In April we added a new feature to APSA Preprints, APSA’s open research repository, to enable authors to initiate a submission straight from APSA Preprints to the American Political Science Review, Perspectives on Politics, and PS: Political Science & Politics. If you have a preprint accepted to APSA Preprints, you’ll be able to easily transfer information about it over to the journals’ submission sites, getting your submission started with minimum hassle.
This new feature was identified as particularly valuable as part of the active user research that goes in to developing the site, so we’re excited to be launching it now.
WHY START WITH POSTING A PREPRINT?
While the new feature will allow more convenient submission directly from APSA Preprints, the involved journals already accept submissions that have been previously posted as preprints. Posting work in its early stages can offer great benefits to subsequent publication. Not only do preprints offer the opportunity for public commenting and feedback from the political science discipline, posting early can build an audience for your work ahead of formal publication.
HOW DO PREPRINTS AFFECT THE DOUBLE BLIND PEER REVIEW PROCESS?
The journals offering this feature still operate a double-blind peer review process, in which the peer reviewers and authors do not know one another’s identities when the review is taking place. For this reason, we will be asking authors who use the APSA Preprints direct submission feature to upload an anonymized PDF once logged into the submission system for each journal, and ensure that their submission meets all of the requirements of the particular journal to which the submission is directed.
While posting a preprint does publicly identify you as the author of a work, some best practice is emerging around preprints in the context of double-blind review. As is usual, peer reviewers are expected not to search for the work online during review, and they are also required to declare if they know the identity of the author(s). The latter can happen, for example, if research has previously been presented at a conference. With these measures in place, the editorial team at each of the journals can take steps to ensure the integrity of the peer review process.
WHAT OTHER FEATURES WILL BE ADDED TO APSA PREPRINTS?
APSA Preprints will be continuously developed over time, in collaboration with Cambridge University Press, who provide the underlying technology. Features developed since the site was launched include the addition of commenting, event collection pages, and, more recently, several improvements to the accessibility of the site—and we plan to continue to work closely with users to identify new features and improvements. If you have suggestions for features you’d like to see, please get in touch with us at preprints@apsanet.org. For detailed instructions on how to submit your preprint to an APSA journal, head to preprints.apsanet.org ■
