Submission Process

Uploading research content to APSA Preprints is quick and easy, but before you start you will need to ensure that you have an APSA ID (note that this is not the same as being an APSA member). If you are a current or past APSA member or registered user, you will have one already. Alternatively, you can sign up for an account [opens in a new tab] . No payment is required to get an APSA member ID or to upload research content to APSA Preprints.
Once you are logged in select "Submit Content" from the homepage and complete the following four steps:

Step 1 – Add Author Details

Enter the details set out below. Corresponding authors will be asked to complete basic information for all coauthors.
When you log in with your APSA credentials the form will automatically populate some of the fields, but you can edit the prepopulated information if you wish to do so. Corresponding authors are also encouraged to add their ORCID. (An ORCID is a unique persistent digital identifier that distinguishes individual researchers in the digital environment. You can read more on ORCIDs [opens in a new tab] or register for an ORCID [opens in a new tab] .)
You will also be asked to declare whether you are a sole author or a coauthor. If you have coauthors, you need to add information for all coauthors by selecting the ”Add Another Author” option. You can add multiple authors.

Step 2 - Add Your Content

Add the following:

Next, select one of the following subfield categories, defined below. These categories will help APSA Preprints users to search for and discover content more easily:
American Government and Politics Politics and national institutions in the United States including the presidency, Congress, parties, voting, and policy processes.
Comparative Politics The effects of political culture and institutions in different political systems around the world, how political processes and structures vary across countries, and the historical development of these processes and structures.
International Relations Political relations between nation-states including international history and politics, security, diplomacy, foreign policy, conflict, intelligence, and terrorism.
Methodology Research methods, qualitative and quantitative analysis, and formal theory as they relate to political science research.
Political Theory Philosophical conceptions of appropriate standards for political decision making, including the genealogy of political ideas, democratic theory, legitimacy, identity, ethics, and social justice.
Politics of Gender Women and politics, how gender operates in political institutions, historical and contemporary feminist theory, and gender policy.
Politics of Sexuality LGBTQIA+ politics, policies, and political movements.
Political Science Education and the Profession Political science undergraduate and graduate education, teaching strategies, administrative structures, and the profession of political science.
Public Law and Courts How legal systems influence and are influenced by politics and society, constitutional law and theory, criminal justice, judicial politics, the Supreme Court, public law, and international law.
Public Policy The substance of policies including social, economic, and environmental policies, the procedures of policy making, and the relationship between political processes and policy outcomes.
Public Administration Bureaucracy and organizational behavior, governmental decision making, urban politics, state politics, and federalism and intergovernmental relations.
Race, Ethnicity, and Politics Ethnic and racial politics and how race operates in political institutions, norms, and policies.
Public Opinion and Voting Behavior Political behavior, political parties and organizations, electoral behavior and systems, public opinion, representation, political psychology, and political communication.
Next, if your content is associated with an event, please select one. If your work is not associated with an event, please leave this field blank.
Then choose your Content Type from the following options:
Now, drop in your content file and a thumbnail will show you the first page of the content you have deposited. Your content should be uploaded as a PDF or PowerPoint file. All content should be grammatically correct and free of errors and typos. Any figures and tables should be embedded in the text in an appropriate, logical location.
The upload and moderation process does not involve copyediting or typesetting; therefore, if approved, the version that is uploaded is the exact version that will appear publicly online. Be sure to review your content to ensure that all references are accurate.
At this stage you also have the option to add information about funders by selecting “Add Funder”.
You will also be asked whether you, or any of your co-authors, have any competing interests, and, if so, to give brief details on them. You will also be asked whether ethical approval was required for your research. These details will be visible on the content page alongside your content in line with research transparency best practice. Please see our Policies and Procedures for more information on what constitutes a competing interest.

Step 3 - Add Supporting Material and Select a License

Supporting Material

Images, spreadsheets, data, code, appendices, and other supplementary materials can be uploaded alongside the main file. Links to third-party sites containing supporting materials (for example, data sets posted on Dataverse) can also be provided by adding supplementary web links. These files and links will appear under a "Supplementary Materials" heading on the content landing page.

License selection

Corresponding authors are asked to select one of the following licensing options, which determine whether and how the content can be reused by others:

Step 4 - Review and Upload

Check the details that you have provided and correct any errors. You will be asked to confirm that you have read and agree to the site’s Terms of Submission before you can select "Submit".
If the upload process has been successfully completed, you will receive a pop-up notification. Your content will then appear in your author dashboard with the status of "Awaiting approval".
If you have started working on a submission but you have not uploaded it, you can resume it through your author dashboard.
When you have uploaded your content, the next stage is review by APSA (see the "Content Screening Process" section below). You will not receive an email from APSA Preprints until a decision has been made. For most approved submissions the time from upload to posting will be 3–5 US business days. You will be notified by email to confirm whether your upload has been approved or not.

Content Screening Process

All content uploads will be reviewed by an APSA moderator. Subject to volume, we expect to review each upload within 3–5 US business days.
Content may be rejected on one or more of the following grounds:
  1. It cannot be identified as scholarly content. Uploaded content should be new, original academic research or work that critically engages with existing research and not, for example, an author’s opinion on a political issue.
  2. The work is not in a research area that is supported by APSA, i.e. work that does not fit within the broad spectrum of political science.
  3. It cannot be plausibly categorized using one of the 13 subfield categories.
  4. It is found to be wholly or partially plagiarized. All content will undergo a check upon upload, using plagiarism detection software.
  5. It is found to have already been accepted for publication following peer review or already formally published following peer review.
  6. It is not written in English.
  7. It contains infringing material and/or has not been uploaded by an authorized individual. Corresponding authors are obligated to upload only content in which they own or control the copyright.
  8. It is found to contain libelous or otherwise unlawful statements.
  9. It is found to contain inappropriate, confidential, or harmful statements or material.
If an upload is rejected, you will be notified by email.
Note that the approval of an upload to APSA Preprints does not indicate or imply an endorsement by APSA.

Upload a new Version

If you have content posted on APSA Preprints and you want to make changes you can upload a new version. To do this log in and go to your author dashboard, then locate the item you want to update.

Submit your work directly to an APSA journal

If you have a working paper posted on APSA Preprints and you want to submit it to an APSA journal, you can use the direct submission feature. To do this, log in and go to your author dashboard, then locate the working paper you want to submit. Please note, you can only submit working papers to APSA journals, not posters or presentations.

Author Dashboard

You can access your author dashboard by logging in with your APSA credentials and going to "My Content". Here you will see a listing of all the APSA Preprints content that you have worked on and the status of that content:
The author dashboard also shows the metrics for all your content together in one place (see below).

Metrics

In your author dashboard you will see that there are a range of metrics in the banner:
If you have live content on APSA Preprints, this will be reflected in the "Live Content" metric. The "Number of Downloads" metric will tell you how many times your content has been downloaded, and the "Number of Views" metric will tell you how many times someone has viewed the abstract page for your content.
You can also see the number of downloads and views for individual pieces of prepublication content on the content landing page.

Sharing & Discovering Content

We strongly encourage community interaction through the sharing of prepublication content.
All APSA Preprints content is openly available and free to share, though users should be careful to check the license that the corresponding author has chosen to apply.
There is a sharing tool on every content landing page which you can use to share content via social media or email.

Adding the DOI of published version of record

If your content on APSA Preprints goes on to be formally published, you can request that the DOI of the published version is added to your APSA Preprints content page. In order to do this, visit the latest version of the content in your author dashboard, and select “Submit version of record”. You will then be prompted to provide the DOI of your published work. Before you can submit the DOI, please select “Check your DOI” and make sure that the metadata is correct. Once you are happy that everything is correct, click “Submit”. Once you have submitted the DOI, it will be checked by an administrator before being posted on your content page.

Citing APSA Preprints Content

Individual pieces of prepublication content can be cited using their unique digital object identifier (DOI) as follows:
"Author 1, Author 2, Date, Title, DOI"
By selecting the "Cite" option on the content landing page you can generate a citation for the content in a number of formats and use the copy/paste tool to copy the citation into your document or reference manager.

Requesting a retraction

You can request that your content be marked as "retracted" if you no longer stand by your findings or your content contains fundamental errors. You can do this by finding the content item in your author dashboard and selecting ‘Request retraction’ in the menu for that item. You will be prompted to fill in the reason for your request, which will then be sent to the APSA moderation team. They will then contact you to discuss the retraction request.
All requests for retraction will be subject to approval by the APSA moderation team who will follow guidance from COPE [opens in a new tab] to determine an appropriate course of action. For any queries about retractions of content on APSA Preprints, please email preprints@apsanet.org.