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Using a novel approach – examining independent women and comparing them with their party counterparts – this article offers new insights on the emergence, recruitment and election of women candidates, within and beyond political parties. To date, studies of gender, candidate recruitment and institutions have concentrated on parties and party women. These studies highlight the gendered aspects of party candidate recruitment and conclude that parties are gatekeepers of women's candidacy. This article finds that beyond party boundaries, the emergence and election of independent women is circumscribed by individual, institutional and political culture dynamics that have consequences for independent women's candidacy. The independent route is no less gendered or more advantageous a pathway for women's candidacy.

In this editorial, we present the new guidelines for research transparency and open data when publishing in European Political Science. These standards are drawn from the Transparency and Openness Promotion guidelines. In introducing these guidelines, we take an opportunity to reflect on the importance of research transparency, the challenges that it faces, and offer a few suggestions to encourage and foster a culture of open data.

In keeping with practices elsewhere in Europe, Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) in Ireland have in recent decades adopted access policies for non-traditional students (not recent school leavers). This paper assesses a particular initiative to facilitate access to HEIs to non-traditional students. However, due to the initiative's origins as a non-accredited certificate for asylum seekers and refugees, specific attention will be paid to the immigrant community. This paper assesses the details of a new programme in Irish politics and political leadership for non-traditional students in Ireland. It will present the curriculum and document the teaching strategies that were selected while exploring the role for universities and political science departments, in particular in facilitating integration. Student-centred learning provides the overarching framework for the curriculum. Three teaching approaches – KWL, service learning, and enquiry- or problem-based learning – have been selected as the pedagogical underpinnings of this Certificate programme. The paper explores all three approaches and provides examples of how these will be employed. Finally, this paper concludes with a discussion of how the programme could be adapted in other jurisdictions and its uses in integrating citizens from new communities across European democracies.

Anniversaries are milestone events. They invite those involved to celebrate their achievements, but also reflect about the past, present and future. The 20th anniversary of European Political Science (EPS) is such a landmark. It marks a success story; the development from a news style magazine to a major political science journal. Over the past 20 years, EPS has developed into an outlet in which political scientists exchange about their profession, best practices in teaching and learning, as well as shared authoritative research. We have shaped many professional discussions such as debates about gender equality or the relevancy of political science and have become an authoritative voice in the deliberations of innovative teaching techniques such as simulations or role plays. And in our research section, we have covered the big events in Europe and beyond such as the War in Iraq, Brexit and the European Refugee Crisis. We can be proud of what we have achieved in the past 20 years. However, we are not without challenges, which include among others practicing greater diversity in terms of authorship and the types of articles we publish. This anniversary issue is a first step in this direction. By discussing the political science profession in Europe and beyond, it includes a balance of authors from different parts of Europe and the world, a gender balance in contributors and, above all, it raises some of the largest challenges we, as a discipline, will have to tackle in the next 20 years. These include academic freedom, inequalities in the profession and the relevancy of political science as a discipline.

Publication in academic journals is a critical part of the academic career. However, writing academic papers and getting them published is not a straightforward task. This article seeks to provide editors' insights into the process of publishing by outlining common factors that lead to papers being rejected as well as charting strategies that ensure papers have the best chance of being sent out for review. The article discusses the important issue of peer review, including how best to respond to reviews and the expected academic conventions in terms of acting as reviewers.

Despite concerns that women candidates are hampered by gender gaps in campaign financing, few scholars have examined how gender quotas impact women candidates' access to campaign funds. We examine the effect of a party-based gender quota on women candidates' financing and electoral success in Ireland. Under the gender quota, the number of women candidates increased and parties acted strategically to provide women challengers with increased financial support. However, women challengers spent less candidate funds than men challengers and were less likely to have prior officeholding experiences associated with fundraising. Women challengers' disadvantage is concerning because candidate expenditures are associated with winning votes. Our findings show that the effectiveness of a gender quota is partly determined by how the quota interacts with the campaign finance system and the political opportunity structure.

The February 2020 general election will be remembered as the "change" election, when the two dominant parties of Irish politics, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, trailed behind Sinn Féin in voters' preferences for the first time. However, for the gender balance of Irish politics, much remained unchanged. While the number of women elected to Dáil Éireann increased by one, this marginal growth since the 2016 general election was deemed a disappointment by analysts and advocates alike. A review of candidacy reveals that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael lag behind other parties in terms of the proportion of women selected and rely on the 'add-on' route to shore up their female candidacy base. The success rates of female candidates were markedly lower than those of their male counterparts in the Labour party, Greens, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. However, the election was a good outing for women in the Social Democrats and Sinn Féin, and especially for Mary Lou McDonald, who became the first woman to lead a party to top-spot in an Irish general election. The legislative gender quota continued to play an integral role in ensuring a critical mass of women were selected to contest the general election. In many respects, 2020 was a consolidation election for the gender quota as it fits-in and integrates into party candidate selection processes. Yet, with just 22.5% of the seats in Dáil Éireann occupied by women, the legislative gender quota should be viewed as the start rather than the culmination of efforts to support women's candidacy and election.

In 2012 legislative gender quotas were introduced as part of the Fine Gael/Labour coalition government's political reform agenda. The legislation specifies that payments to political parties 'shall be reduced by 50 per cent, unless at least 30 per cent of the candidates whose candidatures were authenticated by the qualified party at the preceding general election were women and at least 30 per cent were men'. The 30 per cent gender threshold came into effect at the 2016 general election. Research demonstrates that gender quotas work to increase women's political descriptive representation, but to do so, political parties must engage with them in 'goodwill', be 'wellintentioned' or place women in 'winnable seats'. This article examines if this was the case at the 2016 general election. Using statistics, as well as drawing from interviews with party strategists, the article assesses the impact of gender quotas on women's candidate selection and election. We conclude that parties did embrace the spirit of the gender quota law but resistance remains.