By Jan Leighley, AJPS Interim Lead Editor
After a whirlwind editorial transition, we are looking forward to a reprieve from the daily submissions that require our attention. We are taking a two-week break from the workload (instead of the usual month-long hiatus), which will allow us to catch up on decisions, pester reviewers and tend to the usual pre-APSA and Fall Semester preparations.
Of course, the two-week break will not slow down the publication of accepted papers; volume 62:3 was just released in July. All of the papers in 62:3 were shepherded through review and publication by Bill Jacoby and his staff. The same will hold true for nearly all the papers in 62:4—to be published in October—where we have had the privilege of moving some of the papers into the final decision or production stages.
Substantively, I have been surprised by the large number of comparative politics submissions we are receiving—though a careful review of 62:3 and 62:4 should have been an obvious sign that, contrary to some rumors, the AJPS publishes far more than “just” American politics. Related, I have received emails asking whether the AJPS publishes qualitative research papers, as rumor has it the AJPS does not. Just to clarify: come August 20, the AJPS will be open for submissions again, and we welcome submissions across all subfields, and all methodological approaches. As a general journal, we seek to publish the best work across the discipline, papers that offer theoretical, methodological and empirical advances.
I am also using the time over break to make the staff transition from Michigan State to American University, which we couldn’t do during the abbreviated transition period in the spring. I am grateful to the MPSA, Michigan State and, most importantly, the exceptional staff that continued to work for us as we sorted out editorial issues. Marty Jordan, who was Managing Editor for the past year, continued to play this key role for the past few months, while Nathaniel C. Smith and Jessica A. Schoenhoerr also continued in their roles as Editorial Assistants. We simply could not have caught up from the month-long hiatus, and starting to review manuscripts (old and new) without each of them continuing to do the fine work they had done over the past year.
Aside from manuscript decisions, though, who is doing what here in the editorial office will change. I am pleased to introduce Julia Salvatore as our new Editorial Administrative Assistant. Julia will be, most importantly, managing the ajps@mpsanet.org inbox, responding to author, reviewer and associate editor queries, among other office management tasks. Marty Jordan will be shifting to Production Editor, handling all post-decision matters associated with the publication of accepted papers, including replication and post-production communications.
I thank you for your patience as we shift Marty, Julia and others into new and different responsibilities and tasks. Hopefully the slower pace of the editorial office during the break will minimize any disruptions due to the staff transition. As always, send questions or concerns to ajps@mpsanet.org.
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