The corresponding author of a manuscript that is accepted for publication in the American Journal of Political Science must provide materials that are sufficient to enable interested researchers to verify all of the analytic results that are reported in the text and supporting materials. The document titled “American Journal of Political Science Guidelines for Preparing Replication Files”* provides useful information about what information is needed and how it should be organized. All verification files must be stored in a Dataset within the AJPS Dataverse, on the Harvard Dataverse Network. Note that authors also can make their verification files available elsewhere (e.g., their personal website, other data repositories, etc.) as long as all of the necessary files are included in the Dataset on the AJPS Dataverse.
The corresponding author should prepare and upload verification materials to the AJPSDataverse before submitting the final draft of the accepted manuscript. The “American Journal of Political Science Quick Reference for Uploading Replication Files”* provides information about creating a Dataset on the AJPS Dataverse and depositing materials into it. The “American Journal of Political Science Quantitative Data Verification Checklist” and “American Journal of Political Science Qualitative Data Verification Checklist” are designed to help authors ensure that they have provided all necessary files.
When the final draft of the manuscript is submitted, the materials will be verified to confirm that they do, in fact, reproduce the analytic results reported in the article. For quantitative analyses, the verification process is carried out by the Archive Staff at the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science, at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. For qualitative analyses, the verification process will be handled by the staff of the Qualitative Data Repository (QDR), at Syracuse University. Immediately after successful verification, the Odum Institute staff or the QDR staff will release the Dataset for public access and the AJPS Editorial Staff will forward the final draft of the manuscript to the publisher for copyediting, production, and publication. The AJPS Editor retains the final authority for determining whether an article’s verification materials will be verified by the Odum Institute or the QDR. Publication in the American Journal of Political Science is contingent upon provision of complete verification materials and successful verification of their content.
AJPS articles that do not contain empirical data analyses are not subject to this verification policy. In some limited circumstances, an author may request an exemption from the verification policy. This exemption would allow the author to withhold or limit public access to some or all of the data used in an analysis. All other verification materials (e.g., software commands, etc.) still must be provided. The primary reasons for such exemptions are restricted access to datasets and human subjects protection. If an exemption is granted, then the author must include a note at the beginning of the published article explicating acknowledging the limitations on data availability and describing the restrictions that prevent public access to the exempted data. Any exemptions from the verification policy must be approved explicitly by the AJPS Editor, who retains final authority to decide whether the requested exemption will be granted.
*NOTE: Updates to the verification policy documents coming soon!