*The American Journal of Political Science is the official journal of the Midwest Political Science Association.  AJPS is committed to significant advances in knowledge and understanding of citizenship, governance, and politics, and to the public value of political science research

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Guidelines for Reviews

AJPS contributions to knowledge generation, production, communication, and value depend on the integrity and quality of its process of peer review of submitted manuscripts.  This process, in turn, relies on the thought and time that a reviewer invests in a manuscript.  If you are selected as a reviewer, then please know that AJPS very much appreciates your investment and acknowledges your contribution each year.

Review Preparation  AJPS sends a manuscript to a reviewer by emailing a pdf file or by pointing her/him to an online site.  When you receive a manuscript, please do the following.

·        After accessing the manuscript and in preparing the review, cite the manuscript title as well as the manuscript identification number and your review number at the top of the first review page.

·        AJPS requests that reviews address the following points about the merits of the manuscript in as long a review as a reviewer chooses to provide (although a 1-1.5 page length is typical).  The points include, but are not limited, to:

• The extent to which the manuscript addresses an interesting and important research problem or question.

• The amount of creativity or innovation of research informing the manuscript.

• The extent to which the manuscript engages the relevant research literature and contributes to the accumulation of knowledge.

• The quality of:

-Thought and/or theorizing (as appropriate).

-Conceptual development or use (as appropriate).

-Analysis or methodological use (as appropriate).

-Evidence bearing on the argument, theory, or rival hypotheses, models, or theories introduced (as appropriate).

-Organization of the manuscript.

-Communication or written expression in the manuscript.

·       At the end of a review, the reviewer should provide his/her summary evaluation and her/his overall recommendation as follows:

--- Summary Evaluation

• Excellent – the manuscript is superb in all respects.

• Very Good – the manuscript is very good in several respects with few minor and fixable problems

• Good – the manuscript is good in several respects, has several minor but fixable problems and possibly one or more (un) fixable problems

• Fair – the manuscript is inadequate in most respects and has many minor and major, and largely unfixable, problems

• Poor – the manuscript is inferior in all respects.

--- Overall Recommendation

Must publish as is.

 

Must publish with minor revisions (with particular revisions stated in the review).

 

Revise and Resubmit – This recommendation must include a statement of particular improvements.  It should be made only when the research and manuscript fundamentals are sound (e.g., the theory and hypotheses, and the models or models, as appropriate, are strong, the dataset, as appropriate, is complete, and the literature is consulted), and, accordingly, the manuscript has a  >85% probability-of-successful revision and re-review in the time period specified.

 

Decline to publish.

·        Please note that reviews are advisory to the Editor.

Review Submission   Reviews should be sent as anonymous files to us at www.editorialmanager.com/ajps/ preferably not later than 45 days from receipt of a review request.  An individual should not review if s/he was an author’s doctoral dissertation supervisor, has been a co-author of an author in the past 24 months, is a colleague in an author’s department or comparable academic unit, or has a family or other personal relationship with an author, but s/he can recommend 1-3 other qualified reviewers.  In addition, an individual who reviewed the manuscript for another journal is not automatically disqualified as a reviewer for The AJPS.  Questions or recommendations can be sent to the same email address or to the Editorial Office at (972)883-4595.

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