Political Research Quarterly

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In university promotion dossiers, evaluators contextualize Political Research Quarterly's 1.9 Impact Factor by noting its Q1 ranking in political science.

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Researchers citing empirical datasets in Political Research Quarterly adhere to open-access and data-sharing standards specified in author guidelines.

Political Research Quarterly (PRQ) is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering all major subfields of political science, published by SAGE Publications on behalf of the Western Political Science Association (WPSA) in association with the University of Utah. Established in 1948 (originally founded as the Western Political Quarterly before adopting its current title in 1993), the journal serves scholars conducting empirical and normative research across political science, international relations, comparative politics, American politics, and public policy.

Bibliometric Indicators and Citation Impact

In open scholarly bibliometrics, institutional research assessment increasingly relies on publicly auditable indices rather than proprietary subscription databases. According to verified indexing data from OpenAlex and Crossref:

Two-Year Mean Citedness: 2.80 (OpenAlex). This metric measures the average number of citations received in the current assessment period by works published in the preceding two years, providing an open, transparent citation velocity benchmark.
Total Citation Count: 106,531 lifetime citations recorded across all indexed publications in OpenAlex.
Cumulative Corpus: 2,392 scholarly works indexed in OpenAlex, with 2,961 total registered digital object identifiers (DOIs) cataloged in the Crossref repository.
Journal h-Index and i10-Index: An h-index of 142 (indicating at least 142 articles have received 142 or more citations) and an i10-index of 1,526 (articles with at least 10 citations).
Bibliographic Identification: Print ISSN 1065-9129, Electronic ISSN 1938-274X, Linking ISSN (ISSN-L) 1065-9129.

Citation Mechanics in Political Science

Unlike laboratory-based experimental sciences where citation velocity peaks in the first 12 to 24 months, political science research accumulates scholarly engagement over prolonged multi-year windows. Qualitative institutional analyses, constitutional studies, and normative political theory often demonstrate persistent citation relevance decades after initial publication. The two-year citation mean provides a standardized baseline, but longitudinal citation tracking captures the true cumulative influence of empirical governance studies.

Responsible Assessment and Metric Cautions

In accordance with the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) and the principles of responsible metrics, evaluators and academic hiring committees must avoid relying on journal-level indicators as proxies for research quality:

Individual Article Integrity: Aggregate citation means do not reflect the methodological rigor, empirical accuracy, or conceptual depth of any individual paper published in the journal.
Disciplinary Normalization: Citation metrics should never be compared raw across different academic fields; political science publication norms differ fundamentally from disciplines like medicine or economics.
Open Dissemination: Authors submitting to PRQ can utilize hybrid publishing models to release peer-reviewed findings under open access terms, broadening public accessibility for policymakers and civil society organizations.

Sources

OpenAlex. Political Research Quarterly Source Entity Profile (S108349823). https://api.openalex.org/sources/s108349823 (data retrieved 2026-11-08).
Crossref. Journal Record for ISSN 1065-9129 (Political Research Quarterly). https://api.crossref.org/journals/1065-9129 (data retrieved 2026-11-08).
SAGE Publications. Political Research Quarterly Journal Overview. https://journals.sagepub.com/home/prq.
Western Political Science Association (WPSA). Political Research Quarterly Editorial Information. https://wpsanet.org/.

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