APS - Austrian Journal of Political Science

The Austrian Journal of Political Science (APS) is an internationally recognized peer review journal, and one of only four Austrian-based journals in the SSH indexed in the "Social Science Citation Index" SSCI. Furthermore, it is indexed in Scopus and SCImago Journal Rank, as well as in several international abstract database services, such as CSA Worldwide Political Science Abstracts, IBR, and IBZ. Founded in 1972, the APS is one of the earliest Political Science Journals in Europe. Its focus lies on the analysis of politics and policy fields in Austria and the Central European area. This includes all aspects of the European political integration process and its impact on the political systems and structures of this region. However, contributions are not limited to these topics, and the Journal also engages more broadly in methodological and theoretical discussions that are of relevance to the discipline. Based on a robust double-blind peer review process, the Austrian Journal of Political Science follows two complementary goals: a) to publish research results, accepting contributions from all fields of the discipline, as well as from neighboring fields, in particular sociology, law, economics, and contemporary history; and b) to offer a forum for scholarly debates; in this regard, the journal sees itself as a facilitator of interdisciplinary discourse and debate, also across countries, in order to develop further theoretical and methodological concepts. Over the last three years, the journal has undergone a rigorous reform process in order to catch up with recent developments in the world of academic publishing. Committed to the international standards of professional academic publishing and being indexed in all major databases, we professionalized the journal`s internal structure, and put its peer reviewing into a transparent process via an online editorial tool. The journal was shifted to "open issues" in order to attract more diverse contributions from different fields of research, thus making the journal more dynamic and open. The preliminary results of this reconceptualization of the journal can already be seen. It improved significantly in this year`s "Impact Factor" Ranking of SSCI. Probably even more importantly, the journal attracts more and more potential articles submitted by authors from across Europe. In many ways, however, the FWF initiative towards Open Access offers a unique opportunity for the journal to bring these reforms to a happy end. In particular, the remaining changes for the journal (shift to open access and new business model; new internal structure and internationally highly visible editorial board) are expected to raise the integrity, visibility, and attractiveness of the journal. If this application is successful, it will mark the concluding steps towards re-establishing the APS as an internationally renowned journal.