| name | ajps-submission |
| description | Use when running the final pre-submission preflight for the American Journal of Political Science (AJPS) via Editorial Manager — submission-type selection, full anonymizing for double-blind review, word/abstract caps, APSA-or-Chicago formatting, the 25-page Supporting Information limit, and human-subjects/IRB documentation. Final checks; it does not draft content. |
Submission Preflight (ajps-submission)
The last check before pressing submit on Editorial Manager (editorialmanager.com/ajps). AJPS is
double-blind, so the most common avoidable failure is an under-anonymized manuscript — and AJPS's
anonymizing rules are strict (no acknowledgments, funding lines, or conference mentions, third-person
self-citation). Official AJPS baseline checked 2026-06-20; live-check Editorial Manager prompts before upload.
When to trigger
- "Submitting tomorrow" — last pass before upload
- Unsure which files/metadata Editorial Manager expects
- Confirming the chosen type's cap is met and the manuscript is fully anonymized
Process facts (official baseline checked 2026-06-20)
- Owner / publisher: Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) / Wiley.
- Portal: Editorial Manager (
http://www.editorialmanager.com/ajps/).
- Review model: double-blind — fully anonymize the manuscript.
- Types: Article (<= 10,000 words), Research Note (<= 4,000 — methodology/meta-analysis only),
Correspondence (<= 4,000 — critique of published AJPS work).
- Abstract: <= 150 words (background, hypotheses, approach, findings, conclusions).
- Word count: put it on the title page with the abstract; counts include main text, notes,
parenthetical references, print appendices, and table/figure headers and notes; exclude the
title page, abstract, reference list, online Supporting Information, and math notation.
- Style: APSA Style Manual (rev. 2018, updated 2023) or Chicago 18th ed.; full first +
last names in references; double-spaced, 12-point, >= one-inch margins.
- Supporting Information: <= 25 pages for original submissions, uploaded as "Appendix"; anonymized PAPs are separate and do not count against SI pages.
- Human subjects: IRB approval/exemption where an author has IRB access, else an appendix answering
the human-subjects questions; not required when relying on publicly available data approved at
original collection.
- Fee: no submission fee. Wiley OnlineOpen (Gold OA) is optional after acceptance — APC US $4,300 (verified 2026-06-22; re-verify the current rate before submission). Confirm any ORCID, Wiley-license/open-access, or portal-specific prompt during upload/production.
Preflight checklist
Type & length
Anonymity (double-blind)
Files & format
Compliance & reproducibility
Desk-reject risk table (avoidable failures at AJPS)
| Trigger | Likely outcome | Preflight fix |
|---|
| Manuscript not anonymized (names, acknowledgments, funding) | Double-blind breach return | Strip identifying text and file metadata |
| Short empirical paper sent as a Research Note | Wrong-type return | Route as an Article; the Note is methodology/meta-analysis only |
| Over the word cap, or SI over 25 pages | Returned to re-fit | Recount with notes/captions; trim SI |
Worked micro-example (illustrative)
An author readies a survey-experiment Article. Preflight catches a funding acknowledgment in a footnote
(removed), a first-person self-cite "in our 2022 paper" (made third-person), and a word count of 10,250
that omitted exhibit captions — recounted it exceeds 10,000, so one robustness table moves to the SI to land
at ~9,800 (illustrative). The IRB exemption is attached and the replication package staged for the AJPS
Dataverse pending verification.
Editor-pushback patterns and the venue-specific fix
- "This reads as a methods Note but is a short empirical paper." -> Resubmit as an Article; AJPS reserves
the Note for methodology and meta-analysis.
- "The manuscript still names the authors." -> Re-anonymize and strip document properties.
Calibration anchor: AJPS is Wiley-published for the MPSA, uses Editorial Manager, and is double-blind with a
strict anonymizing standard; confirm portal-specific prompts against the live Editorial Manager workflow.
Anti-patterns
- Leaving acknowledgments, funding lines, conference mentions, or first-person self-cites in the text
- Abstract over 150 words; no word count on the title page
- Sending a short empirical study as a methodology-only Research Note
- Supporting Information over 25 pages on an original submission
- Treating Wiley production/license choices as settled before acceptance
Output format
【Type】Article / Research Note / Correspondence (cap met? Y/N)
【Anonymized】no names/affiliations/acknowledgments/funding/conference; third-person self-cites; metadata clean? [Y/N]
【Abstract】word count (<=150)
【Word count on title page】incl. notes + table/figure captions? [Y/N]
【Style】APSA or Chicago 18th, consistent, full names? [Y/N]
【SI】<= 25 pages? [Y/N/NA]
【IRB】human-subjects documentation ready? [Y/N/NA]
【Next】await decision -> ajps-rebuttal on R&R
Supplementary resources
