Aims and scope
The Review of Politics publishes high-quality original research that advances scholarly debates in all areas of political theory. We welcome manuscripts on the history of political thought, analytical political theory, canonical political thought, contemporary political thought, comparative political thought, critical theory, or literature and political thought. While quality of scholarship and clear contribution to progressing scholarly debates are the key criteria for inclusion, we also strive to publish cutting-edge research in a way that is maximally accessible to as wide an audience as possible.
We also have a substantial book review section that offers high-quality reviews of new books about political theory, philosophy, and intellectual history.
Founded in 1939 by Waldemar Gurian, The Review of Politics has published articles by authors as distinguished and diverse as Hannah Arendt, John Kenneth Galbraith, Jacques Maritain, Yves R. Simon, Talcott Parsons, Clinton Rossiter, Edward Shils, Leo Strauss, and Eric Voegelin.
Manuscript length
Normal length of published manuscripts is 8,000-11,000 words. The entire manuscript, including notes and quotations, should be double-spaced.
Author anonymity
Because manuscripts are evaluated anonymously they should not bear the author's name or institutional affiliation. Please remove all references or acknowledgments that might indicate the identity of the author.
Please note or the final approved manuscript for publication.
- If the author is outside the USA, include the author's university affiliation and country centered under their name and in italics at the top of the first page.
- If the author is inside the USA, include the university affiliation, city, two-letter state abbreviation, and USA centered under their name and italics at the top of the first page.
Abstract and keywords
All article submissions should include an abstract of 100-150 words.
Manuscript preparation and style
The Review of Politics follows the Chicago Manual of Style for standards of citation, punctuation, and other editorial considerations.
Figures and tables
Appendices, tables, and figures should be numbered consecutively through- out the article and be included on separate pages appearing after the reference section. Each figure must be submitted electronically as a separate file. Electronic versions should be submitted as TIFF or EPS files at 100% of a suitable final size. Charts, graphs, or other artwork should be professionally rendered and computer generated.
There is no charge for including color figures in the online version of the journal but it must be clear that color is needed to enhance the meaning of the figure, rather than simply being for aesthetic purposes.
Language editing services
Contributions written in English are welcomed from all countries. Authors, particularly those whose first language is not English, may wish to have their English-language manuscripts checked by a native speaker before submission. This is optional, but may help to ensure that the academic content of the paper is fully understood by the editor and any reviewers. Cambridge offers a service which authors can learn about here. Please note that the use of any of these services is voluntary, and at the author's own expense. Use of these services does not guarantee that the manuscript will be accepted for publication, nor does it restrict the author to submitting to a Cambridge published journal.
Use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools
We acknowledge the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the research and writing processes. To ensure transparency, we expect any such use to be declared and described fully to readers, and to comply with our plagiarism policy and best practices regarding citation and acknowledgements. We do not consider artificial intelligence (AI) tools to meet the accountability requirements of authorship, and therefore generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and similar should not be listed as an author on any submitted content.
In particular, any use of an AI tool:
- to generate images within the manuscript should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, and declared clearly in the image caption(s)
- to generate text within the manuscript should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, include appropriate and valid references and citations, and be declared in the manuscript’s Acknowledgements.
- to analyse or extract insights from data or other materials, for example through the use of text and data mining, should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, including details and appropriate citation of any dataset(s) or other material analysed in all relevant and appropriate areas of the manuscript
- must not present ideas, words, data, or other material produced by third parties without appropriate acknowledgement or permission
Descriptions of AI processes used should include at minimum the version of the tool/algorithm used, where it can be accessed, any proprietary information relevant to the use of the tool/algorithm, any modifications of the tool made by the researchers (such as the addition of data to a tool’s public corpus), and the date(s) it was used for the purpose(s) described. Any relevant competing interests or potential bias arising as a consequence of the tool/algorithm’s use should be transparently declared and may be discussed in the article.
Supplementary materials
Material that is not essential to understanding or supporting a manuscript, but which may nonetheless be relevant or interesting to readers, may be submitted as supplementary materials. Supplementary materials will be published online alongside your article, but will not be published in the pages of the journal. Types of supplementary materials may include, but are not limited to, appendices, additional tables or figures, datasets, videos, and sound files.
Supplementary materials will be published with the same metadata as your parent article, and are considered a formal part of the academic record, so cannot be retracted or modified other than via our article correction processes. Supplementary materials will not be typeset or copyedited, so should be supplied exactly as they are to appear online. Please make sure you are familiar with our detailed guidance on supplementary materials prior to submission.
Where relevant we encourage authors to publish additional qualitative or quantitative research outputs in an appropriate repository, and cite these in manuscripts.