INTRODUCTION

Over the last year we are delighted to have seen an increase in the number of articles submitted to the journal and an increase in article downloads. It is also pleasing to see a diversity of countries and regions for article downloads. We worked hard in 2022-23 to progress articles where a decision was outstanding and/or where they had been too long in production without being assigned to an issue. The latest data from Taylor and Francis indicates that the oldest article not yet assigned to an issue was received in production in June 2023 and as such we are pleased to have improved the timeliness of production. We have also maintained strong copy flow and with the shift to no minimum rather than maximum pagination we are in a healthy position to sustain a run of the journal for nearly a year if we were to stop receiving articles. Whilst this is extremely unlikely, it is as ever important that we strike a balance between timely publication and maintain a healthy pipeline of copy.

We believe that our work will continue to build the citation metrics for the journal, and whilst there was a very slight decline from 1.1 to 0.9 from 2022 to 2023, we recognize that it will take a number of years before we are able to see an overall trend. It is, however, noticeable that the largest number of citations are from within the journal itself, which is reflected by the nature of the relatively small number of journals for publishing SOTL work.

We have sought to continue to raise the profile of the journal through organizing roundtable events at conferences such as APSA and ISA. We have sought to proactively engage the Editorial Board in undertaking reviews and have endeavored to limit the number of reviews that any member of the board undertakes. We have also brought together our first symposium on Teaching Political Science in Times of Conflict, comprising four articles and an editorial introduction which will be published in volume 20, issue 3. We have brought together a 20-year anniversary collection on the back of a call for papers that was initially communicated in 2022. After an initial review process by the editors and the subsequent peer review process, 11 articles plus an editorial introduction that comprise the 20-year anniversary edition will be published in volume 20, issue 4.

Nonetheless, we recognize that there is still more that we can do to further disseminate the work of the journal, both in established networks such as APSA, ISA and PSA, as well as in other networks and also geographically. We can see that there are only 139 subscribers to the journal for news content alerts and this is something that we need to improve on. One option would be to include subscription links in author and referee correspondence and to publicize this opportunity more clearly, as it is something we feel is not sufficiently advertised. There might be strategies here that the publishers and/or APSA could assist with.

Author satisfaction surveys indicate a positive publishing experience, albeit with a relatively small number of dissatisfied responses. Authors were generally positive with the refereeing process for the journal and whilst overall we do have a positive response when asking reviewers, on occasion it can take multiple rounds of invitations for enough reviews to be obtained. We have worked to diversify and increase the pull of reviewers through such work as sign-up sheets at APSA meetings.

We take a positive, mentoring, approach on articles where authors are from countries that are non-native English speakers as part of our effort to further diversify the journal. This has been reflected in additional support in terms of editing the article and supporting authors at the point of first submission.

Table 1. Journal highlights for year ending 2023**

EDITORIAL BOARD

Having made significant changes to the Editorial Board in our first year of editorship which led to a significant positive change in the diversity of the journal in terms of gender, geography and institutional location, we have not made any further changes this year. We would, however, anticipate that in 2025 we will look to further refresh the Editorial Board based on length of tenure.

We are keen to engage positively with the Editorial Board, both through formal meetings such as at the APSA annual meeting and through informal consultation and asking editorial board members to undertake reviews of articles as well as to assist with reviewing special collections and being members of the annual prize committee.

ANNUAL PRIZE

Our first annual prize for the best article published in volume 18 in 2022 was awarded in 2023 to Loan K. Lee for her article “Freedom of Information in the Classroom: Teaching for Empowerment in the Social Sciences and in Ethnic Studies,” which was published in volume 18, issue 2. Dr Lee is President and CEO of the Institute for Good Government and Inclusion at San Francisco State University. We are grateful to the support of Taylor and Francis for the $200 prize. The prize committee comprised three members of the editorial board: Mary McHugh, Michelle Deardorff and Patrick Bijsmans.

The prize committee for volume 19 in 2023 is Kerstin Hamann (chair), Mitchell Brown and Loan K. Lee who will make their decision by mid-August in time for confirmation at the APSA Annual meeting in September.

Table 2. Editorial Board 2023-2024

24 members —15 Female (62.5%), 9 Male (37.5%)

Table 3. Editorial Board by Gender (Percentage of Total)

Table 4. Editorial Board by Location 2023-24 (Percentage of Total)

IMPACT FACTOR

The Impact Factor for the journal in 2023 was 0.9. This was slightly down from 1.1 in 2022, which was the first year the journal had an impact factor. The journal is ranked 196/317 in Political Science.

We put in a number of strategies in 2022-23 that include symposiums and a 20-year anniversary which we hope will have a positive direction on the journal’s Impact Factor. We will have a symposium published in volume 20, issue 3 and the 20-year anniversary will be published in volume 20, issue 4. For volume 21 we are compiling a symposium on Teaching in an Era of Artificial Intelligence. The articles in this symposium offer both positive ways professors can interact with AI, as well as critiques of the use of AI. We hope that this, when combined with a renewed focus on research rigor, will build the Impact Factor over coming years. It is noticeable that the top cited article based on the Taylor & Francis data is Jeremy Moulton’s article on Employability, which highlights the importance to our readership of key issues around the defense of the discipline.

Whilst we have a sense from the Taylor & Francis report of the articles that are getting the most citations, it would equally be useful to find out if there are articles that are not receiving any citations.

SUBMISSIONS

During this past year, the journal continued to receive submissions from a number of authors, from different regions and countries. The manuscript types are categorized differently and are now identified under “Book Review,” “Books, Teaching Tools, Educational Resources,” “Discussion,” or “Research Article.” The previous designations include “Books, Teaching Tools, Education Resources,” “Political Science Instruction,” “Reflections on Teachings and the Academy, and “Scholarship of Learning and Teaching.”

Between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024, the journal received 142 original submissions. This is up from 79 the previous year. The majority of the manuscripts (142/87.3%) were research articles, followed by book reviews (10/7.0%), discussions (7/4.9%), and books, teaching tools, and educational resources (1/0.7%). Table 5 illustrates the types of manuscript categories that were received last year and the percentage of submissions. Last year, the majority of manuscripts focused on “Scholarship of Teaching and Learning” followed by “Political Science Instruction.”

At the point of submission all articles are initially reviewed by the editor-in-chief and lead editor to determine their suitability for the journal. 55 (38.7%) of the articles received were desk rejected as being inappropriate for the journal. This was primarily because the article’s content was not focused on political science education, the article was unsound in terms of the contribution that it was seeking to make, the article was speculative and did not fit the aims of the journal, and/or the article did not meet the ethical standards that we have set down for data collection.

Whilst the submission data in Table 5 provides an overview of submissions to the journal, it does not break down the submissions into the various sub-categories that we put in place when we took over the journal in 2022, such as pedagogic and curricular innovations. Going forward, it might be helpful to have a reporting breakdown of the specific submissions so that it is possible to compare trends at a more granular level.

Table 5. Original Manuscripts by Type Received between July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024

Table 6 illustrates the manuscripts received between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024, and compares the number of articles received the previous year. July 2024 saw the largest number of articles (31/21.8%), followed by October (17/12%), and January (14/9.9%). Last year’s submissions saw the largest increase in May (11/13.9%), followed by August (10/12.7%), then October and February (9/11.4%).

Table 6. Manuscripts Received by Month between July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024

Table 7 highlights that authors from 26 different countries or regions submitted manuscripts between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024. This is compared to 24 countries last year. The largest percentages of original submissions continue to be from authors residing in the United States with 76 manuscripts or 53.5% of total submissions. This is an increase from 36 or 45.57% the previous year. Authors from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland submitted the next highest number of manuscripts with 8 submissions or 5.6%, followed by Albania, China, Indonesia, Spain, and Türkiye with 5 submissions each or 3.5% each of the total submissions.

Table 7. Submissions by Country between July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024

Table 8. Average Days from Submission to a Decision

Table 9. Manuscripts Grouped by Status Types between July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024

REVIEWERS

During the period of July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024, there were 283 reviewers on file. However, though we had many reviewers to pull from, we sometimes found it difficult to find reviewers for certain articles. This increased the time under review for a handful of pieces.

Table 10. Reviewer Statistics

PLANS FOR THE YEAR AHEAD

We are hosting two roundtables at the American Political Science Association Annual conference in September 2024, one on Teaching Contentions International Issues and one on Teaching through Domestic Challenges and “Culture Wars.” We hope that the discussions from these roundtables will be published as symposia in JPSE.

Further, for the APSA Teaching and Learning conference in 2025, the JPSE editorial team is proposing a workshop on publishing pedagogical and SoTL research. We also plan to work on a paper that evaluates JPSE data over the journal’s lifetime, looking at for example important issues such as gender of authors.

We will continue to take advantage of having two editors outside of North America by focusing on disseminating the work of the journal to international conferences and networks outside of North America, such as through the UK Political Studies Association and European Consortium for Political Research. This also includes taking advantage of meeting with potential and existing authors through networks and institutional contacts.

In addition, we hope to curate special online collections of articles previously published in JPSE. Such topics for these online collections might include, teaching and artificial intelligence, diversity and inclusion in the political science classroom, simulations and games, teaching research in political science, etc.

We have also prepared some guidance for authors related to conducting Scholarship of Teaching and Learning research and the importance of following their institution’s and APSA’s ethical guidelines for research with human subjects. We hope to be able to disseminate this information to authors more fully in the coming year.

CONCLUSION

Our second year of editing the journal has been a period of consolidation after our first year, when we sought to reposition the journal so that it went back to its core focus on publishing rigorous research in political science education. We are delighted to have seen an increase in the number of submissions, but equally note that a number of submissions have also been subject to desk rejection. Where possible we have sought to provide speedy decisions to authors at the point of submission in terms of whether to send for review or not. In some instances, it has proven difficult to find reviewers for articles which has impacted on the overall submission to acceptance data. But on the whole we continue to receive very good support from the Political Science Education community.

The introduction of new initiatives such as symposiums and the annual prize are now beginning to see traction in terms of establishing practices around these areas of work. We are now receiving informal enquiries for symposium ideas and we hope to see this area of the journal grow and develop. The increased number of allowable articles and pages for the journal will facilitate the production of symposia that might have otherwise been difficult to publish with strict page limits. The collection of articles for the 20-year anniversary has taken longer to bring about than we initially expected, but we are looking forward to seeing the collection in print in volume 20, issue 4.

We are grateful to the support of the Editorial Board, colleagues at APSA and Taylor & Francis, and of course our excellent journal administrator Rita Kettani Christiansen.

POINTS TO RAISE WITH THE APSA COUNCIL

As we look to develop the journal it would be good to be provided with some additional guidance from the publishers regarding tactics and strategies that can have a positive impact, such as the way in which we can drive up the number of scholars who follow the journal. It would also be useful to have a discussion with the publishers in terms of whether it is possible to look at levels of data reporting which include the categories of submission that go beyond research articles.

Another potential area of concern relates to the use of articles from JPSE to train AI. The editors note that Taylor & Francis, the publisher of the journal, has recently sold the rights to all its public works to be used to train AI. This is an area that might warrant some discussions with the APSA Council. ■