As we come into the final year of our term as editors of Political Studies Review, we thought it would be a good time to reflect on what we’ve learned over the last five years. Our team – all based at Brunel University London – took over the editorship of Political Studies Review (PSR) at the end of 2018. We inherited a journal that was in a strong place, with previous editorial teams having ensured that the journal had gone from strength to strength. Our goal was to build upon this success but also to innovate with some new ideas to help strengthen the journal’s identity. The two most significant developments were introducing new article types and prioritising research dissemination via social media.
Journal publishing is a crowded market. So, one approach we were keen to take was distinguishing PSR from other journals and giving it a stronger unique identity. Our first step in seeking to achieve this was by expanding the range of article types featured in the journal. So in addition to the established long-form articles, review articles and special issues, we introduced three new types of articles, all of them (initially) in a shorter format: Early Results, the Null Hypothesis, and Symposia and New Ideas.
Early Results articles focused on publishing exciting early results from projects where the immediacy (and impact) of the new results might be lost where researchers sought to fashion full-length articles. We wanted to provide an outlet to provide not only a means by which early findings could be published but also an arena in which new ideas could be explored, promoted and tested.
Like early results papers, the Symposia and New Ideas section was designed to test new ground. We wanted an outlet through which authors could explore and flesh out new ideas and directions for study, which ultimately could become more extensive articles. This section would be particularly attractive to groups of scholars who wanted to create an environment where exciting ideas could initially be explored and then developed at a later date as readers and reviewers fed ideas back to them.
The Null Hypothesis section was developed to recognise that many research projects produced results where the hypotheses were rejected, but where the results were nonetheless interesting. We wanted to publish papers where there was a sound theoretical reason for stipulating hypotheses but where these hypotheses had to be rejected. Few journals offer such an outlet.
Overall, these new sections have proven to be a great success, with all three generating many new submissions. Regular, long-form articles remain a core part of PSR’s identity, but nearly 30% of our published papers since 2019 have been from these three new sections. PSR has quickly established itself as a home for these papers. So, we’re very happy with how these innovations have panned out because they’ve helped the journal really develop its own particular identity. And, of course, because they’ve been great papers.
Our second idea to really help the journal develop a strong identity was to place significant emphasis on how we promoted the papers we published. We committed ourselves to presenting and visualizing published research data to enhance its online visibility and introduce research findings published in PSR to a much broader audience. To do this, we made a conscious decision to focus our journal staffing on a professional social media communicator, rather than a traditional editorial assistant, and in the spring of 2019, we hired a communications specialist to take over the managerial reins of the journal. This move quickly established a strong social media presence for the journal and introduced inventive forms of content dissemination, including infographics, interviews with authors, and short podcasts.
The primary social channel for dissemination we focused on was Twitter. We also launched a dedicated blog and website (in addition to the publisher’s website) where we featured submission information, the journal’s vision, news, and consolidated all our content. The impact was rapid and very positive. Our Twitter activity regularly reaches 40,000-80,000 impressions per month – representing both a significant presence and identity for the journal, and also, of course, helping the articles reach large numbers of people. Indeed, in some months we have reached over 100,000 organic post impressions on Twitter.
Typically, we post between 6 and 2 times a week on social media, with an average of 3 to 4 posts weekly. We use minimalist, clear design aligned with the journal’s branding – a conscious decision to enable our tweets to stand out. Some examples are shown below. We have also launched an Instagram account and are currently developing on LinkedIn, but we believe that (X) Twitter remains the optimal platform for engaging academic audiences.
Illustration 1 Some examples of PSR infographics. For more, follow as on X (@PolStudiesRev)
We have found that infographics and our short podcasts contribute significantly to reaching larger audiences. With infographics, we have translated complex datasets, created simple graphs and maps, or highlight the most interesting quotations from the articles to capture the audience’s attention. Our podcasts are aimed at illustrating the main ideas of the PSR publications by their authors, with a maximum length of 140 seconds. We accept both audio and video recordings, allowing authors to include additional visually appealing content related to their articles, such as pictures, graphs, and charts. In addition, author interviews serve the purpose of translating complex research into simpler, more conversational language, providing authors with an opportunity to incorporate more interactive content and explore practical applications of their research.
Illustration 2 A podcast example, for more go to https://psr.brunel.ac.uk
This increase in the journal’s visibility was one of the factors that led to a significant growth in citations and improved impact factor, with the most spectacular results in 2021 when our impact factor tripled. We have also significantly increased the number of article downloads.
While discussing the importance of research dissemination, we often present a very particular case study to which we’ve made a humble contribution. In April 2021, Stephanie Stark and Sofía Collignon published an article on an important, sensitive, and timely issue titled ‘Sexual Predators in Contest for Public Office: How the American Electorate Responds to News of Allegations of Candidates Committing Sexual Assault and Harassment.’ This article analysed the case of sexual harassment allegations towards Governor Andrew Cuomo, and in the context of its effects on the U.S. election.
The authors took research dissemination very seriously, extending their activities beyond our podcast and research-based interviews. Stephanie Stark discussed her research in the episode of the BBC Woman’s Hour series. She also published an article based on her and Dr Collignon’s research in The Atlantic (Why Democrats Don’t Tolerate Sexual Harassers in Office), Teen Vogue (Why No Research Has Been Conducted About Candidates Who Commit Sexual Assault). Stephanie Stark’s and Sofía Collignon’s research was featured in the episode of BBC Americast podcast, Washington Monthly as well as on GB News. The results were outstanding: to date, the article has been download over 64,600 times. The article was awarded The PSR Best Paper Award in 2023.
Illustration 3 Some publications that helped to promote the article by Stephanie Stark and Sofía Collignion
Illustration 4 Stephanis’s Stark article in Teen Vogue
We’ve really enjoyed (and continue to enjoy) our stewardship of the journal. It’s been great working the PSA, Sage and the other PSA editorial teams. But what we’ve also learned is that journals need to develop their own unique identity to really thrive. This can be done both by thinking carefully about the type of content, but more importantly, by promoting the papers published in the journal as widely as possible. We think that focusing significant attention on social media is one way to do that. But critically, you need to use these platforms effectively to make you stand out from the crowd. Using clear journal branding, distinctive infographics and innovations like short podcasts are some ways in which this can be done. And to do that, you really need someone in the team with the appropriate professional skills to achieve that.
But there’s still plenty more to do. For all the innovations, we still need to make our author base more diverse. Geographically, we’ve we managed to increase both the number of submissions and published papers from outside the anglosphere and Western Europe, but there’s still more progress to be made. Equally, we continue to strive for greater diversity in general amongst our authors. But we think that offering a wider range of article types and making sure research is disseminated effectively is a good way to help both broaden the appeal and opportunities for authors and readers alike.
Editorial team members 2018-2024:
Journal communications & management (2019-2024)
Some useful links:
