Research Notes

As a public service, these pages aggregate information regarding journals in political science and international relations (broadly defined) that public research articles, research notes, and review essays. These lists are filterable and searchable. These lists attempt to provide the information necessary to choose where to send an article, including broad areas of interest and selected passages from their Web sites that describe their mission.

To suggest additions or corrections, email musgrave [at] umass /dot/ edu.

List of journals that publish review essays.

List of journals that publish research articles.

Research Notes

Journal	Keywords	Editors	What is the maximum length for research notes?	Research notes instructions
African Affairs	ASZ, CPZ, IDZ	Peace Medie, University of Ghana, and others	5,000 words	The key features of Research Notes are that they should: (address an issue of particular methodological or ethical importance to African studies; consider recent developments within the field in addition to the author's own personal experience; and, make a contribution to our understanding of how Africa can be studied, and the pros and cons of different approaches.
American Political Science Review	APZ, CPZ, ENZ, IRZ, PEZ, PMZ, PTZ, SSZ	Sharon Wright Austin, University of Florida, and others	4,000 words	letters (or research notes) that address an important research problem or question, showing a novel perspective on existing research and encouraging scholarly debate in the discipline (maximum length 4,000 words).
American Politics Research	APZ	Costas Panagopoulos, Northeastern University	10 pages	None listed
Armed Forces & Society	SSZ	Patricia Shields, Texas State University San Marcos	None listed	None listed
Asian Security	ASZ, IRZ, SSZ	Michael R. Chambers, Indiana State University, and others	6,000 words	We welcome articles on South, Central, Southeast, and East Asia or comparative articles that draw on cases from those regions. The journal covers "traditional" issues such as interstate warfare, the regional balance of power, alliances and other multilateral security institutions, national defense policies, strategic culture, civil-military relations, nuclear proliferation, conventional arms racing, arms control, and conflict-prone areas. The journal also covers "new" security issues such as the stability of democratic transitions, globalization and its backlash, ethnic conflict, insurgency and counter insurgency, nontraditional security threats, failing states, and transnational terrorism. T
British Journal of Political Science	APZ, CPZ, ENZ, IRZ, PEZ, PMZ, PTZ, SSZ	Cristina Bodea, Michigan State University, and others	4,000 words	Letters are short (up to 4,000 words) and highly accessible articles making a big point shortly and succinctly.
British Journal of Politics & International Relations	ASZ	Peter Kerr, University of Birmingham, UK Steven Kettell, University of Warwick, UK	5,000 words	Policy matters' articles - we also welcome submissions of work focused on a particular policy sector or issue, particularly ones that impact on the Academy (such as on matters of educational policy). 'Policy matters' articles are normally between 3,000 and 5,000 words.
Canadian Journal of Political Science	ASZ, CPZ, IRZ, PTZ	Cameron Anderson, University of Western Ontario and Mélanie Bourque, University of Quebec Ottawa	6,000 words	Research notes are shorter academic pieces, no more than 6,000 words in length (including references, notes, tables and figures), that advance a new theoretical perspective, methodological approach, conceptualization or operationalization in political science. Research notes undergo regular peer-review
The China Quarterly	ASZ, CPZ, IDZ	Tim Pringle, University of London	4,000 words	the leading scholarly journal in its field, covering all aspects of contemporary China including Taiwan. Its interdisciplinary approach covers a range of subjects including anthropology/sociology, literature and the arts, business/economics, geography, history, international affairs, law, and politics. research reports are shorter pieces based on primary research and empirical evidence.
Communist and Post-Communist Studies	ASZ, CPZ	J. Paul Goode, Carleton University	6,000 words	Research Notes focus on new sources of data, archival research, fieldwork techniques, or ethical challenges of broad interest to the research community. These submissions might be envisaged as an extended discussion of methodological technique and/or challenges in researching a particular topic. Research Notes can be used for authors to share preliminary findings or present an overview of the data that they have collected thus far. Alternatively, these can also serve as an intervention in existing debates in the field concerning methods, fieldwork, or ethics. These submissions should run 5,000–6,000 words in length including abstracts, references, footnotes, figure captions, and appendices. Please inquire directly with the editor for special consideration regarding longer or shorter submissions prior to submission.
Comparative Politics	ASZ, CPZ	Kenneth Paul Erickson, CUNY; Irving Leonard Markovitz, CUNY	6,000 words	an international journal that publishes scholarly articles devoted to the comparative analysis of political institutions and behavior.
Electoral Studies	APZ, CPZ, PPZ	Oliver Heath, Royal Holloway University of London, and Kaat Smets, Royal Holloway University of London	6,000 words	The goal of the 'notes on new data sets' is to promote, describe and show the potential of new, innovative and important data sources that are of interest to the readers of Electoral Studies. Notes on new data sets are expected to explore the usefulness of the data source for scholars in the field, and will be subject to peer review
Energy Policy	ENZ, PPZ	Stephen D. Thomas, University of Greenwich	4,500 words	Research Notes should present fully realized research but are shorter in length than Full Length Articles.
Environmental Politics	ENZ, PPZ	John M. Meyer, Humboldt State University	3,000 words	These are meant to be short interventions that address a pressing ongoing public concern or make a provocative intervention in a scholarly debate. Papers published under this heading will be concise and informative, with limited references (typically no more than 10) and few, if any, figures, tables, or endnotes. They will offer a novel insight on recent research or timely events, encouraging scholarly debate. Typically they will have a minimal literature review (if any), and focus on communicating the author’s insight or idea clearly and directly.
European Journal of Political Research	ASZ, CPZ	Isabelle Engeli, University of Exeter, and others	5,000 words	None listed
European Political Science Review	CPZ, IRZ, PTZ	Marina Costa Lobo, University of Lisbon; Matt Qvortrup, Coventry University	5,000 words	Research notes should be more focused than articles, and serve to demonstrate a novel perspective on existing research, thus encouraging scholarly debate. They should serve to increase discussion across political science subfields and across disciplines, and be able to reach a broad readership.
Foreign Policy Analysis	IRZ, PEZ, SSZ	Brian Lai, University of Iowa, USA and Lisbeth Aggestam, University of Gothenburg, Sweden	6,000 words	Research notes may take the form of a novel contribution to empirical knowledge in a given domain (e.g., new dataset, new operational measures or robustness analyses of predominant empirical findings) or theoretical knowledge (e.g., conceptual debate or technical contribution to formal modeling).
Global Environmental Politics	ENZ, IDZ	Steven Bernstein, University of Toronto, and others	5,000 words	Research Notes (3000-5000 words, including footnotes and bibliography) provide discussions of new data sources and/or research techniques relevant to the GEP community as well as analysis of the practice of research relevant to global environmental politics. Papers on research tools and techniques may be qualitative, quantitative, or formal. Authors should demonstrate the broad utility of the approach. Papers on new data sources should, in addition to describing the substance, provide a discussion of the range of questions for which the data could be useful. They should also include arrangements for making the data available and accessible to the GEP community. Research Notes are sent to three referees for double-blind reviews before a final editorial decision is made.
Global Studies Quarterly	CPZ, ENZ, IDZ, IRZ, ITZ, PEZ, SSZ	Brent J. Steele, University of Utah; Jelena Subotic, Georgia State University	4,000 words	Research Notes are submissions that are shorter, more focused, demonstrate a novel perspective on existing research, and encourage scholarly debate (maximum length 4,000 words). Typically, a note does not need to include a full literature review and has a much briefer introduction, argument, analysis, and conclusion. Research notes often include, but are not limited to, a new theoretical perspective, methodological progress, alternative empirical findings, as well as comments on and extensions of existing work. Research notes communicate new insights and the main ideas succinctly, in accessible prose.
International Interactions	IRZ, PEZ, SSZ	Jeffrey Pickering, Editor-in-Chief - Kansas State University, USA	6,000 words	Research notes focus on substantively narrow subjects or provide focused tests of previously established findings. Research notes will often present empirical results that add to the literature and to important theoretical and empirical discussions in the field.
International Journal of Public Opinion Research	APZ, CPZ, IRZ, PMZ	Porismita Borah, Washington State University	3,500 words	None listed.
International Organization	CPZ, IRZ, PEZ, SSZ	Brett Ashley Leeds, Rice University; Layna Mosley, Princeton University	8,000 words	Research notes must be of similar importance and potential impact but likely with a somewhat narrower objective. For example, research notes can present new empirical evaluations of important existing theoretical propositions. Or, research notes could focus on conceptual and theoretical contributions without providing new empirical evidence. Research notes may also provide new descriptive analyses of important trends that call into question current understandings and/or generate new questions for future research, such as the rise or decline in the number of and intensity of wars or long-term trends in (some aspect of) globalization.
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific	ASZ, CPZ, IDZ, IRZ, PEZ, SSZ	Motoshi Suzuki, Kyoto University	10,000 words	International Relations of the Asia-Pacific (IRAP) is a major international journal publishing the best original research in the field. Papers are welcomed from all IR scholars, both within and without the Asia-Pacific region.
International Studies Quarterly	CPZ, IRZ, PEZ, SSZ	Brandon C. Prins, University of Tennessee, Knoxville and Krista E. Wiegand, University of Tennessee, Knoxville	8,000 words	These contributions frequently involve quantitative analysis, but they may be qualitative in character—such as pieces that introduce new archival material that challenges conventional wisdom on cases important to the broader discipline. For this type of manuscript, we do not require the same level of theoretical complexity and detailed empirical investigation as for a regular research article. But in addition to describing the new data, the manuscript should show how the new data can make a valid and important contribution to the study of international studies, for instance by pointing to results that are significantly different from research studies published previously. Key to a successful research note is presentation of valuable information to other researchers in terms of the aim of the note, problem formation, information collection, conclusions, and directions for further research.
Japanese Journal of Political Science	ASZ, CPZ	Christina Davis, Harvard University; Junko Kato, University of Tokyo	8,000 words	Research notes between 4,000-8,000 words that address an ongoing debate with new evidence. Notes may consist of replication or reanalysis (detailed below), introduction to a new dataset, or presentation of a case study. The journal will also consider ?result-blind? submissions (also detailed below) for special review that focuses on the research design.
JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies	ASZ, CPZ	Toni Haastrup, University of Stirling and Richard G Whitman, University of Kent	5,000 words	JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies publishes innovative peer-reviewed research on Europe and comparative regional studies. It is motivated to disseminate original, significant and rigorous contributions to the field. JCMS is a multidisciplinary outlet that welcomes a plurality of methodological and theoretical approaches within the social sciences especially, international relations, politics, political economy, economics, law and sociology. Research Notes are shorter between 3000 and 5000 word manuscripts (inclusive of footnotes, appendices, references and figures, tables or charts) that seek to advance new ideas, research programmes or methodological approaches or explore the implications of new datasets within the boundaries the journal’s remit. These types of articles will normally offer an original perspective on contemporary issues.
Journal of Experimental Political Science	APZ, CPZ, IRZ, PMZ, SSZ	Kevin Arceneaux, Sciences-Po	3,000 words	Short Reports (1000 words) are concise summaries of findings that do not meet the level of theoretical and/or empirical contribution showcased in research articles, but do inform best practices, measurement, or show innovations in experimental designs and protocols that would be of broad interest to experimentalists. Replications (3000 words) are concise summaries of replications of previous experimental findings. Authors should make the case that the replications are informative (e.g., well-powered with consideration given to any key factors ? such as context, sample, mode of treatment, etc. ? that vary between the original and the replication). Meta-Analyses (3000 words) are concise summaries of an analyses of previously reported experimental findings (both published and unpublished) that inform a well-defined question or domain in the study of politics.
Journal of Information Technology & Politics	CPZ, IRZ, PPZ	Lauren Copelan, Baldwin Wallace University, and others	5,000 words	Research notes provide a relatively brief presentation of findings (including replications or extensions) that may not require the detailed theoretical development or extended analysis found in Research Articles, but nonetheless makes a distinct contribution to the literature on politics and IT.
Journal of Politics	APZ, CPZ, ENZ, IRZ, PEZ, PMZ, PTZ, SSZ	Vera Troeger, Universität Hamburg	10 pages	Manuscripts submitted for review as Short Articles at The Journal of Politics should be no longer than 10 pages, including all text, footnotes/endnotes, references, and tables/figures.
Journal of Women Politics & Policy	APZ, CPZ, PPZ	Heidi Hartmann, Institute for Women's Policy Research and American University, and others	6000	the research note format offers an opportunity for a limited, targeted focus on a country, method, or issue that is not appropriate for a full analysis. For example, while an article usually states a theory and offers evidence in support, a research note might closely examine a new methodology that is particularly useful in fields that engage gender. Alternatively, a research note might present a concise discussion of a recent development in a country, particularly if that development is surprising in light of existing literature. In other words, the research note offers an option for authors who desire to highlight an interesting development, rather than a full theoretical analysis. Please note: research notes will undergo the usual peer review process.
Latin American Politics and Society	ASZ, CPZ, PEZ	Alfred P. Montero, Carleton College	25 pages double-spaced	dedicated to challenging prevailing orthodoxies and promoting innovative theoretical and methodological perspectives on the states, societies, economies, and international relations of the Americas in a globalizing world. original research dealing with contemporary Accepts research notes and country notes. Latin American politics, economics, sociology, and U.S.-Latin American relations.
Latin American Research Review	ASZ, IDZ, IRZ	Carmen Martinez Novo, University of Florida	7,000 words	Research notes Research notes are brief reports (of 7,000 words or less) introducing primary sources or materials of relevance to the broader academic community. Research notes may introduce historical archives, new data sets in the social sciences, field reports in anthropology, or novel sources in the digital humanities. Resources discussed in research notes should be available to other researchers in Latin American studies.
Legislative Studies Quarterly	APZ, CPZ	Brian F. Crisp, Washington University at St. Louis	4,500 words	Short research articles may be abbreviated versions of the theory testing, inferential work that is the most common article type accepted at LSQ. However, the journal is open to less traditional pieces that, for example, describe a new measure of a phenomenon that improves markedly on past attempts, apply some methodological tool to the field of legislative studies in a novel way, or show an interesting or unexpected pattern in data capturing a concept central to legislative studies. These are just a few examples, and we hope potential contributors will be creative.
Party Politics	APZ, CPZ	Paul Webb, University of Sussex	4,000 words	For research notes the preferred length is 4,000 words, with an abstract and three keywords.
Political Analysis	PMZ	Jeff Gill, American University	3,000 words	Letters (1,500 ? 3,000 words). Letters should not exceed the word-count guidelines. Letters are short reports of original research focused on important methodological or empirical contributions. This includes, but is not limited to, new empirical findings, methodological advances, theoretical arguments, as well as comments on or extensions of previous work that move the field forward. Letters are peer reviewed and subjected to the same standards as Political Analysis research articles. Letters are written in a succinct format similar to articles in the natural sciences and should have 1-3 small display items (figures, tables, or equations) that convey the main results. Letters that comment on previous scholarship should focus on the contribution of the letter and avoid needlessly attacking the original research and/or authors.
Political Research Exchange	APZ, CPZ, CRZ, IDZ, IRZ	Alexandra Segerberg, Uppsala University; Simona Guerra, University of Surrey	8,000 words	Research notes should be between 5,000 and 8,000 words, inclusive of tables, references, figure captions, endnotes. Political Research Exchange (PRX) offers a dynamic platform to advance research, innovation and debate across the breadth of political science. Published by European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR). It welcomes significant theoretical, methodological, and empirical contributions from all fields, including comparative politics, international politics / international relations, political communication, political sociology, political thought, public administration, and interdisciplinary work with a predominantly political dimension.
Political Science Research and Methods	APZ, CPZ, ENZ, ITZ, IRZ, PEZ, PMZ	Paul Kellstedt, Texas A&M University	4,000 words	Research notes should contain original work and present a new method or methodology (particularly useful if related software components are included) to solve an important problem in applied data analysis, present a new theoretical idea or argument, or comment on other articles published in the journal.
Political Studies Review	APZ, CPZ, CR, ENZ, IRZ, PEZ, PMZ, PPZ, SSZ	Justin Fisher, Brunel University London	3,000 words	Early Results: Many research projects produce exiting early results where the immediacy (and impact) is then lost as researchers seek to fashion full length articles. In the Early Results section, authors can release early findings from projects without excessive theoretical set-up or a long literature review. In essence, these articles will be akin to working papers, where the results will ultimately feature in full articles with an extended argument (in other journals or in PSR). This will provide not only a means by which early findings can be published, but also an arena in which new ideas can be explored, promoted and tested.
Politics & Gender	APZ, CPZ, CR, IDZ, IRZ, PTZ	Susan Franceschet, University of Calgary and Christina Wolbrecht, University of Notre Dame	2,000 words	The Critical Perspectives section of Politics & Gender brings together leading scholars working on the most salient themes in gender and politics research. The essays published in the section problematize old and new concepts, set the parameters for emerging research agendas, and critically summarize existing bodies of knowledge in politics, gender, and sexuality. Since the journal’s founding in 2005, Critical Perspectives has become an invaluable tool for scholars, teachers, and students in the field of politics and gender.
Politics and Religion	APZ, CPZ, IDZ, IRZ, PTZ	Andrew Lewis University of Cincinnati, USA, and Sultan Tepe University of Illinois at Chicago, USA	4,500 words	These are problem-driven research manuscripts that address timely political issues, replicate existing research, and/or report null findings. Notes should be about 4,500 words in length, including notes and references, but not tables and figures. Appendices may be placed on a website for publication in order to conform to word count limits, but must be included for review.
Politics, Groups, and Identities	APZ, CPZ, CR, IRZ	Nadia E. Brown, Georgetown University, USA	3,500 words	Research Notes can address various aspects of the research enterprise, including methodological or theoretical innovations, replications or extensions of previous studies, research designs, exploratory research, cutting-edge analysis, new data, and so on.
Problems of Post-Communism	ASZ, CPZ, IDZ	Dmitry Gorenburg, Harvard University	None listed	None listed
Public Opinion Quarterly	APZ, PMZ	Allyson L. Holbrook, University of Illinois Chicago, and others	3,000 words	Research Notes are unsolicited shorter reports (under 3,000 words of text and notes, excluding figures, tables, references, and appendices) of single findings, important extensions or replications of previous research, or other major additions to the literature that warrant publication, and which can be communicated effectively in a shorter format. Notes are refereed and subject to the same high standards applied to Original Articles. Authors should look at recent research notes to gauge the suitability of their own work for submission to POQ. Editors cannot respond to queries of fit and suitability.
Research & Politics	APZ, CPZ, ENZ, IRZ, PEZ, PMZ, SSZ	Hanna Bäck, Lund University	2,000 words	These should focus on a controversy in the literature, present a new empirical finding, or discuss the policy implications of recently gained insight. These notes have a limit of 2,000 words including notes and references but excluding figures, tables and images or any supporting material that will appear as supplemental online appendices. The number of notes should not exceed 8. Research Notes may also respond to or replicate existing research. These may include reports on null-results for cases where previously non-trivial statistical relationships were claimed.
Social Science Quarterly	APZ, CPZ, ENZ, IDZ, IRZ, PEZ, PMZ, PTZ, SSZ	Keith Gaddie, University of Oklahoma, and others	18 pages	None listed
Swiss Political Science Review	SP, IDZ, IRZ	Martino Maggetti, University of Lausanne; Anke Tresch, University of Lausanne	5000 words	A Research Note is an original, fully peer-reviewed contribution to the Swiss Political Science Review that pursues one of the following goals:  To develop a new idea or argument, in the form of speculation about a novel theoretical approach or conceptualisation;  To question established theoretical lenses by proposing refinements or combining several, hitherto isolated theories into a single framework;  To present new empirical evidence that adds to an established, "settled" debate in a systematic, although not necessarily comprehensive way;  To test an established argument using new empirical evidence (replication study), or to re-run tests of prior studies using secondary data (data re-analysis); or  To elaborate on a new method, or a combination of methods, as a certain way of testing certain hypotheses in a certain context.
West European Politics	ASZ	Klaus Goetz, University of Munich	4,000 words	A research note will typically take an accepted research question and make a conceptual contribution, a measurement contribution, or an empirical contribution that is important but does not require a full-length article.