The British Journal of Politics and International Relations
British Government and Politics | Politics & International Relations | Politics (General)
The British Journal of Politics and International Relations (BJPIR) is an international journal that publishes peer-reviewed, cutting edge scholarship across the full breadth of the fields of international relations, comparative politics, public policy, political theory and politics. As a flagship journal of the UK’s Political Studies Association, BJPIR is the world’s premier outlet for research on British politics.
The journal has always sought to reflect and drive the major currents of debate in political science and international relations, both in the UK and internationally. Building on this legacy, our vision is to be at the forefront of scholarly efforts to understand and address the politics of global challenges, broadly understood. We encourage submissions that nuance our understanding of the inherently political processes through which these challenges are created, experienced, and responded to. We particularly welcome scholarship that generates new perspectives on some of the core assumptions and debates in political studies and international relations.
Above all, BJPIR provides a forum for a diversity of approaches and voices. In keeping with the journal’s founding concerns for disciplinary pluralism, we welcome diverse epistemological and methodological approaches, as well as genuinely interdisciplinary research agendas. We will continuously aim for a bigger proportion of articles from women scholars and support the discipline-wide effort to see gender parity. We are committed to improving the number of submissions and published articles by authors from underrepresented minority groups, scholars from the Global South, and Early Career Researchers (ECRs).
The PSA acknowledges the prevalence of systemic bias and unequal power dynamics within academia and publishing. The PSA believes that the promotion of equality and diversity should be core values for the practice of politics as well as the study, teaching and writing of politics. We are passionate about supporting inclusion in the academy and wider society through our publishing activities.
Working with our journal editors and publishing partner SAGE, we are doing this by:
- Publishing and amplifying content from diverse, global perspectives, including women, scholars of colour, LGBTQIA+ people, disabled people, and historically marginalised communities.
- Working to increase diversity of our journals’ editorial boards, peer review processes and author bases.
- Ensuring that our content and communications are inclusive and accessible, challenging bias and stereotypes.
Read more about the PSA’s commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion
Read more about the minimum standards for inclusion and diversity for scholarly publishing developed by the RSC cross-publisher group (which includes SAGE as a member)’
Why publish with the British Journal of Politics and International Relations?
· BJPIR is a flagship journal of the UK’s Political Studies Association, ensuring that articles reach and influence a wide audience.
· BJPIR has an established global reputation for high quality scholarship.
· BJPIR has long been driving forward the research agenda in British politics, Political Studies, and International Relations.
· We value and support work across the full breadth of the fields of international relations (IR), comparative politics, public policy, political theory, political economy, and politics, as well as genuinely interdisciplinary research agendas.
· We welcome original research that contributes to scholarly efforts to understand and address the politics of global challenges, broadly understood.
· BJPIR has established itself as a forum for a diversity of approaches and it is empirically, theoretically, and methodologically pluralist.
· BJPIR aims to serve a wider community of scholars and publish more work from underrepresented communities.
· Tackling structural inequalities is front and centre to how BJPIR is run: from developing our strategy to improving our day-to-day practices.
· We will promote your article widely across different platforms.
· We are publishing cutting-edge research faster - we have reduced the average time to first decision by 27% between 2022 and 2021.
Submit your manuscript today at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/bjpir.
The British Journal of Politics and International Relations (BJPIR) is an international journal that publishes peer-reviewed, cutting edge scholarship across the full breadth of the fields of international relations, comparative politics, public policy, political theory, political economy, and politics. As a flagship journal of the UK’s Political Studies Association, BJPIR is the world’s premier outlet for research on British politics.
The journal has always sought to reflect and drive the major currents of debate in political science and international relations, both in the UK and internationally. Building on this legacy, our vision is to be at the forefront of scholarly efforts to understand and address the politics of global challenges, broadly understood. We encourage submissions that nuance our understanding of the inherently political processes through which these challenges are created, experienced, and responded to. We particularly welcome scholarship that generates new perspectives on some of the core assumptions and debates in political studies and international relations.
Above all, BJPIR provides a forum for a diversity of approaches and voices. In keeping with the journal’s founding concerns for disciplinary pluralism, we welcome diverse epistemological and methodological approaches, as well as genuinely interdisciplinary research agendas. We will continuously aim for a bigger proportion of articles from women scholars and support the discipline-wide effort to see gender parity. We are committed to improving the number of submissions and published articles by authors from underrepresented minority groups, scholars from the Global South, and Early Career Researchers (ECRs).
| Kingsley Edney | University of Leeds, UK |
| Derek Edyvane | University of Leeds, UK |
| Richard Hayton | University of Leeds, UK |
| Jack Holland | University of Leeds, UK |
| Victoria Honeyman | University of Leeds, UK |
| Viktoria Spaiser | University of Leeds, UK |
| Francesca Petrizzo | University of Leeds, UK |
| Emma-Louise Anderson | University of Leeds, UK |
| Sahla Aroussi | University of Leeds, UK |
| Alex Beresford | University of Leeds, UK |
| Charlie Dannreuther | University of Leeds, UK |
| Markus Fraundorfer | University of Leeds, UK |
| Helena Hinkkainen | University of Leeds, UK |
| Sean McDaniel | University of Leeds, UK |
| Nora Stappert | University of Leeds, UK |
| Seiki Tanaka | University of Groningen, Netherlands |
| Kerri Woods | University of Leeds, UK |
| Jocelyn Evans | University of Leeds, UK |
| Cristina Leston-Bandeira | University of Leeds, UK |
| Roger Awan-Scully | Hong Kong Baptist University, China |
| Tim Bale | Queen Mary University, UK |
| Nicole Beardsworth | University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa |
| Richard Bellamy | University College London, UK |
| Lynn Bennie | University of Aberdeen, UK |
| Rosie Campbell | King’s College London, UK |
| Louise Chappell | University of New South Wales, Australia |
| Mihika Chatterjee | University of Bath, UK |
| Titus Chen | National Sun Yat-sen University |
| Alan Convery | University of Edinburgh, UK |
| Maxine David | Leiden University, Netherlands |
| Sara Davies | Griffith University, Australia |
| Nicole Grove | University of Hawaii |
| Defne Gunay | Yasar University, Turkey |
| Toni Haastrup | University of Stirling, UK |
| Andrew Hindmoor | University of Sheffield, UK |
| Georg Loefflmann | Queen Mary University of London, UK |
| Dawisson Belem Lopes | Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil |
| Catriona McKinnon | University of Reading, UK |
| Amanda Murdie | University of Georgia, USA |
| Kai Opperman | University of Sussex, UK |
| Chengxin Pan | University of Macau, China |
| Guy Peters | University of Pittsburgh, USA |
| Mark A. Pollack | Temple University, USA |
| R.A.W. Rhodes | University of Southampton, UK |
| George Shambaugh | Georgetown University, USA |
| Jack Snyder | Columbia University, USA |
| Roland Sturm | Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany |
| Arlene Tickner | Universidad del Rosario, Colombia |
| Jonathan Tonge | University of Liverpool, UK |
| Ben Wellings | Monash University, Australia |
| Katharine Wright | Newcastle University, UK |
Manuscript Submission Guidelines: The British Journal of Politics and International Relations
Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/bjpir to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of The British Journal of Politics and International Relations will be reviewed.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this journal.
As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.
- What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper - Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Declaration of conflicting interests
2.5 Data - Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving - Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Supplementary material
4.4 Reference style
4.5 English language editing services - Submitting your manuscript
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions - On acceptance and publication
6.1 SAGE Production
6.2 Online First publication
6.3 Access to your published article
6.4 Promoting your article - Further information
Before submitting your manuscript to The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
British Journal of Politics and International Relations seeks to reflect and respond to the changing real world of politics, by publishing articles that are of contemporary relevance to both the study and practice of politics. Articles should be between 7,000 and 8,000 words excluding references.
The SAGE Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources.
1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online
British Journal of Politics and International Relations adheres to a rigorous double-blind reviewing policy in which the identity of both the reviewer and author are always concealed from both parties.
The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor/Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.
All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.
2.4 Declaration of conflicting interests
The British Journal of Politics and International Relations encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway
SAGE acknowledges the importance of research data availability as an integral part of the research and verification process for academic journal articles.
The British Journal of Politics and International Relations requests all authors submitting any primary data used in their research articles [“alongside their article submissions” or “if the articles are accepted”] to be published in the online version of the journal, or provide detailed information in their articles on how the data can be obtained. This information should include links to third-party data repositories or detailed contact information for third-party data sources. Data available only on an author-maintained website will need to be loaded onto either the journal’s platform or a third-party platform to ensure continuing accessibility. Examples of data types include but are not limited to statistical data files, replication code, text files, audio files, images, videos, appendices, and additional charts and graphs necessary to understand the original research. [The editor(s) may consider limited embargoes on proprietary data.] The editor(s) [can/will] also grant exceptions for data that cannot legally or ethically be released. All data submitted should comply with Institutional or Ethical Review Board requirements and applicable government regulations. For further information, please contact the editorial office at [email address].
SAGE is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the SAGE Author Gateway
3.1.1 Plagiarism
The British Journal of Politics and International Relations and SAGE take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
3.1.2 Prior publication
If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a SAGE journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the SAGE Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
Before publication, SAGE requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. SAGE’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants SAGE the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than SAGE. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the SAGE Author Gateway
3.3 Open access and author archiving
British Journal of Politics and International Relations offers optional open access publishing via the SAGE Choice programme. For more information please visit the SAGE Choice website.
Authors retain copyright of your SAGE Choice article. SAGE will publish your article under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license (CC BY-NC) which allows others to re-use the work without permission as long as the work is properly referenced and the use is non-commercial. Authors required to publish under a CC BY licensing by their funder can publish under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) which allows use of the work for commercial purposes.
If you require a CC BY NC-ND license, please contact the SAGE Production Editor at Clare.Spencer@sagepub.co.uk.
3.4 PSA statement on CC-BY
Please be aware that the Political Studies Association (UK) have issued the following statement about the CC-BY licence:-
The Political Studies Association endorses the principle of freedom of choice and is thus prepared to offer authors choosing to pay an Article Processing Charge under Online Open the option of publishing under a CC-BY licence. However, the Association wishes to draw the attention of authors to the following risks associated with CC-BY licences:-
- Lack of requirement under the terms of the current CC-BY licence (version 3.0) for other parties to give any indication as to how the original work has been modified in any derivative product
- Lack of protection against poor translation
- Lack of recourse against the work being quoted out of context
- Lack of recourse against the work being reprinted in anthologies where the context is offensive to the author
- Lack of recourse against intermediaries republishing work for commercial gain
For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit SAGE Publishing Policies on our Journal Author Gateway. Your rights as an author are outlined below:
- You retain copyright in your work.
- You may do whatever you wish with the version of the article you submitted to the journal – version 1.
- You may not post the accepted version (version 2) of the article on your own personal website, your department’s website, the repository of your institution, the repository of another institution or a subject repository, until 24 months after first publication of the article in the journal.
- Once the article has been accepted for publication, you may use the accepted article (version 2) for your own teaching needs or to supply on an individual basis to research colleagues, provided that such supply is not for commercial purposes.
- You may use the accepted article (version 2) in a book you write or edit any time after publication in the journal.
- You may not post the published article (version 3) on any website or in any repository without permission from SAGE.
- When posting or re-using the article please provide a link to the appropriate DOI for the published version of the article on SAGE Journals (http://online.sagepub.com).
All commercial or any other re-use of the published article should be referred to SAGE. More information can be found at: http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
When posting or re-using the article, you should provide a link/URL from the article posted to the SAGE Journals Online site where the article is published: http://online.sagepub.com and please make the following acknowledgment: ‘The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in <journal>, Vol/Issue, Month/Year by SAGE Publications Ltd, All rights reserved. © [The Author(s)]
4. Preparing your manuscript for submission
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit SAGE’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines
Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from SAGE after receipt of your accepted article.
This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files
Avoid reader-unfriendly abbreviations such as ‘i.e.’ or ‘e.g.’ and instead deploy whole words such as ‘for example’, ‘for instance’ and ‘such as’. For in-text references, use (see..[or] see for example Smith, 2016) instead of (e.g. Smith, 2016).
Avoid ‘etc.’ and instead use ‘and so on’ or ‘and so forth’. Please note that the list introductions in the point above should not be mixed with the list endings here; they should be used independently.
Avoid using ‘this’ as a subject pronoun. ‘This’ should always refer to something: use ‘This notion is often portrayed as…’ instead of ‘This is often portrayed as’….
To reference a source (in-text) with more than 2 authors, use: (Smith et al., 2016).
Do not divide your article into more than 4 or 5 main sections. Second order headings (not numbered) may be italicised. Used main and sub-headings only. Any numbering in section heads will be removed during the copy edit.
Avoid long-winded, complex section titles. Keep them short, punchy, descriptive. Try to ensure that all of your section headings will not occupy more than one line in the BJPIR (in larger print in the case of 1st level headings; check any article in the journal to check on the length you must accommodate).
Do not split infinitives: ‘…thoroughly to address the question’ is preferred to ‘….to thoroughly address the question’.
When introducing a list – of factors, variables, findings and so on – use either a numbered, lettered or bullet-points list. Numbered lists should be full sentences; each numbered item to start with a capital letter and ending in a full stop. Incomplete sentences should be (a), (b), and so on; precede with a colon, each item starting with a lower case letter end ending in a semi-colon (last item ending in a full stop). Bullet lists are used for items where the order is not significant; items may be full or part sentences and punctuated as such.
Numbered variables as follows.
- First consideration.
- Further consideration.
Entries in a lettered list could include:
(a) example 1;
(b) example 2.
Bullet list (in no particular order):
The British Journal of Politics and International Relations adheres to the SAGE Harvard reference style. View the SAGE Harvard guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the SAGE Harvard EndNote output file
Please keep endnotes to an absolute minimum and use only for essential contextual background, to provide details of variables or methods, or for similar material which, while essential, would nonetheless be disruptive to the flow of the main text, or of interest only to a minority of readers. Please do not exceed one endnote per word (for instance "word [1] [2]" will not be accepted).
4.6 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using SAGE Language Services. Visit SAGE Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
The British Journal of Politics and International Relations is hosted on SAGE Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/bjpir to login and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process SAGE is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities ensuring that their work is recognised.
We encourage all authors to add their ORCIDs to their SAGE Track accounts and include their ORCIDs as part of the submission process. If you don’t already have one you can create one here
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the SAGE Author Gateway
6. On acceptance and publication
Your SAGE Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate. Please note that if there are any changes to the author list at this stage all authors will be required to complete and sign a form authorising the change.
Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the SAGE Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.
6.3 Access to your published article
SAGE provides authors with online access to their final article.
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The SAGE Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice. In addition, SAGE is partnered with Kudos, a free service that allows authors to explain, enrich, share, and measure the impact of their article. Find out how to maximise your article’s impact with Kudos.
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to The British Journal of Politics and International Relations editorial office as follows: