Journal of Politics in Latin America
The Journal of Politics in Latin America (JPLA) is an academic journal dealing with Latin America-related political science topics. It is published as an open access publication.
editor
The Journal of Politics in Latin America is published three times a year by academics from the GIGA Institute for Latin American Studies, one of the four regional institutes of the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) in Hamburg. It is published as a hybrid publication in both a printed and digital open access version. The Open Access position was supported by start-up funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG) and carried out in cooperation with Hamburg University Press, the online publisher of the Hamburg State and University Library. The editor-in-chief of the magazine is Dr. Jorge P. Gordin, research fellow at the GIGA Institute for Latin American Studies.
The JPLA is part of the GIGA Journal Family, to which the four international trade journals of the GIGA belong. The journals deal with current research and empirical analyzes on the current political, social and economic situation in Africa, China, Southeast Asia and Latin America. The first issue of JPLA appeared in early 2009 as the successor to the journal Latin America Analyzes.
Content (focus and scope)
The primary aim of the Journal of Politics in Latin America is to contribute to a better understanding of political processes and institutions in Latin America. For this purpose, current research by and for political scientists of Latin American studies as well as comparative studies focused on Latin America are published. The focus of the journal is on scientific work on political institutions, political behavior and public order / politics / administration (public policy). In general, it is open to all research approaches that follow the generally applicable guidelines of science.
Numerous comparative country studies as well as supranational quantitative studies concentrate on examining official mechanisms of government - for example in presidential and parliamentary regimes. Due to the noticeable discrepancy between the increasing worldwide interest in unofficial political processes and these traditional research fields, the JPLA is increasingly concerned with informal institutions in addition to the well-known research foci such as elections and the organization of political parties. This mainly includes topics of public safety and crime, corruption, energy management, etc. With this, the magazine would like to achieve a theoretical and thematic reorientation in the sub-disciplines. The creation of a new form of publication (Open Access), which is available to anyone interested in the dissemination of well-founded research on Latin American politics, also contributes to this. The aim is to contribute to national and international professional debates, primarily in the political science discourse.
Another aim of the journal is to promote and expand the growing interest in analytical studies of the functioning of political systems in the region from a comparative perspective. To this end, JPLA includes comparative studies in which the results of Latin America-oriented research are contrasted with the results of similar studies on political institutions and processes in other countries or regions around the world.
The JPLA contains articles from all research approaches that follow international scientific standards. In addition to main articles, the publication includes book reviews and research notes. The former deal with two or more publications on political science topics on the region, which are critically analyzed in the rubric. The latter are short and concise articles in which interim results of an established, ongoing research project or, alternatively, articles that are theoretically and conceptually particularly interesting are presented and discussed.
Open access regulation
The Journal of Politics in Latin America is an open access journal. This means that the entire content is freely available online and accessible to all Internet users free of charge. In addition, the magazine will remain available in traditional printed format at the same time as the online version.