Annual Review of Political Science

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Doctoral researchers cite the Annual Review of Political Science to establish comprehensive theoretical foundations in dissertation literature reviews.

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Tenure committees evaluating review articles account for the journal's Subscribe to Open model and distinct citation dynamics in political science.

The Annual Review of Political Science is a peer-reviewed academic review journal published annually by Annual Reviews, a nonprofit scientific publisher based in Palo Alto, California. Established in 1998, the publication delivers comprehensive, invited synthesis articles that critically evaluate significant theoretical debates, empirical findings, and methodological approaches across political science, international relations, comparative politics, political economy, and public policy.

Bibliometric Indicators and Citation Impact

Because the journal publishes authoritative review literature rather than primary un-synthesized experimental studies, its citation metrics reflect intense disciplinary engagement. According to verified open indexing records in OpenAlex and Crossref:

Two-Year Mean Citedness: 10.72 (OpenAlex). This metric calculates the average number of citations received in the assessment year by review articles published during the preceding two-year window, reflecting exceptional citation velocity for social science literature.
Total Lifetime Citations: 140,912 cumulative citations documented across indexed works in OpenAlex.
Cumulative Corpus: 716 scholarly review articles indexed in OpenAlex, with 715 registered digital object identifiers (DOIs) cataloged in the Crossref database.
Journal h-Index and i10-Index: An h-index of 200 (signifying at least 200 published articles have each received 200 or more citations) and an i10-index of 606 (articles with at least 10 citations).
Bibliographic Identification: Print ISSN 1094-2939, Electronic ISSN 1545-1577, Linking ISSN (ISSN-L) 1094-2939.

Review Journal Calculation Dynamics

In academic bibliometrics, synthesis publications exhibit markedly higher citation rates than primary empirical research journals. Researchers writing grant proposals, journal introductions, and theoretical frameworks routinely cite comprehensive review articles to summarize prior literature efficiently. Consequently, a two-year mean citedness exceeding 10.0 demonstrates the journal’s role as a primary reference hub for foundational political scholarship rather than superior individual study quality over empirical articles.

Dissemination Model and Responsible Assessment Cautions

The Annual Review of Political Science participates in the Subscribe to Open (S2O) model, an equitable publishing framework where institutional library subscriptions collectively convert gated volumes into open access releases without charging author-facing article processing charges.

In alignment with the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) and best practices in responsible metrics, institutional evaluators must follow key assessment safeguards:

Avoid Comparing Reviews to Empirical Papers: Promotion and tenure committees must never evaluate an invited synthesis paper in the Annual Review of Political Science against empirical research using un-normalized citation metrics, as the two publication types follow fundamentally different citation patterns.
Evaluate Content Over Venue: While an invitation to contribute to Annual Reviews indicates established scholarly reputation, individual contributions must be evaluated on their analytical rigor, thematic coverage, and conceptual insight rather than journal-level metrics.

Sources

OpenAlex. Annual Review of Political Science Source Entity Profile (S8194976). https://api.openalex.org/sources/s8194976 (data retrieved 2026-11-08).
Crossref. Journal Record for ISSN 1094-2939 (Annual Review of Political Science). https://api.crossref.org/journals/1094-2939 (data retrieved 2026-11-08).
Annual Reviews. Annual Review of Political Science Aims and Scope. https://www.annualreviews.org/journal/polisci.

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