Style guide
For details of scope, word length, and submission procedures, please see the author guidelines.
Title, short title and abstract
Please provide a fully descriptive article title of not more than 50 words and an abstract of not more than 300 words.
Spelling
We are happy to use either UK or US spelling so long as spelling is consistent throughout an article.
Capitalisation
Please use capital letters sparingly. Extraneous capitalisation of common nouns (such as parliament, cabinet, president etc) should be avoided. Please do not capitalise variable names in regressions and similar analyses.
Quotations
For quotations single quote marks should be used, reserving double quotation marks only for quotes within quotes. Indent any quotations over 40 words in length and remove the quotation marks.
Headings
Please use no more than two levels of headings. Do not number headings or paragraphs. Try to make sure that two levels of headings are not used next to each other without text in between.
Tables and figures
Tables and figures should be submitted as separate files, with their location notes in the text. The publisher will typeset the tables; charts, diagrams and other illustrations (figures) must be in a form suitable for reproduction without retouching. Each table should have a table number, a heading, clear labels for all rows and columns used, a description of units of measurements used, and a note on sources. Each chart should have a figure number, a heading, clear labels for the X and Y axes, or for bars in histograms, including indications of units of measurement and a readable scale or background grid, a clear legend distinguishing multiple data series from each other, and a note on sources.
Notes
Try to keep endnotes to a minimum and use only for essential contextual background, to provide details of variables or methods, or for similar material which, while essential, would none the less be disruptive of the flow of the main text, or of interest only to a minority of readers
Acknowledgements should appear as an unnumbered first note.
References
Political Studies uses a Harvard system of referencing, without any accompanying notes wherever possible. The first component of the system is that the author's last name and date of publication are given at the reference point in the main text, enclosed in brackets:
(Rawls, 1971)
If an author has more than one cited publication for this year, add a,b, c etc to the date. Denote pages by p. and pp., and spell out the pagination for any chapter cited rather than using Ch:
(Rawls, 1992b, pp. 47-48)
Where two or three works are referenced at the same time they are enclosed within the same brackets and separated by a semi-colon:
(Rawls, 1971; Smith 1979, p. 24)
Where four or more works are referenced at the same point in the main text this could disrupt the flow of the argument and look off-putting. On such occasions only an endnote number may be inserted instead, leading to an endnote listing the works cited in the normal Harvard style, but without accompanying brackets since the endnote is a discrete unit:
1. Rawls, 1971; Smith 1979, p. 29; Walzer, 1985; Jones and Johnson, 1999.
The second component of the Harvard system is a single complete list of references given at the end of the article, arranged in alphabetical order of the author's last name. The reference list must contain all literature cited in the main text and any occasional end notes; it may not contain a reference unless the work has been explicitly cited. The format of each reference starts with the last name of the author, followed by her initials, a full stop and then the date of publication in brackets. The entry then continues with different formats for books, chapters in edited books and journal articles as follows:
Book
Harmer, H. T. (1999) The Longman Companion to the Labour Party 1900-1998. London: Longman.
Inglehart, R. (ed.) (1990) Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Societies. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.
Holliday, I., Gamble, A. and Parry, G. (eds.) (1999) Fundamentals in British Politics, second edition. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Chapter in a book
Allen, D. (1988) 'British Foreign Policy and West European Co-operation', in P. Byrd (ed.), British Foreign Policy under Thatcher. Deddington: Philip Allen, pp. 210-8.
Journal article
Abrahams, P. (1998) 'Notes on the Difficulty of Studying the State', Journal of Historical Sociology, 1 (1), 15-21.
Fontana, B. (2001) 'Gramsci on Politics and State', Journal of Classical Sociology, 2 (July), 157-78.
Paper presented
Reid, M. (2004) 'The Turbulent Emergence of Mass Democracies in Latin America'. Paper presented at the Institute for the Study of the Americas, London, 20 October.
Proceedings
Kowalik, T. (1992) 'Trade Unions' Attitude to Privatisation' in 'Privatisation and Transformation in Eastern Europe', proceedings of a conference held in Warsaw, 15-20 November 1992, pp. 123-34.
Electronic journal article
Auers, D. (2005) 'European Elections in Eight New EU Member States', Electoral Studies [online], 24 (4), 747-54. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2005.03.005 [Accessed 18 November 2005].
Web page
Conservative Party (2005) Conservative Election Manifesto 2005 [online]. The Conservative Party. Available from: http://www.conservatives.com/getfile.cfm?file=manifesto2005&ref=POLICYDOCUMENT/1664&type=pdf [Accessed 18 November 2005].
The author of a web page can be an individual or a corporate body. The publisher is the organisation responsible for maintaining the website.
PhD thesis (unpublished)
Lavelle, A. (2003) 'The Wilderness Years: Federal Labor in Opposition'. Unpublished PhD thesis, Department of Politics and Public Policy, Griffith University, November.
Newspapers
Klein, J. (2002) 'How the Solidarity Dream Turned Sour', Guardian, 12 June, G2, p. 7.
Never use Latin referencing expressions such as op cit, loc cit, ibid, and avoid any abbreviation terms. In circumstances where one or a few texts are referred to many times, however, it may be acceptable to introduce an acronym into Harvard referencing as a shortcut, so long as it is explained clearly on first use. For instance, John Locke's Two Treatise on Civil Government might be abbreviated to TTCG. Similarly if a non-normal referencing system is being repetitively used, (such as a sequence of Book, Volume, Chapter and Section in an older political thought text) an initial explanation must ensure that readers know how to interpret the reference.
If you need help, contact:
Rene Bailey
politicalstudies@sheffield.ac.uk
Department of Politics
Elmfield
Northumberland Road
Sheffield
S10 2TU
UK
Thank you for contributing to Political Studies or Political Studies Review .