State Politics Call for Nomination

State Politics and Policy Quarterly and the State Politics and Policy organized section of the APSA are proud to co-sponsor the SPPQ Best Paper Award. The 2003 Best Paper Award will be presented to the best paper on the U.S. states presented at any political science conference during the calender year. The author(s) of the winning paper wil receive: a plaque commemorating the award, $250, and the opportunity to publish the paper in State Politics and Policy Quarterly. Nominations should include the name of the author(s), the title of the paper, and the name of the conference at which the paper was presented. If possible, nominations should include a copy of the original paper (preferably in electronic form), as presented at the conference. The winning paper will be the one nominated that best tests general theories of models of political behavior or policymaking with evidence from the U.S. states, as determined by the selection committee. Papers that demonstrate the imaginative use of the methodological advantages of the U.S. states will be looked upon favorably. Nominations should be sent to David Lowery, Department of Political Science, Hamilton Hall, CB #3265, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3265; email: dlowery@email.unc.edu. Submissions must be received by February 1, 2004.

New Editor for APR

Jim Gimpel has assumed the editorship of American Politics Research. Please send all submissions to Jim Gimpel, Editor, American Politics Research, University of Maryland, Department of Government, 3140 Tydings Hall, College Park, MD, 21044; email: apr@gvpt.umd.edu.

New National Archives Electronic Database

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) recently launched Access to Archival Databases (AAD), a new research tool that makes a selection of the Archives' most popular electronic records available to the public over the Internet. AAD is the first publicly accessible application developed under the auspices of the National Archives Electronic Records Archives Program. The Electronic Records Archives Program is addressing the larger challenges of preserving the increasing variety and volume of Government records that have been created and stored in electronic form. AAD addresses just access to a specific type of electronic record— databases and records that are structured like databases. AAD provides researchers with:

—Online access to more than 350 databases, which were created by over 20 Federal agencies. NARA plans to expand the system to more than 500 databases.

—The ability to search, retrieve, print out, and download records. Researchers will need to determine the series and file units of interest before they begin their search.

—Important contextual information to help researchers understand the records better, including code lists, explanatory notes from National Archives archivists, and for some series or files in AAD, related documents.

The URL is www.archives.gov/aad/

Joint NPSA and ISANE Meeting

The 2003 joing annual meeting of the Northeast Political Science Association (NPSA) and the International Studies Association Northeast (ISANE) will be held November 6–8 in Philadelphia at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. You can access information about the conference at the APSA web site, www.apsanet.org.