BJPIR editorship to be hosted at Leeds

CGSC has been part of a successful bid led by our Co-Director Dr Jack Holland and the Centre for Democratic Engagement to bring the PSA’s British Journal of Politics and International Relations (BJPIR) to POLIS from 1 August 2021. Jack will be one of the five lead editors alongside Emma-Louise Anderson, Derek Edyvane, Victoria Honeyman and Richard Hayton. CGSC members – Kingsley Edney, Sahla Aroussi, Yoshi Kobayashi, Viktoria Spaiser and Nora Stappert – will be among the team of Associate Editors.

BJPIR is a world-leading journal, renowned as a preeminent outlet for research in British politics and across the broad remits of political and international studies. Ranked 14th in International Relations, reliably top quartile in a range of disciplines, and as a flagship journal of the Political Studies Association, taking on the editorship of BJPIR enables Leeds to really put its stamp on Politics and IR in the UK and globally.

The Leeds team noted: We are excited by this opportunity to build on the tremendous work of the Edinburgh editorial team and extend BJPIR’s excellent reputation. Our vision for BJPIR is to expand its potential as a journal of global reach and significance and to embed British politics in the politics of global challenges. BJPIR offers a unique convening point to address questions of international significance in which the British standpoint is a particularly interesting one (for example because of the UK’s geopolitical position or the legacy of colonialism). This is particularly the case where the UK has sought to position itself as a global leader (for example international aid, climate change, or branding of Global Britain); or where the UK offers itself as a fascinating potential case study (for example the response to COVID-19 at local, regional, national, European and international levels). Our vision aligns directly with the strategic vision of POLIS to investigate the politics of global challenges.

Given the structural inequalities in the academy we are committed to ensuring that BJPIR is at the forefront of driving much needed change. We are ambitious in our plans to expand the scope and readership of journal so that there is a wider community of scholars submitting to, publishing in, reading, and citing BJPIR. We will work towards ensuring that 50 percent of articles published are authored by women and improve the percentage of submissions and published articles by Early Career Researchers and authors from underrepresented minority groups. To realise these aims we will draw on the editorial team’s networks to extend the scope of the advisory board and promote active links with Global South and Asian scholars through guest editorship. We will develop special issues on topics relating to global challenges that attract greater diversity, work with the PSA to run targeted support workshops and explore approaches which proactively mitigate possible unconscious bias and other obstacles to diversity.

In announcing the news the PSA Vice-Chair and Publications Lead, Professor Claire Dunlop commented:

We are excited by the Leeds team’s intellectual vision for the journal and deep commitment to diversity in the academy. We know BJPIR will be in safe hands and will continue to go from strength to strength. We also extend huge thanks to the Edinburgh team led by Alan Convery for the massive contribution they have made to our community and for carrying on the work started by Alan and the late John Peterson.