Jargon buster

Glossary of common acronyms and technical terms in political science publishing

Below are definitions and links to long-form explainers for many of the terms you are likely to come across when publishing in an ECPR journal or book series.

AAM

Author Accepted Manuscript: the final version of a research paper that has passed peer review and been approved for publication, but has not yet been copyedited or typeset by the publisher

Abstract

A self-contained summary of a research paper outlining its purpose, methods, results, and conclusion. For EJPR, EPSR and EPS, abstracts are 250 words max. For PRX, 200 words max.

AE

Associate Editor: an editor who recruits peer reviewers and provides acceptance or rejection recommendations to the Editor-in-Chief

AIS

The Article Influence Score (AIS) measures the average influence of a journal's papers over the first five years after publication. It is calculated using the Eigenfactor Score divided by the fraction of articles published by that journal, and standardised so the mean score is 1.00. See also Eigenfactor

Anonymising

All ECPR journals use an anonymous peer-review process. To maintain this anonymity, you must remove from your manuscript any details that may reveal your identity. Cambridge guidance on anonymising your manuscript. See also SAPR, DAPR, TAPR

APC

Article Processing Charge: a fee charged to authors by academic publishers to make a research paper freely and immediately available to the public online upon publication

AI / Artificial Intelligence

Guidance for authors on the responsible use of AI tools when preparing manuscripts for ECPR journals

Cambridge Core Share

A tool that enables users to easily generate links to online, read-only journal articles that can be freely shared on social media sites and scholarly collaboration networks

CC BY

Creative Commons Attribution Licence: allows you to copy, distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon a work as long as you give credit to the original creator

CC BY-SA

Attribution Share-Alike: lets you share, use, and build upon a work, as long as you give credit to the original creator and share your new work under the identical terms

CC BY-NC

Attribution Non-Commercial: a public copyright license that lets others share and build upon your work freely, provided they give credit to you and do not use the material for commercial purposes

CC0

Public Domain Dedication: a legal tool that lets creators give up all their copyright and related rights in their work worldwide

CPP

Citations Per Paper: a bibliometric indicator that calculates the average number of citations an academic paper receives

CiteScore

Scopus journal citation metric: calculates how many citations recent articles in a specific journal receive over a four-year period

Clarivate

A global analytics and information services company that provides curated data, research tools, and workflow solutions.

Competing Interests Statement

A formal disclosure in which authors state financial, personal, or professional relationships that could be perceived as influencing their research objectivity. It ensures transparency and helps readers judge the reliability of published scientific work

Conflict of Interest Statement

See Competing Interests Statement, above

COPE

Committee on Publication Ethics: a membership organisation that promotes ethical practices and supports high standards in scholarly publishing. Publishers of ECPR journals Cambridge University Press and Taylor & Francis are both members, and their editorial policies follow COPE guidelines

Copyediting

Takes place after a peer-reviewed manuscript has been approved for publication but before typesetting. The copyeditor makes minor language corrections and performs a technical check

CRediT

Contributor Roles Taxonomy: a community-owned taxonomy of 14 contributor roles designed to represent the key types of contributions typically made to research outputs, including journal articles

Crossref

An open infrastructure that links research objects, entities, and actions, creating a lasting and reusable scholarly record

CUP

Cambridge University Press, publisher of EJPR, EPSR, EPS and PDY

Data availability statement

A short note in a research paper that tells readers if the data can be accessed, where it is stored, and any rules for viewing it. It helps make research open, honest, and easy to check

Dataverse

An open-source data repository software developed by Harvard University’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science to help researchers share, preserve, cite, and analyse research data

DOI

Digital Object Identifier: a unique, permanent alphanumeric string assigned to an online document or dataset, such as an academic journal article or research paper. Unlike web URLs, a DOI provides a permanent link that never changes or breaks

DAPR

Double-Anonymous Peer Review: an academic publishing model where the authors' and reviewers' identities are hidden from each other. ECPR journals EPS, EPSR and EJPR all use this model

EBM / Editorial Board Member

An unpaid advisor who reviews, and advises upon, manuscripts and general editorial policy, when requested by the Editors.

Editor

In contrast with EBMs (see above), Editors receive an honorarium and have an operational role. In consultation with ECPR, they set a journal’s strategy, and manage the peer-review process. Editors have responsibility for journals’ academic quality and rigour.

EC / Editorial Coordinator

Handles the day-to-day logistics of a journal’s workflow, acting as the primary liaison between authors, peer reviewers, the editorial board, and the publisher

Editorial Office

See EC / Editorial Coordinator

EiC

Editor-in-Chief: the lead Editor on a title. The EiC is senior to their Associate Editors (see AE), and is responsible for setting a publication's strategic vision and maintaining its academic integrity. EiCs hold ultimate authority over which manuscripts are accepted or rejected

Eigenfactor

A rating metric that measures the total overall importance and influence of an academic journal by tracking how often its articles are cited across a five-year window

First Look

A ScholarOne feature used when a journal wants to give the author a last opportunity to submit revised files or make final adjustments to their accepted manuscripts

FirstView

An online publishing model used by journals published by Cambridge University Press, to release peer-reviewed articles digitally before they are assigned to a journal issue

Funder ID

Crossref Funder Identifier: a unique persistent identifier assigned to grant-giving organisations. See also Crossref

Funding statement

A formal disclosure in an academic paper that names the financial sponsors and grant numbers supporting the research. It ensures transparency, helps tracking agencies evaluate outputs, and reveals any potential conflicts

Harvard Dataverse

See Dataverse

H-Index or Hirsch Index

An author-level metric that measures the productivity and citation impact of an individual scholar's publications

IF / Impact Factor

The average number of times a journal’s recent articles are cited in other scholarly works. IF is calculated annually by dividing the citations received in a given year by the total number of citable articles published in that journal over the preceding two years

ISBN

International Standard Book Number: a unique 13-digit identifier used globally by publishers, libraries, and retailers to track specific book titles and editions

ISSN

International Standard Serial Number: a unique 8-digit code used to identify continuing publications like newspapers, journals, magazines, and websites

JATS

Journal Article Tag Suite: an international standard XML format used to create and exchange scientific and academic literature online. See also XML

JIF

Journal Impact Factor – see IF / Impact Factor

Keyword

A word or short phrase you choose to summarise the core concepts of your research. These terms usually appear directly below the abstract, and help databases index and retrieve your work. EJPR, EPSR and EPS: up to 5 keywords. PRX: between 3 and 5

MEDem

Monitoring Electoral Democracy: a European research infrastructure that aims to enable better, more comprehensive, and highly innovative comparative democracy research

OA / Open Access

Open Access: a publishing model that provides free, immediate online access to academic research, removing paywall and copyright barriers. All ECPR journals bar EJIR are now OA. Find out more about Open access publishing

OS / Open Science

Open Science: a collaborative movement aimed at making scientific research, data, and software accessible to everyone. ECPR journal EJPR has two dedicated OS Editors, and an Open Science policy

OSF / Open Science Framework

The Open Science Framework is a free, open-source web platform allowing researchers to manage their project lifecycle. It enables collaboration, centralised file sharing, version control, and pre-registration to ensure transparency and reproducibility

ORCiD

Open Researcher and Contributor ID: a free, unique 16-digit alphanumeric code that distinguishes you from every other researcher

OUP

Oxford University Press, publisher of ECPR’s Comparative Politics book series

PDY

Political Data Yearbook (Cambridge): documents election results, national referenda, changes in government, and institutional reforms. See also the interactive politicaldatayearbook.com

Peer review

A quality-control system in which a researcher's work is evaluated before it is published, by independent experts in the same field. Find out more in Demystifying peer review. See also SAPR, DAPR, TAPR

Preprint

An early, complete draft of a research paper shared publicly online before formal peer review and publication in an academic journal. It is typically hosted on free public platforms known as preprint servers

Preprint policies

Cambridge University Press Preprint policy
Taylor & Francis preprint policy

Preregistration

The practice of documenting the hypotheses, methods, and analysis plan of your research in a public, timestamped registry before conducting the research or analysing data. Preregistration helps reduce bias and improves scientific credibility

PRX

Political Research Exchange (Taylor & Francis)

Replication

See Reproducibility

Registered Report

An article for which the study plan, methods, and analysis pipeline are peer reviewed and accepted before data is collected. This stops publication bias because the journal promises to publish the paper no matter what the results show

Reproducibility

The ability of a researcher to achieve the same results as an original study by using identical raw data, code, and methods. ECPR journal EJPR advocates for fully reproducible publications.

Reproducibility package

A compilation of files stored in the Dataverse that ensures a paper’s findings are fully reproducible.

ResearchGate

A social network allowing scientists and researchers to share publications, track citations, and collaborate. Users can download papers, network with peers, and monitor metrics

ROR

Research Organization Registry: a community-led registry of open persistent identifiers for research and funding organisations

Sage Publications

Global academic publisher. Co-publisher, alongside ECPR, of the European Journal of International Relations

SAPR

Single-Anonymous Peer Review: an evaluation model where the reviewer may know the authors' identities, but the reviewers’ identities are hidden from the author. ECPR journal PDY uses this model

ScholarOne

The editorial workflow management system used by all ECPR’s co-published journals

SC / Special Collection

A collection of articles covering any topic under a journal’s scope, on a smaller scale than a Special Issue. See Article types

SI / Special Issue

A collection of articles covering any topic under the journal’s scope, coordinated by one or more guest editors. Technical specifications vary from journal to journal. See Article types

Silverchair

A technology company that builds digital hosting and workflow platforms for scholarly, scientific, and professional publishers, including workflow management system ScholarOne.

SJR

SCImago Journal Rank: a public, free portal and metric that evaluates academic journals based on the number of citations they receive and the relative importance or prestige of the journals where those citations originate

SNIP

Source Normalised Impact per Paper: a journal-level metric that measures contextual citation impact by adjusting for differences in citation practices across academic disciplines

TAPR

Triple-Anonymous Peer Review: an academic publishing model in which the identities of the author(s), peer reviewers, and handling editors are all concealed from one another. ECPR journal PRX uses this model

T&F

Taylor & Francis, publisher, until the end of 2027, of ECPR journal PRX

Typesetting

The stage in the publishing process, after copyediting, at which the publisher converts a peer-reviewed manuscript from a raw text file into the journal’s professionally formatted publication files

VoR

Version of Record: the final, formally published version of a scholarly journal article or academic paper. The VoR is the definitive, citable edition that includes all peer-review changes, copy-editing, typesetting, and formatting

Web of Science

Online platform from Clarivate on which you can bring your research works and citations together alongside publisher-verified peer reviews

XML

Extensible Markup Language: file format that allows you to submit machine-readable manuscripts to journals for metadata extraction

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