Recent years – especially under the two last editorial teams, following the structural changes of the mid-2010s – have seen IPSR/RISP successfully evolving from the journal of the Italian political science community towards a fully-fledged international journal, which is now established as an international publication venue with a special connection to a national research community. We are deeply honoured to be entrusted with the editorship of IPSR/RISP and to participate in its ongoing and rich history. We would like to take the opportunity to warmly thank the previous editors Filippo Tronconi and Martin Bull as well as the managing editor Elisabetta De Giorgi for their excellent work of the last 4 years. The stakes are high.
We aim to follow the developments of the past few years: on the one hand, IPSR/RISP will continue to be the main journal of the Italian political science community and the flagship journal of the SISP (Società Italiana di Scienza Politica – Italian Political Science Association), and, on the other, it will continue its way to develop into a fully-fledged international journal both in terms of authorship and content.
At the same time, we observe that precisely the success of past editorial teams in placing the journal in the international landscape now calls for the new challenge of developing an even more distinctive identity, in what has become a quite crowded and competitive panorama of international publication venues. We aim at such differentiation by focusing on making the journal even more reactive and accessible, with a special attention to the needs of early stage researchers. In particular, our changes are animated by the aim to ensure swift article decision and turnover times, and to make articles more easily accessible, so as to increase their impact on the international scientific debate.
As a result, we introduce new ideas towards the development of a distinctive IPSR/RISP identity:
• IPSR/RISP will now accept only shorter research articles (6000 to maximum 8000 words) to allow for more research articles, to promote readability, circulation, and citation, and also to facilitate the work of reviewers, who are one of the most precious resources of the journal, whose energies we want to preserve and respect. This should also help researchers present more concise and shorter research questions, and to structure articles in a more articulated and modular fashion (e.g. by focusing on the main logic of the argument, moving ancillary material to online appendices), while, at the same time, still providing enough room for a structured research contribution.
• IPSR/RISP now offers the possibility of submitting a (structured) variety of types of Research Notes (RN) (3000 to maximum 4000 words), aimed at immediately capturing and disseminating specific, modular parts of longer and more complex research, to promote an even more lively and interactive debate. As a result, the following types of Research Notes can be submitted:
o Dataset RN introducing in detail one or several novel datasets, along with their linkage potential. These RN should include some examples of which research questions can be pursued with the datasets described.
o Null findings RN presenting empirical null findings. We particularly encourage the submission of these types of RN to advance our knowledge and avoid unfruitful research in the same area.
o Technique RN presenting a new empirical data collection method (e.g. type of sampling, web scraping, etc.) and/or analysis technique (e.g. scaling and classification techniques, experimental designs, etc.) on the basis of an interesting research question.
o Replication RN replicating existing analyses by using the same data and methods, or by using new methods, or by including or excluding cases. For this specific type of RN, authors of the existing research shall be contacted in advance, to allow them either to cooperate in the replication or to prepare a reply.
o Concepts and Terms RN reflecting on widely used terms in political science, and their use in relationship with different concepts, also related to different subdisciplines or theoretical perspectives.
o Literature RN presenting specific interpretations of the literature on a given topic, with the focus of presenting new theoretical notions or research questions.
o Political Facts RN discussing the theoretical and analytical challenges presented by a recent political fact (event, phenomenon), and outlining (with strong and structured reference to existing literature) a number of potential research questions and/or theoretical challenges that such a fact presents to future research.
• IPSR/RISP will still offer the possibility of submitting short Book Reviews (1000–1200 words) covering both books of particular interest by international authors, along with new books by Italian authors, published both in English or in Italian, thus illuminating the lively debate that animates the Italian political science community.
At the same time, we will work with a strong focus on continuity with the historical strengths of the journal:
• IPSR/RISP will keep covering the broad range of all political science subdisciplines, including inter alia Italian politics, European politics, comparative politics, political behaviour, political theory, political economy, political methodology, public administration, public policy, and international relations.
• IPSR/RISP will preserve its firm commitment to methodological pluralism: it will remain a journal in which all methodological approaches will be welcomed – as long as they fulfil the criteria of originality, relevance, and a high scientific standard, in line with the tradition of the journal. This will also imply a continuing attention to the interaction between theory and empirical research (and vice versa), welcoming both empirical contributions inserted in a clear theoretical framework but also more theoretical contributions aimed at guiding and structuring empirical research.
• We aim to continue the work on internationalization, both in terms of visibility and scope, by keeping the high standards of scientific quality of published articles, as well as of relevance for an international community.
• We will continue and enhance the dissemination strategies implemented in the past few years (e.g. through social media), as well as preserve an adequate presence of special issues and book reviews.
In doing so, we aim to provide a further contribution to the path of growth and internationalization successfully pursued by our predecessors; and we hope to be able to also rely on the contribution (in terms of submissions and reviews) of the Italian political science community and beyond, whose involvement has historically been invaluable for the history of this journal. We also welcome any kind of comments and feedback that will help us work towards a better journal.
We are looking forward to a fruitful research exchange with our colleagues in the years to come.
Warm wishes,
Lorenzo De Sio and Sylvia Kritzinger
