Deutsche Vereinigung für Politikwissenschaft
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Call for Proposals – PVS/GPSQ Special Issue 2026

Politische Vierteljahresschrift/German Political Science Quarterly(PVS/GPSQ) is the German journal of Political Science co-produced by the German Political ScienceAssociation (DVPW) and Springer VS. Published four times a year, the journal presents contributions from all areas and sub-areas of Political Science by and for the German and international political science community.

The editorial board of PVS/GPSQ is inviting proposals for a special issue, preferably in English language. Special issues should be devoted to a topic of general interest to the discipline, relevant across different subfields. Prospective guest editors of a special issue should submit proposals to pvs-redaktiondvpwde by 30 April 2025.

Special issues should consist of a substantial editorial introduction (of max. 5000 words) plus seven to nine articles that conform to PVS/GPSQ's submission criteria. One of these articles may be a literature review, and up to two contributions can be research notes. However, research articles must be the primary format of the special issue.

The PVS editorial board aims to strengthen the competitiveness of special issues and at the same time open up opportunities for researchers who are less involved in networks (e.g. early career researchers) to participate in special issues. For this reason, the current call is semi-open, meaning that guest editors are expected to include information about six or seven selected articles in their proposal, and initiate an open call for further contributions, if their proposal should be selected by the editorial board.

A proposal for a special issue should include the following:

  1. Outline of theme and rationale in terms of theoretical significance, timeliness, and general interest to the discipline,
  2. abstracts (250 words) of the proposed articles (six or seven articles and editorial introduction),
  3. very brief biographies for authors and guest editors,
  4. plan for the execution of the open call and integration of respective manuscripts,
  5. statement that the proposal has exclusively been submitted to PVS/GPSQ.

Prospective guest editors will be informed whether their proposal has been accepted by 31 May 2025 at the latest.

Guest editors will be responsible for ensuring that the articles are submitted online by 30 November 2025 in accordance with PVS/GPSQ's submission guidelines. The PVS/GPSQ editorial board will be responsible for arranging the double-blind peer review of the articles.

Queries concerning the special issues should be directed to Eric Linhart, Editor in Chief, and Niclas Hüttemann, Managing Editor, at pvs-redaktiondvpwde.