Czech political science and IR journals caught in a vicious circle

Abstract

The text identifies the main issues that undermine the position of the Czech Political Science and International Relations journals. We argue that structural factors such as the delayed start of the discipline, lack of contact with the international environment, the transfer of inadequate theoretical and methodological knowledge has significantly affected the functioning and development of professional journals in the Czech Republic. The authoritarian regime limited the development of the social sciences, and Czech (Slovak) Political Science endured an extremely negative attitude from the authorities. Thus, journals in the field of Political Science and International Relations were founded without deeper insight into Western practice. Furthermore, their strive to move from the scientific periphery has also been limited by the lack of human capital and financial constraints. To close the gap, which persists even today, the authors came up with a series of recommendations, such as the language of publication, topic specialisation, insisting on scientific rigour, and emphasising communication with the academic community, both domestic and international. By discussing the practice and the meaning of ‘catching up with the West,’ the paper contributes to understanding hierarchies and dependencies between the global Political Science and International Relations core and CEE as a scientific semiperiphery.

Introduction

The disciplines of Political Science (PoliSci) and International Relations (IR) in the Czech Republic were re-established after 1989 following several decades of conformity to the political ideology of the Communist Party and isolation from the Western disciplinary core. Ever since, there has been a continuous effort of the individual and institutional members of the Czech PoliSci/IR disciplines to be included in the Western core and to catch up with the West.

The self-perception and self-categorisation as a scientific (semi)periphery have been apparent in the regular reflective evaluations of the national discipline, especially within IR (Drulák 2009; Kratochvíl 2016; Růžička 2016) but also in PoliSci (Holzer and Pšeja 2007; Holzer et al. 2009). The (semi)peripherality has been confirmed even quantitatively by measuring the quality of the published outputs by the Czech PoliSci scholars who “lag markedly in terms of research excellence (highly cited papers), funding (major EU grants), as well as recognition (membership in editorial boards of prestigious journals)” (Eberle et al. 2021: 200). Yet despite the efforts to reflect on the state of both discipline(s), there has been very limited attentiveness to the positioning of the academic journals whose fate has mirrored the national disciplines’ trajectory only to some extent (Daniel 2022; Naxera 2024).

The primary role of academic journals is to disseminate new scientific knowledge, thereby enabling information sharing and stimulating scientific debate (Rallison 2015). However, this mission is complex. For the editorial teams, it presents many dilemmas concerning the journal's focus, the language of publication, the prospective authors, and the level of scientific standards it will apply. Decisions in these issues may significantly impact a journal's success, be it a sufficient number of quality submissions or the positive dynamics of its citations. Moreover, the journal’s fate depends on many structural conditions that are usually beyond the editorial teams´ control, such as the national academic environment and the position of the publishing institution, the unexpected attractiveness of published articles associated with high citation rates, etc. Therefore, many of the journals’ strategies are necessarily more reactive rather than proactive.

The structural conditions of Czech academia have changed substantially since 1989. We can roughly distinguish three main developmental phases of PoliSci and IR: (1) the 1990s when the disciplines were being rebuilt and infrastructure of the first disciplinary journals created; (2) 2000–2014 when the major generational shift occurred and a new generation of scientists fully educated in the democratic era and connected to the (Western) academic networks became more prominent; (3) the period starting approximately after 2014 when a new method of national scientific evaluation was adopted, leading to a significant transformation of the publishing strategies of local authors. The new policy diminished their motivation to publish in domestic journals, so many Czech journals had to react to survive the outflow of submissions. We argue that despite the complex structural limitations, local editors have ample space to shape their journals' fate proactively.

The following text thus aims to identify the constraints the Czech PoliSci journals face in closing the gap between them and their counterparts in the West in scientific performance. We first lay out the structural context of the PoliSci and IR disciplines for each of the abovementioned phases. Then, the paper draws on the personal experience of the authors, who work or worked as editors of Czech Journal of Political Science (https://czechpolsci.eu/), Politics in Central Europe (https://www.politicsincentraleurope.eu/), Central European Journal of International and Security Studies (https://www.cejiss.org/) and Czech Journal of International Relations/Mezinárodní vztahy (https://cjir.iir.cz/index.php/cjir). The second section shows the coping strategies of the journals, while the third one demonstrates practical examples of what the PoliSci and IR journals do to move from the (semi)peripheral position to the disciplinary centre.

Three developmental phases of the Czech journals and the changing strategies

Building the disciplines in the 1990s

It was only in the 1990s that PoliSci in the Czech Republic could fully evolve. In the first decade, especially in the early 1990s, there were no established university study programs, and there was a lack of scholars with satisfactory language skills who could communicate with Western academia. Despite the enthusiasm for development of the disciplines, the standards for academic writing and publishing were almost non-existent. This contrasted with the situation in some other social sciences, such as sociology, which were allowed to exist under communist rule, albeit with significant limitations.

The creation of the first academic journals fits into this broader framework of the discipline´s foundation, building at the personal, institutional, thematic, and theoretical–methodological levels. Apart from a few already existing journals (e.g. Mezinárodní vztahy), new periodicals were established, the Czech Journal of Political Science/Politologický časopis being the first one in 1994. Most journals established during this first decade accepted the Czech language as the primary (and sometimes the only) language of publication. Not only were the original texts by local scholars published in Czech and Slovak, but some journals also published Czech translations of renowned German, British, French, and US scientists, politicians, and diplomats (Beneš, 2023; Holzer and Pšeja 2007).

As regards the disciplines' relations with the global centre, the Czech PoliSci and IR community looked up to their Western colleagues and accepted the goal to learn from and catch up with the West. Because of the need to fill different knowledge gaps and limited competition between a few existing journals, the editors were not forced to strictly delimit the aims and scopes of their publications. The published articles were mostly empirical with a minimal theoretical and methodological framework. Also, not all the journals adopted the blind peer review process from the start. For example, one of the most respected IR journals in Czechia, Mezinárodní vztahy, moved from simple editorial decisions to the peer review system only in 2000.

This initial period of scholarly periodicals represented an important starting point in the early years of the discipline. At the same time, it fundamentally weakened the possibility of establishing itself in the international environment as the relevant Czech journals were targeted mainly by local scientists, and the theoretical and methodological standards for publications were set at a rather low level.

Changing the generations after 2000, the birth of new journals

By the beginning of the new millennium, the first generation of scholars who started university education after 1989 gained their doctoral degrees and commenced their careers. The new generation had sufficient language skills, many of them had spent parts of their studies abroad, and were socialised into international academic networks. Gradually, they were able to steer the Czech PoliSci and IR to a greater theoretical and methodological rigour. A significant, though not the only, impetus was the desire to narrow the quality gap between domestic and international publications. In other words, even the authors publishing in domestic journals should be subjected to more demanding international standards. Such higher requirements were thought to support pulling the local disciplines out of the (semi)periphery and closer to the centre.

This “scientific turn” happened at the universities, where new methodological courses were established, as well as in journal publishing. Most importantly, in 2004, the Czech government adopted the first science evaluation system. Although the original intent of the system was to distinguish between high- and low-quality publications, the actual set-up of the system meant that a high number of low-quality publications could be equally rewarded by the system as a few excellent publications (Linková and Stöckelová, 2012).

This period was characterised by the uncertainty caused by several changes in government policy aimed at science evaluation and funding. The initial effort to implement fully international standards for all scientific disciplines was eventually watered down by the National Reference Framework of Excellence (Národní referenční rámec excellence, NRRE), which singled out fields of great importance for national identity, maintenance of stability, political socialisation, and education (e.g. history, philology and others). Importantly, part of this measure was the establishment of a “Positive List of Journals” approved by government bodies. In some disciplines, including political science, this list was in terms of science evaluation considered equivalent to international databases such as Web of Science (NRRE 2008). This measure postponed the ‘catching up with the West’ as local scholars were not pushed to publish in esteemed international journals.

Thanks to these structural changes, the majority of the currently existing journals were established after 2000 and mostly at universities. The motivations of the universities to support academic journals stemmed from the requirement for academics to publish besides teaching (not as common in the first post-independence decade). Moreover, the Accreditation Commission, which decided on the certification of the study programmes, appreciated publications in—basically any—professional journal and the new science evaluation system linked the state financial support (among others) to the publication record of the university staff.

The journals thus faced several dilemmas. The first one concerned the language of publication. Many of the new journals opted for English as the primary language of publication since their inception (Politics in Central Europe in 2005 or Central European Journal of International and Security Studies in 2007) and sought to draw more readers, authors, reviewers and citations from abroad. Furthermore, English had become the natural language of scientific communication for many local scholars. This reflected the growing internationalisation of the Czech scientific community, including the foreign scholars coming to Czech academic institutions. The implicit expectation was that publishing in English and attracting more established Western authors to publish in the Czech journals would increase the citation metrics and thus the position of the journals. Although supportive at institutional and even personal levels, unsurprisingly, the Western authors were not particularly motivated to publish in CEE PoliSci journals. Even though the journals adopted Western standards by then, publication platforms in CEE typically offered less exposure compared to their Western counterparts and thus attracted only a limited number of Western authors (for more details, see the concluding article in this Debate).

By this time, some had already recognised and criticised the (semi)peripheral position of Czech knowledge production. In turn, they called for stopping the emulation of the West because it relegated Czech scholars to inferior positions (Drulák, 2009). Some of the newly founded journals (e.g. Czech Political Science Review/Politologická revue in 2004) and the journals (re)founded in the 1990s kept Czech as the publication language. The argument for publishing in Czech stressed the need for cultivation of the native terminology (Politologická revue/Czech Political Science Review 2021), the obligation to remain relevant to the domestic society at large (Císař, 2023), and to support the building of the local scientific community. This strategy has helped, for example, the Mezinárodní vztahy to establish itself as a prime community journal for Czech IR. The journal was able to nurture debates among local scholars and stimulate discussion about the national discipline (Beneš, 2023). Though the arguments for publishing in the local language were and are valid, the repercussions could be detrimental for journals in the long term, as demonstrated in the next chapter.

The second dilemma the editors of the newly established journals faced was how to thematically define and specialise their journals. One of the options chosen by Politics in Central Europe was to exploit its comparative advantage, such as the (non-financial) support of the Central European Political Science Association (CEPSA). Therefore, it opted to focus on Central Europe (broadly defined), accepting area studies manuscripts where sociological, economic, or anthropological approaches have played an important role alongside PoliSci and modern or contemporary history.

However, this strategy proved as a double-edged sword. Although topic specialisation helps CEE PoliSci journals to build their reputation tied to the knowledge of the region´s specificities, thus providing a purpose to their existence, such a profile resulted in the vast majority of submissions originating from the CEE region. Researchers from the region are more interested in the CEE than those from outside, and data collection may also be more accessible for them owing to their linguistic competencies. Consequently, CEE PoliSci journals may become outlets overwhelmingly publishing “local” research, cementing the stereotype of niche periphery.

To address the issue, journals have implemented several measures to avoid being viewed as self-absorbed peripheral outlets. For instance, the editorial team of Politics in Central Europe tried to assign reviewers from Western academic institutions to texts authored by scholars from the post-communist area and vice versa. However, this practice underlined the discrepancy between understanding what constitutes good research. The Western reviewers often rejected the texts of CEE authors as methodologically and theoretically unanchored. In contrast, reviewers from the region often pointed to the under-utilisation of primary data and the poor empirical quality of the works by Western authors, an observation made also in other peripheral fields of global IR (Tickner 2013; Mälksoo 2021).

An alternative strategy was followed by the Central European Journal of International and Security Studies. The journal opted for a much broader scope, accepting manuscripts from the entire IR and security studies field and not limiting itself to any particular theory, method, topic, or geographical area. However, even this policy was not significantly more successful in attracting enough quality manuscripts to improve its international standing. The lack of distinguishable character, low visibility and low position in the scientometric indices led to the situation—as confessed by some of the authors—that submitting a manuscript to the journal was often the last resort for authors. To ensure a sufficient number of submissions, the editors had to occasionally actively approach potential authors.

In this phase, the relationship of the journals towards the core became more ambiguous. The core still served as an example to follow. Many Czech journals approached Western scholars with the offer to serve on their editorial boards or as reviewers and the majority of journals strived to be included in different international rankings and databases and emulated the standards and practices of the core to increase the visibility in the West. At the same time, the first fatigue and disillusionment started to creep in as it became obvious that some structural limitations may be too difficult to overcome. Some journals admitted the defeat and settled for the lower standards of the published texts which de facto blocked their further development.

Game changer—the science evaluation system favouring the Web of Science

The Czech government and its advisory body—the Council for Research, Development and Innovation (RVVI)—implemented new evaluation standards in the 2013–2016 period. The new system strongly favoured publications included in the Web of Science. Compared to previous periods, the new system resulted in an even more significant outflow of potential publications by Czech authors to international journals. While journals that previously did not adhere to international scientific standards had no reason to change their policies, journals that sought a departure from the scientific periphery had to adapt. There were three different strategies adopted. The first concerned the change of the publication language to English. The journals either started to publish articles both in Czech and English (Mezinárodní vztahy in 2017) or transferred to English texts only, such as the Czech Journal of Political Science/Politologický časopis in 2014, and Mezinárodní vztahy in 2023. The second strategy, adopted by Politics in Central Europe in 2015, was to enter a partnership with an internationally established academic publishing house (Sciendo/DeGruyter). Finally, the journals increased their efforts to comply also with other requirements of databases, such as the regularity of issues, and transparency in authors' and reviewers' affiliations.

In sum, although many journals strove to get on par with their Western peers by adopting high scientific standards by design, it was the external push of the new governmental science evaluation system that arguably compelled the journals to accept significant changes. Admittedly, some journals could not keep up and eventually disappeared, e.g. Středoevropské politické studie/Central European Political Studies Review.

Current state: persisting issues and the way forward

As indicated above, the Czech IR and PoliSci journals suffer from several persisting issues that keep them at the semiperiphery of the global discipline. Arguably, most of the problems are systemic. The delayed start, limited focus, and background of the first generation of academics, who were primarily trained in areas outside PoliSci, have left a lasting imprint. The fact that the journals were long published in Czech limited the contributions from the outside as any foreign author faced a language barrier, further cementing the journals as niche-focussed publication outlets. The early developmental stages also influenced the very nature and methods used in the research, as a fair share of the published articles were descriptive.

Whereas the prestigious journals serve as agenda setters, determining the main research trends in the field and often also the epistemological focus (Risse et al. 2022), Czech PoliSci and IR journals do not fall into this rank. They follow rather than lead. Consequently, the Czech PoliSci and IR journals do not attract enough high-profile research contributions from the West and, thus, do not generate as many citations. Such a situation resembles a vicious circle, which is hard to break.

Nevertheless, many of the editors continue their attempts to break the circle and push the Czech journals closer to the scientific centre by increasing their rank in databases and attracting well-known contributors. Despite the systemic limitations, they proactively navigate the political economy of academic publishing to increase the status of their journals and find meaning and fulfilment in their jobs (Karmazin 2022). There are several advisable strategies that the Czech PoliSci and IR journals should apply (or continue to do so) in their effort to get closer to the core.

The first strategy concerns topic specialisation. Despite not being at the forefront of academic interest in the past years, the topics immanent to the CEE region remain relevant. Even more so, with the Russian attack on Ukraine in February 2022 and the following events, the region could move to the centre of attention once again. For example, the Central European Journal of International and Security Studies reacted promptly to the Russian invasion by publishing a thematic section discussing the failure to prevent the war. Focussing on topics inherent to the region may give them a competitive edge, which can be accentuated even more by publishing special issues. A collection of articles focussing on a particular topic naturally attracts readers and increases research topic exposure (Bauerová, 2018; Makarychev and Diez 2023; Shevtsova 2022).

Secondly, the Czech PoliSci and IR journals must continue to safeguard scientific rigour and academic writing standards. It is imperative as they receive many submissions from other (semi)peripheral regions, many of which lack theoretical and methodological diligence. In this respect, the Czech journals may serve as sympathetic tutors to early career scholars from the Czech Republic and also to other countries catching up with the scientific centre.

Thirdly, editorial teams must continue to cultivate communication around the journal. Although providing a smooth publication experience to authors may seem of secondary importance, catching up often requires going the proverbial extra mile also in this regard. That includes diligent work on public outreach and social networks, participating in conference round tables on publishing and knowledge production, involving the editorial board members in communication, organising seminars on special issues, and publishing annual reports. By timely and transparent communication with authors, editors should strive to ensure that the publishing process experience is even more comfortable than with the prestigious Western journals.

Conclusion

In conclusion, many PoliSci and IR journals in Czechia have made an enormous step forward, and so have scholars and the discipline. Previously, mainly structural factors impacted the opportunities and limits of the journals’ functioning. Some journals resigned to achieving academic excellence, and some ceased to exist. Other Czech journals continued adapting to the changing environment with the ambition to become high-quality academic outlets. Arguably, this activity is currently driven by the agency and dedication of the editorial teams who fight an uphill battle to escape the (semi)peripheral position of their journals. Although they remain in the lower ranks, their existence continues to be justified, either as the producers of local knowledge or as outlets for early career and graduate scholars.