Dear readers, contributors, colleagues, and friends,
This is the final issue overseen by me as editor-in-chief of Political Science Research and Methods (PSRM) and I would like to use this opportunity to reflect on my journey as founding editor-in-chief. The last seven years have been a great experience for me and the editorial team. To build up a new general-interest journal from scratch is not an easy and straightforward thing to do and we faced many challenges throughout the period of my tenure. However, we were met with incredible enthusiasm and support from the political science community, for which I am extremely grateful. It has been an amazing journey to see this new journal thrive, gain in reputation, and develop into an outlet that has found its place in political science and beyond. From the very first decisions we took on issues such as a single-blind reviewing process, and a thorough and strict replication policy, to the journal’s acceptance into the Social Science Citation Index last year, we have worked very hard to stay true to our mission: to provide an outlet for systematic analytical social science in a European context for researchers from all over the world.
The term of the current associate editors Simon Hug (Geneva), Cameron Thies (Arizona State), and Ken Benoit (LSE) also finished with the hand over. I want to use this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude for their contribution to PSRM. Words cannot say how much I personally, but also PSRM, the European Political Science Association (EPSA), and CUP have to thank them for their service to the journal and the profession, for all the support, and hard work over the past six years. They have been brilliant to work with. I really appreciate their advice and the reliable and robust decisions they have taken on manuscripts submitted to PSRM. They have done a fabulous job and the journal’s success is testament to this. I also want to use this occasion to thank Irina Kholodenko and Daniel Habermacher for their superb support as administrative team and Darina Dintcheva as replication analyst.
At this year’s EPSA annual meeting in Vienna I officially handed over this endeavor to a new editorial team under the leadership of Paul Kellstedt (Texas A&M) as new editor-in-chief. I am passing PSRM on with pride and confidence in Paul’s vision and in the continuous support of the political science community. Editing PSRM has been a wonderful learning experience for me and I am finishing my term as EIC with one laughing and one crying eye. Crying because I have to let go of “my baby”—those of you with adolescent children understand that this is never an easy thing to do—but I believe that the time has come for new and fresh ideas and visions to fuel PSRM. Laughing because being an editor is quite often a thankless task, it is hugely time consuming and sometimes communication with authors and reviewers proves to be challenging. I trust that Paul and his team will do a fantastic job and I will offer my support in the future whenever and wherever needed. I am looking forward to seeing the journal thrive, and I will submit my own work to be considered for publication.
This leaves me to thank our authors, reviewers, and readers for their enthusiasm, support, and willingness to take a chance on and contribute their very best work to a new outlet. I hope and expect that you will stay true to PSRM under its new leadership. My gratitude also belongs to our publisher Cambridge University Press, in particular Patrick McCartan and David Mainwaring, who believed in this new journal and lend a helping hand and an open ear whenever needed. Finally, without the vision, and support of the EPSA leadership, Ken Benoit, Ray Duch, and Thomas Plümper, PSRM would have never been founded. They took a risk with this endeavor but they never faltered and were always present to bounce around new ideas, and give me the confidence to make (sometimes tough) editorial decisions and follow through on PSRM’s mission.
With gratitude and pride,
