World Politics

Guidelines for Contributors

World Politics employs a triple-blind review system for submissions. Please address all inquiries to
Emily Babson, Executive Editor, World Politics, Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies,
Louis A. Simpson
International Bldg., Room 148B,
Princeton University,
Princeton, NJ 08544.
E-mail: emily.babson@princeton.edu

World Politics aims to publish outstanding scholarship in the fields of international relations and comparative politics. We are committed to showcasing two kinds of articles:
1) research articles that pose important substantive, political questions; significantly advance theoretical debates; and present original empirical research to advance knowledge on these issues; and 2) review articles that not only analyze and compare the contributions of a number of thematically related books, but also advance our understanding of how we should analyze and pursue future work on these themes; in this regard, World Politics review articles differ from conventional book reviews.

All World Politics articles should include a clear statement of major research goals; engage with theoretical and substantive literatures; demonstrate exemplary analytic clarity and logic; be explicit about their research design and use appropriate methods; draw substantively important conclusions based on the research presented. These general points, alongside specific expectations for quantitative and qualitative research, are elaborated in the Reviewer Guidelines, which are distributed to each reviewer and can be found on the journal’s Web site wpj.princeton.edu/. Authors are encouraged to read the reviewer’s guidelines before submitting their manuscripts.

The journal does not publish opinion pieces, policy pieces, articles expounding political theory, historical articles, or narratives of a current affairs or journalistic nature.
Statements of fact and opinion appearing in World Politics are made on the responsibility of the author alone and do not imply the endorsement of the editors or publisher.
Moreover, World Politics requires authors with research involving direct engagement with human participants to affirm that they have abided by APSA’s Principles and Guidance for Human Subjects Research–adopted by the American Political Science Association in 2020 and subsequently endorsed by the World Politics editorial committee; authors should discuss any relevant ethical issues in the article text or in the appendix (and will be prompted to address relevant questions when submitting the article to ScholarOne) The questions, as they appear on ScholarOne, can be found in Appendix 1 below.

Manuscripts should be submitted with an abstract to ScholarOne Manuscripts at mc.manuscriptcentral.com/wp. Manuscript texts should be double spaced, and the word count should be indicated. Research articles and review articles may be up to 12,500 words in length, including notes and references. Tables, figures, and appendixes need not be included in the word count. Supplementary material intended for online publication should be used judiciously, only including materials that are central to the argument developed in the main text; these materials cannot exceed fifteen pages in length. Abstracts should be limited to 150 words in length. Revised articles may exceed the original word limit, including notes and references, if doing so is a result of responding to reviewers’ comments. World Politics strongly suggests that author response memos not exceed five pages, single spaced.

World Politics has a firm and long-standing policy of not considering material that has already been published (including in a foreign language), has been concurrently submitted elsewhere, or is already slated for publication even in a somewhat different form, such as a chapter of a book. This policy applies to both print and online formats. For these purposes, an online format that would preclude consideration by World Politics refers to a refereed presentation and/or a copyrighted working paper. Examples of pre-published materials that may be considered for publication by World Politics are print working papers and online papers on an author’s own homepage or Web site. Certain material already scheduled for publication, such as a chapter of a book, may be considered by World Politics if it is to appear no earlier than nine months after the likely date of publication in World Politics. Dual submission and dual publication are not permitted while a piece is under consideration at World Politics. These restrictions apply to all copyrighted publications (including book chapters, journal articles, and/or working papers).

Procedures for reviewing manuscripts are based on the anonymity of the author and the confidentiality of readers’ and editors’ reports in a triple-blind process. Author anonymity is preserved, as well, during the editorial decision-making process. Bylines or any information that could easily identify the author(s) should be removed. Self-cites should also be removed if possible. Referees are drawn from the social science scholarly community. Articles that are published in the journal have usually been reviewed by at least two non- Princeton reviewers and often, but not in all instances, one of the editors. Referees for the previous calendar year are acknowledged in the October issue of the journal. Authors can expect to receive decisions on their submissions within four months. In the case of an article deemed to be inappropriate for World Politics, the editors will notify the author that the article has been withdrawn from consideration.

World Politics has a Dataverse archive, and authors who rely on quantitative data must place their data, after a piece is accepted but prior to publication, in this trusted digital repository. The information made available should include such items as the original data; specialized computer programs; lists of computer program recodes; extracts of existing data files; and, most importantly, an explanatory file that describes what is included in the data, how it was created, the sources from which it was drawn, and how to replicate the exact numerical results produced in the work. Information should be provided in any published piece concerning the availability of the data. Embargoes on original, proprietary data for up to two years beyond the date of publication (or other special circumstances affecting the decision to make data publicly available) will be considered, but must receive the approval of the editorial committee prior to publication. The editorial committee will give special consideration to requests from junior colleagues seeking longer embargos for cases involving original data collection being used for other projects.

Access the World Politics Dataverse site at dataverse.harvard.edu/dataverse/world-politics.

Authors of published articles will receive gratis a copy of the issue in which the article appears and a PDF file of the article.

Please address all inquiries to
Emily Babson, Executive Editor, World Politics, Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies,
Louis A. Simpson
International Bldg., Room 148B,
Princeton University,
Princeton, NJ 08544.
E-mail: emily.babson@princeton.edu.

(July 2022)

Appendix 1

Ethical Conduct of Research and IRB Statement Questions

Social scientists often confront ethical challenges when conducting research and
writing up results from research. In 2020, the American Political Science Association adopted Principles and Guidance for Human Subjects Research. The World Politics editorial committee endorses and adheres to these principles. They include (among others) respect for autonomy of human participants (a broader category than “human subjects” as defined in United States federal regulation); openness about ethical issues; the researcher’s non-delegable responsibility for the ethical conduct of research; and the reasoned justification of deviations from the Principles and Guidelines in scholarly publications.

1. Did your research directly engage with human participants? Yes/No
2. Did your research adhere to the APSA Principles described and linked in the preamble? Yes/No
   If no, please select which ones were violated from the options provided.
   Where in the submission do you address the deviation from these principles?
   Did your research entail any additional ethical challenges at any stage of the research process?
   If yes, please summarize in no more than 100 words.
   Where in the submission do you address the ethical issues you note above?
3.  Did any ethics board review the research design to confirm that human participants (or human subjects) would be treated fairly and justly? (Your answer will be deidentified for reviewers, who will see only “yes” or “no” but not the name of the university or the approval number).
   If yes, please indicate the organization, reference number, and date of approval.
   If no, please indicate how you arrived at this conclusion (organization name did not deem it Human Subjects Research OR organization name granted an exemption [include reference number and date).
   If neither applies, indicate that your university does not have an IRB Board.
   If research was reviewed by an IRB, indicate statement of approval or exemption by IRB protocol number, institution, and date.

For a printable version of the Author Guidelines download this PDF.

The Hopkins Press Journals Ethics and Malpractice Statement can be found at the ethics-and-malpractice page.

Editorial Policies and Procedures

World Politics is an academic quarterly founded in 1948. It is currently produced under the auspices of the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS), Princeton University, and, as of 2023, is published by Johns Hopkins University Press. Publication of the journal is financed by subscriptions, sale of individual issues, and fees from permissions and advertisements. Since 2007, the journal has accepted submissions only through ScholarOne Manuscripts, a Web-based service, at mc.manuscriptcentral.com/wp.

World Politics publishes scholarly research articles and review articles. The journal seeks to represent all of the disciplines, methods, and viewpoints that are relevant to the central problems of international relations and comparative politics. It does not publish opinion pieces or narratives of a journalistic nature. The journal also does not publish communications to the editor or rejoinders to specific articles; scholars who believe that they have been challenged are encouraged to submit an article that will advance the scholarly debate. Statements of fact and opinion appearing in World Politics are made on the responsibility of the author alone and do not imply the endorsement of the editors and publisher.

World Politics has a firm and long-standing policy of not considering material that has already been published (including in a foreign language), has been concurrently submitted elsewhere, or is already slated for publication even in a somewhat different form, such as a chapter of a book. This policy applies to both print and online formats. For these purposes, an online format that would preclude consideration by World Politics refers to a refereed presentation and/or a copyrighted working paper. Examples of pre- published materials that may be considered for publication by World Politics are print working papers and online papers on an author’s own homepage or Web site. Certain material already scheduled for publication, such as a chapter of a book, may be considered by World Politics if it is to appear no earlier than nine months after the likely date of publication in World Politics. Dual submission and dual publication are not permitted while a piece is under consideration at World Politics. These restrictions apply to all copyrighted publications (including book chapters, journal articles, and/or working papers).

Manuscripts should be submitted with an abstract to ScholarOne Manuscripts at mc.manuscriptcentral.com/wp. Manuscripts should be double spaced, and set in a 12-point, sanserif font (Arial or Calibri, for example). Submissions should be no more than 12,500 words in length, including notes and references. In all cases, the final version accepted for publication may be longer if responding to reviews requires it. Tables, figures, and appendixes are not included in the word count.
Abstracts should be no more than 150 words in length. Appendices of supplementary materials will be published online at the journal’s Johns Hopkins Web site. World Politics edits its journal articles only; it does not edit supplementary materials. Appendices should be used judiciously, only including materials that are central to the argument developed in the main text; appendices should not exceed fifteen pages in length. Once an article is accepted for publication, authors are required to deposit quantitative data (including replication files, computer codes, and explanatory files) at the World Politics’ Dataverse site.

Procedures for reviewing manuscripts are triple-blind. Author names are not revealed to reviewers. Author names are not revealed to editors until after the final decision is made on the manuscript. Reviewer names are not revealed to authors. Reviewers may not review articles for World Politics that they have reviewed for other journals or if they know the author’s identity. For more information about the review process, please see World Politics’ reviewer guidelines.

Articles that are published in the journal have usually been reviewed by at least two non-Princeton reviewers and often, but not in all instances, one of the editors. While members of the editorial committee may not submit articles for consideration, Princeton scholars may do so (in which case they are usually reviewed by three non-Princeton reviewers before deliberation by the editorial committee).

EDITORIAL DECISIONS

All manuscripts are screened to determine whether they should be reviewed or withdrawn. Once reviewed, decisions on manuscripts—whether to accept, reject, or ask for a revision—are made at the editorial committee meetings. Committee members consider each submission on the basis of the readers’ reviews and reach their decision by majority vote, although in most cases decisions are made by consensus.

• Withdrawals. All manuscripts are screened for suitability before being sent for review. These decisions are made by committee members and rendered shortly after a piece is submitted.
  —The criteria for withdrawing a submission include general questions of quality, fit, and academic focus:
  • Is it an academic piece?
  • Does the quality of scholarship merit review?
  • If it is a high-quality academic piece, is it a good fit for World Politics? In particular, is it theoretically engaged with social science debates? Does it have an empirical discussion of political phenomena? Does it seek to make an innovative and important contribution?
• If the answers to all of these questions are yes, the piece is circulated. If no, then the piece is withdrawn.
• Accepting an article. An article may be accepted as submitted, or with suggestions for revisions to be made at the author’s discretion, or subject to the author doing some final revisions that will typically be reviewed by the editors (accept subject to/conditional accept). Manuscripts that are accepted for publication have typically been reviewed by at least three readers. Often, but not in all instances, one of the readers for an accepted article will be a member of the editorial committee, and two of the readers will be drawn from outside of Princeton University. When none of the committee members has the relevant expertise, however, a decision may be made on the basis of reviews by readers who are not on the editorial committee. When a manuscript is submitted by a Princeton author, the committee will seek three outside reviews.
• Rejecting an article. The editorial board will reject an article based on the reviews that have been received. They will automatically reject a submission on the basis of two negative reviews. Where reviews are split, the board will deliberate further and decide whether to solicit another review or to reject the manuscript at that time.
• Asking for a revise and resubmit. If the editors feel that a submission cannot be accepted in its current form but has the potential to be revised as a work of publishable quality, they may offer the author the opportunity to revise it on the basis of the critiques and suggestions provided by the reviewers. There is no commitment in advance to publish a revision, however. Revisions may be longer than the guidelines permit for an initial submission, if the manuscript has increased in length in response to suggestions made by the readers. The usual procedure is to have revisions reviewed by the original readers; in unusual circumstances, additional readers may be called in if the editors deem that to be necessary or if any of the original readers are unable to read the revision. In the case of a revision that is judged to be still in need of significant but doable work, an author may be asked to submit a second revision without a commitment to publish. If the revision does not satisfy the readers, the editors are likely to reject it. In rare cases, after reviewing the revised submission, the editors might extend an accept conditional on making additional changes.

In general, World Politics makes every effort to render decisions to authors within four months of the submission of an article. Authors of rejected manuscripts are provided with the readers’ comments and/or are given reasons for the rejection; likewise, authors invited to revise their manuscripts are provided with comments to guide them in doing their revisions. Reviewers receive anonymized copies of all decision letters.

(July 2022)

For a printable version of the Publication Ethics download this PDF.

Editorial Board

Nancy Bermeo
Lisa Blaydes
Ethan Bueno de Mesquita
Thomas J. Christensen
Christian Davenport
Christina Davis
Jane Gingrich
Anna Gryzmala-Busse
Mala Htun
Torben Iversen
Alan Jacobs
Stathis Kalyvas
David Leblang
Evan Lieberman
Ellen Lust
Lisa Martin
Dan Nexon 
Thomas Pepinsky
Jon C. W. Pevehouse
Kenneth Roberts
Margaret E. Roberts
Michael L. Ross
Joel Simmons
Kathleen Thelen
Lily Tsai
Andreas Wimmer
Elisabeth Wood
Daniel Ziblatt

Editorial Committee

Leonardo Baccini
Mark Beissinger
David B. Carter
Tanisha Fazal
Alisha C. Holland
G. John Ikenberry
Jonas Pontusson
Grigore Pop-Eleches (chair)
Rachel Beatty Riedl
Rory Truex

Associate Editors

Tanushree Goyal
Naima Green-Riley
Amaney Jamal
Jacob N. Shapiro
Guadalupe Tuñón
Andreas Wiedemann

Guidelines for Review Articles

Review articles in World Politics differ from conventional book reviews. First, they usually consider a number of books that address a similar topic, rather than a single work. Second, in addition to describing the contents of the works under review, a World Politics review article should advance our understanding of one or more of the major substantive or methodological themes suggested by those works. The good review article, that is, should be a contribution in its own right to the literature on the themes selected.

An author who is interested in writing a review article for World Politics should submit a proposal of a paragraph or two outlining how he or she intends to develop the topic at hand. The proposal should also include a tentative list of books that would be included in the essay. Proposals should be sent to Emily Babson at emily.babson@princeton.edu.

All manuscripts—including those that have been commissioned—are subject to a triple-blind review process. The editors may make suggestions for revision or may reject review articles that are not considered suitable for the journal.

World Politics does not publish reviews of books by Princeton University authors or of books published under the auspices of the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies. Books published by Princeton University Press may be reviewed in the journal, however (as long as they are not by authors at Princeton University).

World Politics has its own house style. Books under review should be listed at the beginning of the article, with complete bibliographical information, including number of pages. Notes should follow the form outlined in the style sheet. Please note that page references to books under review should be incorporated into the text, in parentheses. Manuscripts may be up to 12,500 words in length. (Submissions that are longer than that will not be considered.) They should be double-spaced, with notes run at the end.

Completed review articles should be submitted to the journal via ScholarOne Manuscript Central: mc.manuscriptcentral.com/wp.

Authors of published review articles will receive gratis a copy of the issue in which the article appears and a PDF file of the article.

(July 2022)

Abstracting & Indexing Databases

• Clarivate Analytics
  • Social Sciences Citation Index

4.5  (2023)
5.1 (Five-Year Impact Factor)
0.00262 (Eigenfactor™ Score)

Rank in Category (by Journal Impact Factor):
15 of 317 journals, in “Political Science”
4 of 165 journals, in “International Relations”

© Clarivate Analytics 2024

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