Publication Guide
The American Political Science Association (APSA) is the definitive professional society for political science. Founded in 1903 in New Orleans and headquartered in Washington DC, it serves more than 11,000 members in over 100 countries. Unlike a commercial publisher, APSA is a scholarly society: it owns and editorially governs four core peer-reviewed journals, all published on its behalf by Cambridge University Press. Its flagship, the American Political Science Review (APSR, est. 1906), is widely regarded as the discipline's most prestigious journal. APSA's roughly 40 organized sections are also associated with about 15 additional journals, such as Politics & Gender.
This guide covers what each APSA journal publishes, the open-access routes and APCs on Cambridge's platform, the peer-review workflow, and how to submit.
Which APSA journal fits your paper?
| You're most likely to... | Choose this journal |
|---|---|
| Have a major theoretical or empirical contribution aimed at the whole discipline | American Political Science Review (APSR) - the flagship, quarterly since 1906. Highly selective; research articles under 11,000 words, research notes under 7,000. |
| Want to reach a broad political-science audience with an accessible, synthetic, or public-facing argument | Perspectives on Politics - launched 2003 as APSA's "political science public sphere" journal; publishes research articles, reflections, and an extensive book-review section. |
| Be writing about the profession itself - teaching, careers, methods notes, or timely short analyses | PS: Political Science & Politics - APSA's journal of record for the profession, including symposia on current politics. |
| Study the scholarship of teaching and learning in political science | Journal of Political Science Education (JPSE) - pedagogy-focused, co-sponsored with APSA's Political Science Education section. |
| Work on gender and politics | Politics & Gender - the journal of APSA's Women, Gender, and Politics Research section, also on Cambridge Core. |
What APSA actually publishes
- American Political Science Review - all subfields: political theory, American politics, comparative politics, international relations, methodology. Quarterly, double-anonymized review, edited since June 2024 by a team led by John Gerring and Monika Nalepa.
- Perspectives on Politics - broad-audience research and integrative essays; known for its book-review section.
- PS: Political Science & Politics - profession-facing pieces: teaching, the discipline, short topical symposia.
- Journal of Political Science Education - research on political-science pedagogy and curriculum.
- Organized-section journals - about 15 titles associated with APSA sections (e.g., Politics & Gender, Journal of Experimental Political Science), typically also published by Cambridge.
Open access & APCs
All four core APSA journals are hybrid: subscription-based by default, with an optional Gold OA route on Cambridge Core. There are no submission fees, and publishing without OA costs nothing.
| Route | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription (default) | $0 | No submission or page charges; article sits behind Cambridge Core paywall. |
| Hybrid Gold OA | ~$3,655 (£2,610) | Uniform 2026 APC across APSR, Perspectives on Politics, and PS; CC BY licence available. Check the journal's live fees page before submitting. |
| Read & Publish agreement | $0 to author | Cambridge has OA agreements with 2,000+ institutions; if your corresponding author is covered, the APC is waived automatically. |
| Cambridge Open Equity Initiative | $0 to author | Covers authors in 100+ low- and middle-income countries. |
| Green OA | $0 | Self-archiving of the accepted manuscript per Cambridge's sharing policy. |
Peer review
APSR uses double-anonymized peer review - authors must anonymize manuscripts and cite their own work in the third person. The other core journals follow rigorous anonymized review appropriate to their article types (symposia and reflections at PS and Perspectives may be editorially reviewed). APSR is among the most selective journals in the social sciences; expect multi-month decision timelines and consult its annual editorial reports for current statistics.
How to submit
- Pick the journal using the fit table above; read the aims and scope on Cambridge Core.
- Format the manuscript in APSA style - an author-date system derived from the Chicago Manual of Style (17th ed.). SciSpace hosts APSA-compatible templates.
- Respect the limits: APSR research articles under 11,000 words (including tables, figures, and footnotes; excluding references), abstracts up to 150 words.
- Submit via Editorial Manager - APSR uses editorialmanager.com/apsr; other APSA journals list their own submission portals on Cambridge Core.
- Prepare for anonymized review: remove identifying information, and be ready to deposit replication data - APSR requires materials in the APSR Dataverse on acceptance.
Ethics and integrity
APSA journals follow COPE guidance through Cambridge University Press, a COPE member. APSA maintains its own "Guide to Professional Ethics in Political Science," and APSR enforces data-access and replication-transparency requirements. Retractions and corrections are handled on Cambridge Core under Cambridge's publishing-ethics framework.
APSA membership and the journals
APSA membership is not required to submit to any of the journals, but members receive online access to APSR, Perspectives on Politics, and PS as a benefit, and the association's annual meeting is a common venue for developing work that later appears in them.
