Studies in Indian Politics
SIP features research writings on various aspects of Indian politics. Articles based on original research, carried out in qualitative and quantitative methodological frameworks, are published in SIP. With India being at its centre of focus, the journal encompasses in its scope history of political ideas, political thought, political institutions and processes, political economy, India in a comparative perspective especially with reference to the global south, India’s engagement with the world and public policies. The journal also mirrors the advances and more novel developments in the field of political studies with respect to India.
Politics and policy developments in India form an exceptionally vast field of knowledge, the analyses and theorizations of which potentially impact the development of the discipline. The authorship of articles in SIP spans from eminent scholars in the field to emerging promising resesarchers.
Established in 1963, the CSDS has emerged as a prominent research institution in Asia that critically engages with social and political processes of the global south from diverse intellectual perspectives. Brought out by Lokniti, a research programme of the CSDS on comparative democracy, SIP carries the vision of bringing together, sharpening through scrupulous screening and reviewing, theorizations and discussions of different facets of Indian politics. Scholars with towering contributions to the field of political studies in their respective areas of enquiry form the editorial and advisory board of the journal.
Along with the interested researchers in India and the world, the research published in SIP draws readership from amongst teachers, post graduate and research students, journalists, civil society practitioners, political commentators and policymakers.
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Studies in Indian Politics is a double blind peer-reviewed bi-annual journal. The journal publishes research writings that seek to explain different aspects of Indian politics. The journal adopts a multi-method approach and publish articles based on primary data in the qualitative and quantitative traditions, archival research, interpretation of texts and documents, and secondary data. The Journal covers a wide variety of sub-fields in politics, such as political ideas and thought in India, political institutions and processes, Indian democracy and politics in a comparative perspective particularly with reference to the global South and South Asia, India in world affairs, and public policies. While such a scope makes it accessible to a large number of readers, keeping India at the centre of the focus makes it target-specific.
The journal is a forum for those engaged in the pursuit of generating new knowledge and analyses of Indian politics based on original research. By way of making such a knowledge and analyses accessible to the public, it cater to the needs of a large number of social and political scientists engaged in teaching and research at educational and research institutions in India and abroad. SIP expects readership mainly from academics and students (both post-graduate and research level) in higher education institutions and research institutes in India and abroad. We also expect a few interested journalists, NGO functionaries, political analysts and commentators and policy makers to read the journal.
The journal caters to the need of researchers and students in Political Science, and within political science, its emphasis will be on Indian politics, state politics in India, political thinking in India and comparative politics with India/global South as the focus.
| Suhas Vasant Palshikar | Chief Editor of Studies in Indian Politics and Retired Professor of Savitribai Phule Pune University |
| Philip Oldenburg | Columbia University, New York, USA |
| Ujjwal Kumar Singh | Reader, Department of Political Science, University of Delhi |
| Pradeep Chhibber | University of California, Berkeley, USA |
| Rajeshwari Deshpande | Professor at the Department of Politics and Public Administration, Savitribai Phule Pune University |
| Kailash K K | University of Hyderabad, Telangana, India |
| Irfan Nooruddin | Georgetown University, USA |
| Sandeep Shastri | Vice Chancellor, Jagaran Lake City University, Bhopal, India |
| Vibha Attri | CSDS, Delhi, India |
| Samiksha Farakate | Vivekanand College, Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India |
| Hilal Ahmed | CSDS, Delhi, India |
| Mukulika Banerjee | London School of Economics and Political Science, UK |
| Sanjib Baruah | Bard College, New York, USA |
| Rekha Chowdhary | Former Professor of Political Science at University of Jammu, India |
| Gopal Guru | Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India |
| Niraja Gopal Jayal | Kings’ College, London, UK |
| Rob Jenkins | Hunter College & The Graduate Center, The City University of New York, USA |
| Sunil Khilnani | Ashoka University, Sonepat, Haryana, India |
| Alistair McMillan | University of Sheffield, UK |
| Pratap Bhanu Mehta | Political scientist based at Gurugram, India |
| Valerian Rodrigues | Ambedkar Chair Professor, Ambedkar University, Delhi, India |
| Arild Ruud | University of Oslo, Norway |
| K C Suri | University of Hyderabad, Telangana, India |
| Akio Tanabe | Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan |
| Divya Vaid | Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India |
| Ashutosh Varshney | Brown University, USA |
| Yogendra Yadav | Former Senior Fellow, CSDS, Delhi, India and Activist with Swaraj Abhiyan, India |
| Pranab Bardhan | University of California, Berkeley, USA |
| Rajeev Bhargava | Honorary Fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi, India |
| Partha Chatterjee | Columbia University, New York, USA and Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata, India |
| Christophe Jaffrelot | Centre for the International Studies and Research (CERI), Sciences Po, Paris, France |
| Sudipta Kaviraj | Columbia University, New York, USA |
| James Manor | University of London, London, UK |
| Ghanshyam Shah | Formerly National Fellow, ICSSR, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India |
| V B Singh | Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi, India |
Studies in Indian Politics
This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics
Studies in Indian Politics is hosted on SAGE Peer Review; a web based online submission and peer review system. Please read the Manuscript Submission guidelines below, and then visit https://peerreview.sagepub.com/inp to login and submit your article online.
Book reviews and book review essays are commissioned and edited by Philip Oldenburg (philip.oldenburg@columbia.edu) and Ujjwal Kumar Singh (ujjwalksingh@gmail.com). Books for review and reviewers are selected by the book review editors, depending on the particular expertise of prospective reviewers, who are welcome to communicate with them if they wish to be considered.
Studies in Indian Politics publishes short write-ups on Methods and Teaching-Learning of Political Science. Write ups for the section Teaching-Learning Political Science are commissioned by Rajeshwari Deshpande (rajeshwari.deshpande@gmail.com) and write ups for the section Notes on Methods are commissioned by Divya Vaid (divya.vaid09@gmail.com). It should be submitted online at https://peerreview.sagepub.com/inp.
Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Studies in Indian Politics will be reviewed.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.
As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere.
If you have any questions about publishing with SAGE, please visit the SAGE Journal Solutions Portal
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
2.6 Research data
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Supplemental material
4.4 Reference style
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions
6. On acceptance and publication
6.1 SAGE Production
6.2 Online First publication
6.3 Access to your published article
6.4 Promoting your article
Before submitting your manuscript to Studies in Indian Politics, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
The journal publishes research writings that seek to explain different aspects of Indian politics. The Journal covers a wide variety of sub-fields in politics, such as political ideas and thought in India, political institutions and processes, Indian democracy and politics in a comparative perspective particularly with reference to the global South and South Asia, India in world affairs, and public policies. The journal caters to the need of researchers and students in Political Science, and within political science, its emphasis will be on Indian politics, state politics in India, political thinking in India and comparative politics with India/global South as the focus.
- Manuscripts of articles should not ordinarily exceed 7,000 words in length, inclusive of references, tables and figures. Notes, commentaries (under teaching-learning section or research methods section) and book review essays should not exceed 3,000 words in length. Book Reviews should not ordinarily exceed 1,000 words. All Submissions should be sent only in soft copy, preferably in MS Word, double-spaced throughout (even for quotations, notes, references).
- Along with the submission, authors also need to send an undertaking that the same article is not submitted to any other publication.
There is no limit on the number of references allowed.
The SAGE Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. SAGE Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.
1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
For information and guidance on how to make your article more discoverable, visit our Gateway page on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online
Studies in Indian Politics adheres to a rigorous double-blind reviewing policy in which the identity of both the reviewer and author are always concealed from both parties.
All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.
If the named authors for a manuscript change at any point between submission and acceptance, an Authorship Change Form must be completed and digitally signed by all authors (including any added or removed) . An addition of an author is only permitted following feedback raised during peer review. Completed forms can be uploaded at Revision Submission stage or emailed to the Journal Editorial Office contact (listed on the journal’s manuscript submission guidelines). All requests will be moderated by the Editor and/or Sage staff.
Important: Changes to the author by-line by adding or deleting authors are NOT permitted following acceptance of a paper.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.
2.3.1 Writing assistance
Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.
Studies in Indian Politics requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
Studies in Indian Politics encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway
Please ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’.
The journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the SAGE Research Data policy pages.
Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:
- share your research data in a relevant public data repository
- include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, we encourage you to consider using the statement to explain why it cannot be shared.
- cite this data in your research
SAGE is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the SAGE Author Gateway
3.1.1 Plagiarism
Studies in Indian Politics and SAGE take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the Journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarized other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
3.1.2 Prior publication
If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a SAGE journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the SAGE Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
3.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement
Before publication, SAGE requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. SAGE’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants SAGE the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than SAGE. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the SAGE Author Gateway
3.3 Open access and author archiving
Studies in Indian Politics offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.
4. Preparing your manuscript for submission
The preferred format for your manuscript is MS-Word.
The manuscript must include the following:
- Title of the paper, name of author, author’s affiliation and institutional address with pin code, email id and abstract of not more than 150 words. In case there are two or more authors, then corresponding author’s name and postal address details must be clearly specified.
- The contributors should provide 4–6 keywords for online searchability.
For each text citation there must be a corresponding citation in the reference list and for each reference list citation there must be a corresponding text citation. Tables should be provided in editable format. Both tables and figures should be referred to in the text by number separately (e.g., Table 1) not by placement (e.g., see Table below).
All figures and tables should be cited in the text and should have the source (a specific URL, a reference or, if it is author’s own work, ‘The author(s)’) mentioned irrespective of whether or not they require permissions.
- The journal follows spellings in British English rather than American spellings (hence programme, not program; labour, not labor; centre, not center, etc.). Universal ‘z’ in ‘-ize’ and ‘-ization’ words.
- For non-English and uncommon words and phrases, use italics throughout the text. Meaning of non-English words should be given in parentheses just after the word when it is used for the first time.
- Articles should use non-sexist and non-racist language.
- Spell out numbers from one to nine, 10 and above to remain in figures. However, for exact measurement (e.g., China’s GDP growth rate 9.8 per cent) use numbers. Very large round numbers, especially sums of money, may be expressed by a mixture of numerals and spelled-out numbers (India’s population 1.2 billion). Use thousands and millions, not lakhs and crores.
- Single quotes should be used throughout. Double quote marks are to be used within single quotes. Spellings of words in quotations should not be changed. Quotations of 45 words or more should be separated from the text.
- Notes should be numbered serially and presented at the end of each page as footnotes. Notes must contain more than a mere reference. However, mere URLs may be incorporated in the footnotes. Use notes to elaborate an issue that is already made in the main text.
- Use ‘per cent’ instead of % in the text. In tables, graphs, etc., % can be used. Use ‘twentieth century’, ‘the 1990s’.
- Abbreviations are spelled out at first occurrence. Very common ones (US, GDP, BBC) need not be spelled out. Also, do not use period/full stop in abbreviations (USA, USSR). Use period/full stop after initials (R. K. Laxman).
- Give specific dates in the form 22 November 1980. Decades should be referred to as ‘twentieth century’, ‘1980s’.
References should come at the end of the manuscript.
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit SAGE’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.
- Figures, including maps, graphs and drawings, should not be larger than page size. They should be numbered and arranged as per their references in the text. All photographs and scanned images should have a resolution of minimum 300 dpi and 1,500 pixels and their format should be TIFF or JPEG.
- Due permissions should be taken for copyright protected photographs/images. Even for photographs/images available in the public domain, it should be clearly ascertained whether or not their reproduction requires permission for purposes of publishing (which is a profit-making endeavour).
- All photographs/scanned images should be provided separately in a folder along with the main article.
Please Note: All figures and tables should be cited in the text and should have the source (a specific URL, a reference or, if it is author’s own work, ‘The Author’) mentioned irrespective of whether or not they require permissions
Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from SAGE after receipt of your accepted article.
This Journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplemental files
Studies in Indian Politics adheres to the APA reference style. View the APA guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
Studies in Indian Politics is hosted on SAGE Peer Review; a web based online submission and peer review system. Please read the Manuscript Submission guidelines below, and then visit https://peerreview.sagepub.com/inp to login and submit your article online.
Book reviews and book review essays are commissioned and edited by Philip Oldenburg (philip.oldenburg@columbia.edu) and Ujjwal Kumar Singh (ujjwalksingh@gmail.com).It should be submitted online at https://peerreview.sagepub.com/inp.
Studies in Indian Politics publishes short write-ups on Methods and Teaching-Learning of Political Science. Write ups for the section Teaching-Learning Political Science are commissioned by Rajeshwari Deshpande (rajeshwari.deshpande@gmail.com) and write ups for the section Notes on Methods are commissioned by Divya Vaid (divya.vaid09@gmail.com). It should be submitted online at https://peerreview.sagepub.com/inp.
Authors will be provided with a copyright form once the contribution is accepted for publication. The submission will be considered as final only after the filled-in and signed copyright form is received. In case there are two or more authors, the corresponding author needs to sign the copyright form.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process SAGE is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID IDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this Journal. If you already have an ORCID ID you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID ID will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID ID is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID ID please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed in the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and provided any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the SAGE Author Gateway
6. On acceptance and publication
Your SAGE Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via email, and corrections should be made directly or notified to us promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.
Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the SAGE Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.
6.3 Access to your published article
SAGE provides authors with online access to their final article.
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The SAGE Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Studies in Indian Politics editorial office as follows:
The Editors (Studies in Indian Politics)