Early in its history in the United States, political science gravitated to the academy, and political science departments have since served as the building blocks of the discipline. Since 1972, APSA has operated a substantial institutional membership program of academic departments called the Departmental Services Program (DSP) to support these departments and to offer them a leadership role in the Association. The core of this pro gram is its oversight of the employment placement service (and free listing access for DSP members), but there are a wide range of additional components—including materials depart ments can use to promote political science and recruit students, a chairs' workshop, a chairs' handbook that will function as an online community discussion forum on key aca demic, policy, and operational issues, and a data gathering program to allow departments to benchmark themselves against a pool of similar-sized programs.

Small Research Grants

One role for APSA in the midst of many other large research support institutions is to fill in gaps. APSA does this with its small research grant program. The program supports research in all fields of political science by political scientists who are not em ployed at Ph.D.-granting institutions. The concept is to help further the careers of the scholars at those institutions that typically have less access to other research support resources. The Asso ciation typically grants between 15 and 20 awards annually ranging from $1,500 to $2,500 each.

These awards are very popular with members and are highly pro ductive. Grant recipients in a recent five-year period have published over 11 books, 16 refereed articles, eight book chapters, many working papers, and a very large number of conference pres entations, with more products in the works. Many recipients also report that their students benefit as co-authors, as research assistants, and in classroom use of their professors' research. Many recipients also use the APSA grants as seed money to obtain additional funding.

Research Support and Policy Liaison

Organiza tions that fund research, set research support policy, or coordinate other organizations on re search issues are a major institutional component of the political science community. APSA has a significant role in representing political science in these settings. We do this in several ways, including membership in consortia, such as COSSA and the National Humanities Alliance (NHA), and representation in leadership organizations such as the Ameri can Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council. Our involvement with COSSA and NHA is especially significant because their listing as 501(c) 4 organizations under the tax code permits them to function actively as lobbyists. This year APSA also joined the Coalition for International Education— a consortium of scholarly societies and higher educa tion groups focused on protection and expansion of the higher education act and related goals.

In the spirit of this outreach on policy matters affecting opportunities for scholarship and academic freedom, APSA wrote letters to Congress opposing changes that would have imposed restrictive oversight on Overseas Study Centers, and called for full and open hearings in the ap pointment of a new archivist of the United States.