Introduction

The journal Network Science (Cambridge University Press) is pleased to collaborate with a recent European Consortium for Political Research joint session on Networks of Political Beliefs on the following Special Issue. 

Research examining the relationships between different beliefs dates back to Philip Converse (1964) who compared the beliefs of populations of public and elite on international relations. Drawing on this work, the ‘relational culture’ perspective argues that the relationships among attitudes, beliefs, and values are a crucial element of society because they give meaning and order (Abelson and Rosenberg 1958; Swidler 1986; Eckstein 1988; Romney et al. 1996; Pachucki and Breiger 2010; McLean 2016; DiMaggio et al. 2018). Viewing the relationships between beliefs as a network structure permits the testing of new questions and theories about cultural formation and change within the social networks that exist in society (Leifeld 2013; Wang, Rao, and Soule 2019).

Methods and applications, however, are fragmented across a variety of different disciplines including, for example, anthropology (White, Burton, and Brudner 1977), computer science (Kosko 1986), political science (Grofman and Hyman 1973; Hoffman, Lubell and Hillis 2014), psychology (Thagard 2012; Mansell, Reuter, Rhea and Kiesel 2021) and sociology (Butts 2003; Goldberg 2011; Boutyline and Vaisey 2017). Some of these methods are comparative classics like directed acyclic graphs (Pearl 2022) or Bayesian Belief Networks (Fenton and Neil 2018), but new approaches applying complex systems methodologies such as causal loop diagrams (McGlashan 2016), semantic networks (Yang et al 2017) and system mapping (Zexian et al 2010). However, much of this work is siloed in different disciplines and using a variety of different terms to describe similar approaches.

For this Network Science special issue, we are looking for innovative papers that examine networks of connections between beliefs. This includes papers using different methodological approaches and from a broad range of disciplines, but explicitly focused on networks where beliefs, ideas, or concepts form the nodes of the network. Both methodologically focused work, especially those comparing two or more methods, as well as novel substantive applications will be welcomed.

Aims

We welcome submissions deriving from the ECPR workshop and those of authors who did not participate in this event. 

This special issue aims to bring together the different approaches to understanding belief described above - whether mental models, fuzzy cognitive maps, cognitive affective mapping or belief networks - into one collection that focuses on their common reliance on a network to represent their data. The issue will be open access and will provide an interdisciplinary benchmark that will be referenced by future scholars across disciplines. 

Additionally, where papers draw on many standard network approaches like centrality and motifs, networks of beliefs also offer the opportunity for some innovation and methodological approaches that are different from other network methods because of the substantive difference in content. We encourage the submission of papers that translate other network measures into new contexts.

Timetable

Authors are encouraged to submit when ready, with a submission deadline of May 1st 2024 September 1st 2024.

Articles will be published on a FirstView basis - i.e. made available as soon as possible after acceptance, not held up for an issue deadline - with the complete issue expected to published with an introduction from the editors as part of the 13th Volume (2025). 

How to Submit

Authors should consult the Preparing your Materials section of the Network Science website for full guidance, but a quick guide follows: 

• Network Science operates a double-blind review process so authors should prepare an anonymised manuscript and a title page; 
• LaTeX and Overleaf templates are available for authors who wish to use them; 
• We encourage authors to make replication materials available (see the journal's Research Transparency policy)
• Please remember to include a competing interest statement, funding statement and data availability statement in your title page
• Submit using the Network Science ManuscriptCentral site and select 'Network Approaches to Attitudes and Beliefs' from the special issue question in the submission form. 

Authors can contact the journal's Managing Editor via nws@cambridge.org with any questions about the submission process.

Open Access

From 2024, Network Science will publish all articles on an open access basis: completely freely available to read and redistribute, under a Creative Commons license. 

Open Access at Cambridge University Press (CUP) is funded through a mixture of sources: 

• Most Network Science (NWS) authors are covered by Transformative Agreements that CUP holds with over 2,700 institutions worldwide (see the full list). If an article has a corresponding author based at one of these institutions, the cost of publishing open access is covered by the agreement. This means that there is no need for the authors to find separate funds to pay an article processing charge.
• NWS authors who are not covered by Transformative Agreements but have funding available from a grant or body that budgets for open access publication are expected to pay an article processing charge. 
• NWS without a Transformative Agreement or funding will be able to obtain a discretionary waiver after acceptance.

In summary, we'd like to stress that because of the extensive list of agreements - and the availability of waiver processes for authors without funding or an agreement - there is no financial barrier to publication. Authors should feel free to submit irrespective of where they are based or their funding situation.

Editors

• Claudia Zucca (Tilburg University the Netherlands), Guest Editor
• Lorien Jasny (University of Exeter, UK), Guest Editor
• Laura Koehly (National Human Genome Research Institute, USA), NWS Editorial Board