AJPS DURING SUMMER 2014: TWO SHORT BREAKS RATHER THAN ONE LONG HIATUS

The American Journal of Political Science, like most other major journals in political science, takes a one-month break during the summer. During this period, no new manuscripts are accepted, although all other Journal operations continue unabated. For 2014, we are going to try something new: Rather than shutting down the office for a single one-month hiatus, we will take two shorter breaks. The first will occur May 21 through June 9, 2014. The second will take place from July 12 through July 28, 2014.

We believe these multiple short breaks have several advantages over a single longer hiatus. For example, authors who finish manuscripts during one of these breaks will now have a shorter wait until the paper can be submitted to the Journal. I can say from personal experience that preparing a paper for submission, only to find that I have to wait a month to do so, is extremely frustrating! Of course, a two-week wait will be frustrating too, but hopefully not as much so.

For the Editorial Staff and me, the shorter break means that we will be confronted with a smaller “rush” of submissions at the end of the hiatus period than would have been the case with a one-month break. But, that is really the only difference that we will experience. Remember, all other aspects of manuscript processing will continue as usual during the break periods. These activities include sending out reminders to referees, accepting incoming reviews, making editorial decisions, and preparing new issues of the Journal. All in all, there will be very little in the way of interruptions to the usual flow of manuscripts through the review process.

So, please remember to mark your calendars if you plan to send your work to the American Journal of Political Science sometime this summer: Again, the AJPS Editorial Office will be closed to new submissions from May 21 through June 9, 2014, and from July 14 through July 28, 2014.

Finally, please do not hesitate to let us know if you have preferences regarding the structure of the summer breaks. Our use of multiple shorter breaks this year is something of an experiment. If the process does not work well, or if reactions are overwhelmingly negative, then we may well return to a single longer break in 2015. So, once again, feel free to let us know what you think!