A gender bias in the European Journal of Political Research?

In: European Political Science

Abstract

Publications have become the single most important factor of career evaluation in the social sciences, as well as in most other academic disciplines. This has in turn led some scholars to examine the existence of potential biases in peer-reviewed publications. Teele and Thelen (2017) have shown that political science is not free from such biases. This article examines publication patterns and the peer-review process for the European Journal of Political Research. It relies on data on more than 5000 submissions between 2006 and 2017. I look at possible biases at the different stages of the publication process: submission, desk evalauation, review and acceptance. Results show that the journal's processes are free from bias, but confirm that submission patterns remain different, despite convergence in recent years.