Understanding and building upon the research

understanding and building upon the research questions, data, and analysis generated by others in
the discipline. A good starting point is knowing where to read and explore peer-reviewed
scholarship in the discipline Every discipline, whether political science, anthropology, criminal
justice, nursing, economics, biology, engineering, and so on, is based on knowledge debated,
disseminated, and created in journal articles.

8
Journal articles are peer-reviewed publications that help scholars communicate ideas, theories,
empirical analyses, and conclusions. Journal articles are contained in journals that are typically
owned by publishing companies. For example, the University of Cambridge, located in the
United Kingdom, owns and operates Cambridge University Press. This press partners with the
American Political Science Association (APSA) to publish the following journals: American
Political Science Review, Perspectives on Politics, and PS: Political Science and Politics.
Additionally, APSA also partners with Taylor and Francis to publish the Journal of Political
Science Education (JPSE). The key difference between the 4 journals is that one, JPSE, is
published by Taylor and Francis, while the other 3 journals are published by Cambridge
University Press.
Figure 1-3: Visualization of network of APSA, publishers, and journals
The ability to critically read journal articles is a skill that is developed with practice. This skill is
especially useful when you are a university student. If you are contemplating attending graduate
school to earn a Masters, professional, or Doctoral degree, then analyzing journal articles is an
essential skill.
Peer-review is the process by which a scholar submits a manuscript to a journal editor. The
editor decides whether to forward the manuscript to 2-4 other scholars for their review or not.
When an editor decides not to forward a manuscript, this is called a “desk rejection”. These 2-3
reviewers will read the manuscript, comment on it, and suggest whether the manuscript should
be accepted for publication, revised and resubmitted for consideration, or rejected. Manuscripts
that are accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal are Journal Articles.

9
Figure 1-4: Visualization of the peer-review process
Journal Article Analysis consists of reading journal articles and analyzing them. You are
responsible for identifying twelve parts of a journal article: title, main point, question, puzzle,
debate, theory, hypotheses, research design, empirical analysis and methods, policy implications,
and contribution to the discipline, and future research. Journal Articles vary in their organization
and inclusion of these twelve parts. Increasingly, many articles explicitly describe all or most of
these parts; however, other articles may not state a part, or may omit it entirely. There is a
diversity of article authors, writing styles, and approaches to the discipline, this outline and
subsequent elaboration is just one of a multiple of frameworks for analyzing political science
research.