The American Political Science Review (APSR) publishes scholarly research of exceptional merit, focusing on important issues and demonstrating the highest standards of excellence in conceptualization, exposition, methodology, and craftsmanship. A significant advance in understanding of politics — whether empirical, interpretive, or theoretical — is the criterion for publication in the Review. Because the APSR reaches a diverse audience, authors must demonstrate how their analysis illuminates or answers an important research question of general interest in political science. For the same reason, authors must strive to be understandable to as many scholars as possible, consistent with the nature of their material.

The APSR publishes original work. Submissions should not include tables, figures, or substantial amounts of text that already have been published or are forthcoming in other places. In many cases, re-publication of such material would violate the copyright of the other publisher. Neither does the APSR consider submissions that are currently under review at other journals or that duplicate or overlap with parts of larger manuscripts submitted to other publishers (whether of books, printed periodicals, or online journals). If you have any questions about whether these policies apply in your case, you should address the issues in a cover letter to the editors or as part of the author comments section during online submission. You should also notify the editors of any related submissions to other publishers, whether for book or periodical publication, during the pendency of your submission’s review at the APSR – regardless of whether they have yet been accepted. The editors may request copies of related publications.

The APSR uses a double-blind review process. You should follow the guidelines for preparing an anonymous submission in the “Specific Procedures” section that follows.

If your manuscript contains quantitative evidence and analysis, you should describe your procedures in sufficient detail to permit reviewers to understand and evaluate what has been done and — in the event the article is accepted for publication – to permit other scholars to replicate your results and to carry out similar analyses on other data sets. With surveys, for example, provide sampling procedures, response rates, and question wordings; calculate response rates according to one of the standard formulas given by the American Association for Public Opinion Research, Standard Definitions: Final Dispositions of Case Codes and Outcome Rates for Surveys. For experiments, provide full descriptions of experimental protocols, methods of subject recruitment and selection, payments to subjects, debriefing procedures, and so on. In any case involving human subjects, the editors may require certification of appropriate institutional review and/or conformity with generally accepted norms.

The strength of evidence necessary for publication of quantitative empirical findings cannot be captured by any single criterion, such as the conventional .05 level of statistical significance. The journal’s co-editors — following the evolving disciplinary standard among reviewers — will evaluate the strength of findings on a range of criteria beyond statistical significance, including substantive significance, theoretical aptness, the importance of the problem under study, and the feasibility of obtaining additional evidence. (See code of ethics.)

In addition, authors of quantitative or experimental articles are expected to address the issue of data availability. You must normally indicate both where (online) you will deposit the information that is necessary to reproduce the numerical results and when that information will be posted (such as “on publication” or “by [definite date]”). You should be prepared, when posting, to provide not only the data used in the analysis but also the syntax files, specialized software, and any other information necessary to reproduce the numerical results in the manuscript. Where an exception is claimed, you should clearly explain why the data or other critical materials used in the manuscript cannot be shared, or why they must be embargoed for a limited period beyond publication.

Similarly, authors of qualitative, observational, or textual articles, or of articles that combine such methods with quantitative analysis, should indicate their sources fully and clearly enough to permit ready verification by other scholars — including precise page references to any published material cited and clear specification (e.g., file number) of any archival sources. Wherever possible, use of interactive citations is encouraged. Where field or observational research is involved, anonymity of participants will always be respected; but the texts of interviews, group discussions, observers’ notes, etc., should be made available on the same basis (and subject to the same exceptions) as with quantitative data.

For articles that include candidate gene or candidate gene-by-environment studies, APSR uses the same policy as the journal Behavior Genetics. In relevant part, that policy states that an article will normally be considered for publication only if it meets one or more of the following criteria:

• It was an exploratory study or test of a novel hypothesis, but with an adequately powered, direct replication study reported in the same paper.
• It was an exploratory analysis or test of a novel hypothesis in the context of an adequately powered study, and the finding meets the statistical criteria for genomewide significance–taking into account all sources of multiple testing (e.g. phenotypes, genotypes, environments, covariates, subgroups).
• It is a rigorously conducted, adequately powered, direct replication study of a previously reported result.

Articles should be self-contained; you should not simply refer readers to other publications for descriptions of these basic research procedures. Please indicate variables included in statistical analyses by italicizing the entire name of the variable — the first time it is mentioned in the text — and by capitalizing its first letter in all uses. You should also use the same names for variables in text, tables, and figures. Do not use acronyms or computational abbreviations when discussing variables in the text. All variables that appear in tables or figures should have been mentioned in the text, standard summary statistics (n, mean, median, standard deviation, range, etc.) provided, and the reason for their inclusion discussed. However, tables and figures should also be comprehensible without reference to the text, e.g., in any figures, axes should be clearly labeled. Please bear in mind also that neither the published or online versions of the Review normally can provide figures in color; be sure that a grayscale version will be comprehensible to referees and readers.

You may be asked to submit additional documentation if procedures are not sufficiently clear. If you advise readers that additional information is available on request, you should submit equally anonymous copies of that information with your manuscript as “supplemental materials.” If this additional information is extensive, please inquire about alternate procedures.

Manuscripts that, in the judgment of the co-editors, are largely or entirely critiques of, or commentaries on, articles previously published in the Review will be reviewed for possible inclusion in a forum section, using the same general procedures as for other manuscripts. Well before any publication, however, such manuscripts will also be sent to the scholar(s) whose work is being addressed. The author(s) of the previously published article will be invited to comment to the editors and to submit a rejoinder, which also will be peer-reviewed. We do not publish rejoinders to rejoinders.

The APSR accepts only electronic submissions on Editorial Manager. The web site provides detailed information about how to submit, what formatting is required, and what type of digital files may be uploaded. Please direct any questions to the journal’s editorial offices at apsr@unt.edu.

Manuscript Preparation and Formatting

In order to optimize the quality and speed of the review process, authors should closely read the following manuscript preparation guideline and view our sample submission.

Authors may provide up to four in-text citations (in total) of their published work, per author, so long as the manner of the citation does not threaten the integrity of the double-blind review process.

Submissions that do not follow our requested format will be sent back to authors, which will delay the review process.

Manuscript Formatting for Review at a Glance

• Maximum word count: 12,000 (manuscript); 4,000 (letter)
  • The word count excludes the maximum 150-word abstract, text within a table or figure, and online appendices.
  • The word count includes all text, tables and figures and their subsequent notes and captions, footnotes, references and appendices intended for publication.
  • NOTE: programs like TexCount separate word count between main text, figure and table captions and footnotes. Please include all word counts in total.
• Formatting:
  • Font should be 12 point for text, including footnotes and references
  • Everything should be double-spaced (including text, footnotes, and references)
  • Page numbers are required on all pages.
  • Please use footnotes and refrain from using endnotes.
  • Do not use acronyms or computational abbreviations when discussing variables.
  • We expect the use of the 16^th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style
• Figures and Tables
  • Place figures and tables exactly where they should fall in the manuscript, or, if need be, use a place holder [Figure/Table 1 about here], with the figure directly following on a new page.
  • Please number figures and tables consecutively.
  • All variables that appear in tables of figures should be described in appropriate detail in the text.
  • Figures:
    • Should be readable in grayscale. If submitting in color, please vary colors not by shade, but by intensity and tones! We recommend increments of 15-85%.
    • NOTE: When printing in grayscale, classic blue, black, red and green all look the same.
    • The costs of printing published color figures are the responsibility of the author.
• References
  • Author-Date system of the 16th Edition of the Chicago Manual of Style
    • Information can be found in Chapter 15, Documentation II: Author-Date References
    • Click here for access to the Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide. Please be sure to change to Author-Date
    • See below for a basic reference list example.
  • Please provide authors’ first and last names, rather than last name and first initial
  • All listed references must be cited in the text, and vice versa. Do not include non-cited material in references.
  • Please include a link to all non published work, i.e. working papers, conference papers, etc.
  • Publication information for each reference must be complete and correct at time of submission.
  • If you are using the following research tools, we recommend the following:
    • LaTeX – biblatex, style=chicago-authordate,
    • MS Word 2016 includes CMS, for previous Word versions, try the Zotero MS-Word add-in
    • Zotero — Chicago Manual of Style 16th Edition (author-date)
    • EndNote – download the Chicago Manual of Style 16th Edition Author-Date (B)
• In-Text Citations
  • Use the Author-Date system in the following format: (Author Year, Pages). Note there is no comma between the author and the year. Separate mass citations with a semicolon.
  • Do not redact your self-citations.
  • Do not use footnotes for simple citations.
  • Examples:
    • “In the book by Ahlquist and Levi (2013), …”.
    • Or at the end of a sentence (Mansbridge 1986).
    • Citations may appear at the end of each (in-)dependent clause.
• Appendices:
  • Figures and Tables appearing in the appendices should be lettered to distinguish them from those in the manuscript (Table A.1, A.2, Figures A.1, A.2 etc)
  • Each appendix should have a descriptive title.
  • Please restart the page count
  • Appendices intended for online publication do not count toward word count; however, please distinguish between online appendices and those you would intend to publish in print.

Submission Procedures for Editorial Manager

Please follow these procedures for submission:

1. Before submitting any manuscript to the APSR, please review> the Transfer of Copyright Agreement from the Editorial Manager login page at http://www.editorialmanager.com/apsr, and review its terms and requirements, as well as the permissions granted to authors under its provisions. A signed agreement will be required for all work published in this journal, but it is not necessary to send us this copyright at this time.
2. When you submit at www.editorialmanager.com/apsr, you will be invited to provide a short list of appropriate reviewers of your manuscript. Exclude anyone who has already commented on the research included in your submission, exclude any of your current or recent collaborators, institutional colleagues, mentors, students, or close friends. You may also “oppose” potential reviewers by name, as potentially biased or otherwise inappropriate, but you will be expected to provide specific reasons. The editors will refer to these lists in selecting reviewers without guarantee that this will influence final reviewer selections.
3. You will be required to upload an “anonymous” digital file of your manuscript:
   1. This file must include:
      1. includes an anonymous title page listing the title and abstract, without including any information that identifies the authors. The names of any other collaborators in the work (including research assistants or creators of tables or figures) must also be excluded.
      2. does not provide in-text links to any online databases that are stored on personal websites or at institutions with which any of the co-authors are affiliated.
      3. remove all acknowledgments or potentially identifying information.
      4. does not use any stylization of “redacted” as that is an easy author identifier; instead uses self-references in third person
   2. A separate detailed title page is recommended and should include:
      1. the full manuscript title,
      2. names and contact information (mailing address, telephone, and email address) for all credited authors, in the order their names should appear, as well as each author’s academic rank and institutional affiliation.
      3. acknowledgements or other author notes about the development of the research (e.g., previous presentations of it) as part of this separate title page.
      4. In the case of multiple authors, indicate which should receive all correspondence from the APSR.
   3. You may also upload supplementary material or an appendix for the reviewers. Please distinguish between appendices you would intend for print publication and online. Please restart the page number count.
4. Please make sure the file contains all tables, figures, appendices, and references cited in the manuscript. Furthermore, even though during the review process figure colors are fine, make sure they are readable in grayscale.
5. Manuscripts with potentially compromised anonymity or disregards our required formatting may be returned, potentially delaying the review process.

Specific Procedures for submitting with our Overleaf Template

Please note it is currently not possible to send an Overleaf PDF directly to our Editorial Manager site, Aries is working on developing a way for this one-click magic to become a reality.

When submitting a manuscript written with our Overleaf Template:

1. Please download the PDF from the top bar.
2. Upload it to Editorial Manager using the same submission procedure outlined above, please send only the PDF.
3. Please be aware that if you use the default settings of this overleaf, you are submitting a manuscript that fits the formatting aspect of our submission guidelines. Contributors are still responsible for adhering to word count, self-citations, and figure requirements.

Examples of References:

Books

Ahlquist, John S. and Margaret Levi. 2013. In the Interest of Others: Leaders, Governance, and Political Activism in Membership Organizations. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Mansbridge, Jane J. 1986. Why We Lost the ERA. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

U.S. Department of State. 1979. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1951. Vol. II: United Nations; Western Hemisphere. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Periodicals

Gerring, John. 2005a. “Causation: A Unified Framework for the Social Sciences.” Journal of Theoretical Politics 17:2 (April):163-98.

Gerring, John. 2005b. “Minor Parties in Plurality Electoral Systems.” Party Politics 11:1 (January): 79-107

Wedeen, Lisa. 2002. “Conceptualizing Culture: Possibilities for Political Science.” American Political Science Review 96:4 (December): 713-28.

Chapter in Edited Collection

Brady, Henry E. and Cynthia S. Kaplan. 2011. “Conceptualizing and Measuring Ethnic Identity.” In Measuring Identity: A Guide for Social Scientists, eds. Rawi Abdelal, Yoshiko M. Herrera, Alastair Iain Johnston, and Rose McDermott. New York: Cambridge University Press, 33-71.

Edited Collections

Boix, Carles, and Susan C. Stokes, eds. 2007. The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics. New York: Oxford University Press.

Dissertations

Boas, Taylor. 2009. “Varieties of Electioneering: Presidential Campaigns in Latin America.” PhD dissertation, Department of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA.

Web Sites

American Political Science Association. 2013. “About the APSA Africa Workshops.” Washington, DC: American Political Science Association. Retrieved October 10, 2013 (http://apsanet.org/~africaworkshops/content_58417.cfm).

Data Sets

Levy, Jack S. and T. Clifton Morgan. Great Power Wars, 1495-1815. [Computer file]. ICPSR09955.v1. 1989. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 1994. doi:10.3886/ICPSR09955.v1

Electronic Access to the APSR
Back issues of the APSR are available in several electronic formats and through several vendors. Except for the last three years (as an annually “moving wall”), back issues of the APSR beginning with Volume 1, Number 1 (November 1906), are available on-line through JSTOR . At present, JSTOR’s complete journal collection is available only via institutional subscription, e.g., through many college and university libraries. For APSA members who do not have access to an institutional subscription to JSTOR, individual subscriptions to its APSR content are available. Please contact Member Services at APSA for further information, including annual subscription fees.

Individual members of the American Political Science Association can access recent issues of the APSR, Perspectives, and PS through the APSA website with their username and password. Individual nonmember access to the online edition will also be available, but only through institutions that hold either a print-plus-electronic subscription or an electronic-only subscription, provided the institution has registered and activated its online subscription.

Full text access to current issues of the APSR, Perspectives, and PS is also available on-line by library subscription from a number of database vendors. Currently, these include University Microfilms Inc. (UMI) (via its CD-ROMs General Periodicals Online and Social Science Index and the on-line database ProQuest Direct), Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) (through its on-line database First Search as well as on CD-ROMs and magnetic tape), and the Information Access Company (IAC) (through its products Expanded Academic Index, InfoTrac, and several on-line services [see below]). Others may be added from time to time.

The APSR is also available on databases through six online services: Datastar (Datastar), Business Library (Dow Jones), Cognito (IAC), Encarta Online Library (IAC), IAC Business (Dialog), and Newsearch (Dialog).

The editorial office of the APSR is not involved in the subscription process to either JSTOR for back issues or the other vendors for current issues. Please contact APSA, your reference librarian, or the database vendor for further information about availability.

Other Correspondence
Please direct correspondence as follows. Information, including news and notes, for PS:
E-mail: ps@apsanet.org

Circulation and subscription correspondence (domestic claims for non receipt of issues must be made within four months of the month of publication; overseas claims, within eight months):
Director of Member Services
E-mail: membership@apsanet.org

Reprint permissions
E-mail: Rights@cambridge.org

Advertising information and rates:
Advertising Coordinator,
Cambridge University Press
E-mail: journalsadvertising@cambridge.org

Class Use
The Comprehensive Publisher Photocopy Agreement between APSA and the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) permits bookstores and copy centers to receive expedited clearance to copy articles from the APSR and PS in compliance with the Association’s policies and applicable fees. The general fee for articles is 75 cents per copy. However, current Association policy levies no fee for the first 10 copies of a printed article, whether in course packs or on reserve. Smaller classes that rely heavily on articles (i.e., upper-level undergraduate and graduate classes) can take advantage of this provision, and faculty ordering 10 or fewer course packs should bring it to the attention of course pack providers. APSA policy also permits free use of the electronic library reserve, with no limit on the number of students who can access the electronic reserve.

Both large and small classes that rely on these articles can take advantage of this provision. The CCC’s address, telephone, and fax are 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400 (voice), and (978) 750-4474 (fax). This agreement pertains only to the reproduction and distribution of APSA materials as hard copies (e.g., photocopies, microfilm, and microfiche).

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) has created a standardized form for college faculty to submit to a copy center or bookstore to request copyrighted material for course packs. The form is available through the CCC, which will handle copyright permissions. APSA also has a separate agreement pertaining to CCC’s Academic E-Reserve Service. This agreement allows electronic access for students and instructors of a designated class at a designated institution for a specified article or set of articles in electronic format. Access is by password for the duration of a class.

APSR Authors
If you are the author of an APSR article, you may use your article in course packs or other printed materials without payment of royalty fees and you may post it at personal or in