European Union Politics
European Union Politics (EUP) is an exciting international journal that provides the forum for advanced peer-reviewed research on all aspects of the processes of government, politics and policy in the European Union. Led by a global editorial team and with a commitment to the highest scholarly standards, European Union Politics adopts a transnational approach to the challenges that the project of European integration faces in the 21st century.
"In my opinion, it has become the leading social science journal dealing with EU issues... must reading for anyone interested in the EU as well as for those interested in theoretical developments in comparative politics and international relations" James Caporaso, University of Washington, Seattle, USA
"EUP's major selling point is its unique combination of a substantive focus on the EU with a commitment to the empirical methods and analytical techniques of modern political science. EUP thereby finds an important place for EU studies within modern political science more generally." Michael Laver, Department of Politics, New York University, USA
"EUP brings together substantive expertise on EU issues with theoretical understanding of debates in the social sciences, and methodological sophistication in the presentation of arguments. It is clearly the best existing journal on EU." George Tsebelis UCLA, USA
"The journal is essential reading for all those seeking an analytic understanding of how the European Union works now, and will work over the horizon" Patrick Dunleavy, London School of Economics, UK
All issues of European Union Politics are available on SAGE Journals Online.
European Union Politics is an international academic journal for advanced peer-reviewed research and scholarship on all aspects of the process of government, politics and policy in the European Union. It aims to stimulate debate and provide a forum to bridge the theoretical and empirical analysis on the political unification of Europe. It represents no particular school or approach, nor is it wedded to any particular methodology. In particular it welcomes articles that offer a new theoretical argument, analyze original data in a novel fashion or present an innovative methodological approach. The Editors invite submissions from all sub-fields of contemporary political science, including international relations, comparative politics, public administration, public policy and political theory.
| Gerald Schneider | University of Konstanz, Germany |
| Fabio Franchino | University of Milan, Italy |
| Matthew Gabel | Washington University, USA |
| Sara Hagemann | University of Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Simon Hix | European University Institute, Florence, Italy |
| Heike Klüver | Humboldt University, Germany |
| Ann-Cathrin Klöckner | University of Konstanz, Germany |
| Esther Simmerdinger | University of Konstanz, Germany |
| Christopher J. Anderson | London School of Economics, UK |
| Leonardo Baccini | McGill University, Canada |
| Stefanie Bailer | University of Basel, Switzerland |
| Christophe Crombez | University of Leuven, Belgium |
| Jakob de Haan | University of Groningen, Netherlands |
| Claes H. de Vreese | University of Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Catherine de Vries | Bocconi University, Italy |
| Geoffrey Evans | Nuffield College, UK |
| Daniel Finke | Aarhus University, Denmark |
| Mark Hallerberg | Hertie School of Governance, Germany |
| Sara Hobolt | London School of Economics and Political Science |
| Lisbet Hooghe | University of North Carolina, USA |
| Bjørn Høyland | Political Science, University of Oslo, Norway |
| Simon Hug | Université de Genève, Switzerland |
| Joseph H. Jupille | University of Colorado, USA |
| Orit Kedar | Hebrew University, Israel |
| Cigdem Kentmen | Izmir University of Economics, Turkey |
| Thomas König | University of Mannheim, Germany |
| Sylvia Kritzinger | University of Vienna, Austria |
| Theresa Kuhn | University of Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Radoslaw Markowski | Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland |
| Gary Marks | University of North Carolina, USA |
| Mikko Mattila | University of Helsinki, Finland |
| Gail McElroy | Trinty College, Dublin, Ireland |
| Ignacio Sánchez-Cuenca | Juan Marche Institute, Spain |
| Christina J. Schneider | University of California,USA |
| Jonathan Slapin | University of Essex, UK |
| Bernard Steunenberg | University of Leiden, Netherlands |
| Gábor Tóka | Central European University, Hungary |
| George Tsebelis | University of Michigan, USA |
Manuscript Submission Guidelines: European Union Politics
Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/eup to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of European Union 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. Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that the journal may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in the journal. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the journal's author archiving policy.
If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.
- What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper - Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
2.6 Data
2.7 Anonymisation during Peer Review - Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving - Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Supplemental material
4.4 Reference style
4.5 English language editing services - Submitting your manuscript
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions - 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 - Further information
Before submitting your manuscript to European Union Politics, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
European Union Politics is an international academic journal for advanced peer-reviewed research and scholarship on all aspects of the process of government, politics and policy in the European Union. It aims to stimulate debate and provide a forum to bridge the theoretical and empirical analysis on the political unification of Europe. It represents no particular school or approach, nor is it wedded to any particular methodology. In particular it welcomes articles that offer a new theoretical argument, analyze original data in a novel fashion or present an innovative methodological approach. The Editors invite submissions from all sub-fields of contemporary political science, including international relations, comparative politics, public administration, public policy and political theory.
EUP publishes research articles from all sub-fields of contemporary political science, including international relations, comparative politics, public administration, public policy and political theory. The journal particularly welcomes articles that offer a new theoretical argument, analyze original data in a novel fashion or present an innovative methodological approach. The length should be between 4,000 and 9,000 words, including notes and references. Articles typically include up to 5 or 6 display items (figures or tables). EUP also publishes shorter research articles of 1,000 to 2,000 words maximum of 3 display items. These peer reviewed letters report original research and are subjected to the same standards as EUP research articles. A typical EUP issue also contains a forum article with a maximum length of 6,000 words. Forum article offer reviews of current scholarship or present novel research.
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.
The editor and the EUP staff read all submitted manuscripts. Authors of papers, which are judged to be of sufficient interest, but lack in some aspects, will be asked to improve their submission before the external review. The EUP editor will directly reject manuscripts that are not of sufficient interest or quality.
Appropriate manuscripts undergo a formal review. Manuscripts can either be submitted for the normal reviewing procedure or for a fast track option for which no invitation to resubmit is possible. To maximize quality, each manuscript is typically reviewed by at least two independent reviewers. The EUP editorial team only invites resubmissions under the regular reviewing procedure when there is a reasonable chance that a revised version of the article is accepted at a later stage.
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.
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.
2.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:
- Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
- Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
- Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.
Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.
European Union 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
It is the policy of European Union Politics to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles.
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’. For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations here
European Union Politics supports the JETS (Journal Editors Transparency Statement), (formerly Data Access and Research Transparency (DA-RT) statement) and, as such, endorses policies encouraging authors to make as accessible as possible the empirical foundation and logic of inquiry of evidence-based research. The journal encourages authors therefore to delineate clearly the analytic procedures upon which their published claims rely, and where possible provide access to all relevant analytic materials.
For contributions based on quantitative data, European Union Politics asks authors to submit their data set and, where applicable, their syntax/command files for the analyses presented in the contribution. Authors of qualitative work have to submit additional information on their data gathering process including codebooks, questionnaires and similar information if the empirical strategy is not fully described in the submitted article.
Authors are encouraged to make data available as a supplementary data file or via a third party digital repository.
Recommended services include:
DRYAD *
*Note that there is a charge for using this service.
If cited data is restricted (e.g. classified, require confidentiality protections, were obtained under a non-disclosure agreement, or have inherent logistical constraints), authors should notify the editor at the time of submission. The editor shall have full discretion to follow their journal’s policy on restricted data, including declining to review the manuscript or granting an exemption with or without conditions. The editor shall inform the author of this decision prior to review.
European Union Politics encourages authors to use data citation practices that identify a dataset’s author(s), title, date, version, and a persistent identifier. In sum, data should be referenced and cited, where possible, as an intellectual product of value. If appropriate, authors can also pre-register their research before submission and detail their sampling and analysis plans in advance.
2.7 Anonymisation during Peer Review
The following should be properly anonymized for review:
- Author names, emails and affiliations
- Funding sources
- Acknowledgements
- Identifying information from file names and document properties
- References: Do not eliminate essential self-references or other references but limit self-references only to papers that are relevant for those reviewing the submitted paper. If there are more than 2 self-references, please ensure these are anonymized during the peer review as outlined below:
For anonymizing in the body text: "… has been shown before [Anonymous, 2020]"
For anonymizing in the [reference list/bibliography]: '[Anonymous 2020] Details omitted for double-anonymised peer review.'
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
European Union 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 plagiarised 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
European Union 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 Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s .
Illustrations, pictures and graphs, should be supplied in the highest quality and in an electronic format that helps us to publish your article in the best way possible.
Please follow the guidelines below to enable us to prepare your artwork for the printed issue as well as the online version.
Format: TIFF, JPEG: Common format for pictures (containing no text or graphs).
EPS: Preferred format for graphs and line art (retains quality when enlarging/zooming in).
Placement: Figures/charts and tables created in MS Word should be included in the main text rather than at the end of the document.
Figures and other files created outside Word (i.e. Excel, PowerPoint, JPG, TIFF and EPS) should be submitted separately. Please add a placeholder note in the running text (i.e. “[insert Figure 1.]")
Resolution: Rasterized based files (i.e. with .tiff or .jpeg extension) require a resolution of at least 300 dpi (dots per inch). Line art should be supplied with a minimum resolution of 800 dpi.
Colour: Please note that images supplied in colour will be published in colour online and black and white in print (unless otherwise arranged). Therefore, it is important that you supply images that are comprehensible in black and white as well (i.e. by using colour with a distinctive pattern or dotted lines). The captions should reflect this by not using words indicating colour.
Dimension: Check that the artworks supplied match or exceed the dimensions of the journal. Images cannot be scaled up after origination
Fonts: The lettering used in the artwork should not vary too much in size and type (usually sans serif font as a default).
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 supplementary files
European Union Politics adheres to the Sage Harvard reference style. View the Sage Harvard guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Harvard EndNote output file.
4.5 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
European Union Politics is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/eup to login and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
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 via the submission system 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 uploaded 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 our editing portal Sage Edit or by 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 European Union Politics editorial office as follows:
The Managing Editors European Union Politics