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

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