I assume that there aren't a whole lot of political scientists who read Plain Blog but don't read the Monkey Cage, but I do know of at least one, so perhaps there are others...at any rate, just in case any of you missed it, I want to strongly agree with Henry Farrell's post suggesting that Perspectives on Politics (a journal that is intended for both political scientists and political actors) become accessible free of charge.
My experience is the same as Henry's: there are a lot of journalists and bloggers out there who would be glad to learn (and publicize!) what political scientists have to tell them if it were easily available. I think that would be a surprise to many experienced academics, by the way, and I think it is part of a generational shift. I think older generations of reporters were far less likely to read things, and far more likely to rely on phone conversations, most of which were (at least in my experience) used to tease out a quotation to support whatever it was that they intended to say already. Yes, I'm generalizing, and yes, I'm speaking from my own personal experience (as well as what I've heard from others), but I'm certain that if Perspectives was more readily available, it would play a larger role in policy and political debates. Moreover, I suspect that once that happened, political scientists who want their research to be noticed outside of academia would be more likely to publish there.
Quoting Henry:
My experience is the same as Henry's: there are a lot of journalists and bloggers out there who would be glad to learn (and publicize!) what political scientists have to tell them if it were easily available. I think that would be a surprise to many experienced academics, by the way, and I think it is part of a generational shift. I think older generations of reporters were far less likely to read things, and far more likely to rely on phone conversations, most of which were (at least in my experience) used to tease out a quotation to support whatever it was that they intended to say already. Yes, I'm generalizing, and yes, I'm speaking from my own personal experience (as well as what I've heard from others), but I'm certain that if Perspectives was more readily available, it would play a larger role in policy and political debates. Moreover, I suspect that once that happened, political scientists who want their research to be noticed outside of academia would be more likely to publish there.
Quoting Henry:
If you agree with the basic arguments of this post, I’d ask you to politely push them to anyone you know who holds any office in APSA. It’s long past time that APSA did this - but getting action is going to require some politics. Which is a topic that we (in theory) should know quite a lot about.To which I'll add this sophisticated argument: What he said!
