About the Journal

Journal Description

The Asian Political Science Review (APSR) (e-ISSN: 3027-6896) is a premier open-access, peer-reviewed international journal dedicated to advancing high-impact scholarly research within the dynamic fields of political science, public administration, and international relations. Co-published by the Association of Legal & Political Studies (Thailand) and White Tiger Legal, Business and Research Consultants Co., Ltd., in esteemed academic collaboration with the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Muhammadiyah University of Makassar (Indonesia), and the Publication Research Institute and Community Service, Universitas Muhammadiyah Sidenreng Rappang (Indonesia), APSR serves as a vital platform for global researchers, public administrators, and policymakers.
To effectively accommodate and rigorously evaluate a diverse spectrum of specialized disciplines, the APSR Editorial Board operates under three dedicated divisions: the Politics & Government Section, the Public Administration Section, and the International Political Economy Section. Operating under a transparent open peer-review process, all three sections ensure the highest standards of academic rigor, integrity, and ethical publication. APSR is fundamentally committed to fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and disseminating cutting-edge knowledge that addresses the complex political, administrative, and economic challenges transforming the modern Asian landscape.

 

Aims

The primary aim of APSR is to serve as a leading intellectual forum that deeply explores the multifaceted mechanisms of power, governance, and political economy, while completely transcending traditional academic silos. By maintaining three dedicated editorial sections, the journal ensures that scholars from diverse branches of political and social sciences have a rigorous platform to publish their work.
Our core objective is twofold:

1. Focus on the Asian Context: To cultivate a robust body of knowledge that explores, analyzes, and proposes solutions specifically relevant to the political realities of the Asian continent and its constituent nations. We aim to highlight Asian perspectives on governance, evaluate the implementation of public policies, facilitate comparative political studies between Asia and other global regions, and disseminate insights that directly inform statecraft and administrative reform.
2. Focus on Political Dynamics and Governance: To drive critical discourse surrounding political behavior, institutional frameworks, and economic diplomacy. We are dedicated to examining these phenomena across all dimensions (institutional, behavioral, economic, and sociocultural) and at all levels of human organization—ranging from local municipalities and decentralized governments to national administrations, regional integration (e.g., ASEAN), and the global geopolitical arena.

 

Scopes

The scope of APSR is broadly interdisciplinary within the political sciences, welcoming original research articles, comprehensive reviews, and theoretical papers that address the nexus of Asian politics, administration, and global political economy. We publish scholarship that investigates the multifaceted realities of governance, welcoming submissions that integrate political analysis with broader social science methodologies.
While APSR highly values insightful qualitative research—such as institutional analysis, policy reviews, and political ethnography—the journal maintains a strong emphasis on quantitative methodologies and robust empirical evidence. We actively encourage researchers to adopt statistical models, quantitative metrics in political behavior, or mixed-methods approaches. For studies exploring predominantly qualitative phenomena, authors are strongly encouraged to operationalize their findings into clear, measurable quantitative variables to ensure rigorous, highly objective, and actionable conclusions.
Based on our editorial structure and a comprehensive empirical analysis of the journal’s publication trajectory over the past three years (2023-2025), APSR particularly welcomes submissions in the following four highly published sub-fields, ranked in order of historical publication volume, representing the core pillars of our three editorial sections:

1. Public Administration, Public Policy, and Local Governance (Public Administration Section): Research focusing on bureaucratic reform, public service delivery, decentralized governance, policy implementation and evaluation, and the administrative innovations of local governments across Asia.

2. Politics, Government, and Political Behavior (Politics & Government Section): Studies encompassing electoral dynamics, democratization processes, political institutions, civic engagement, political communication, and the behavioral analysis of voters and political elites.

3. International Political Economy and Foreign Policy (International Political Economy Section): Investigations into geoeconomics, regional integration and cooperation, economic diplomacy, international trade politics, and the impacts of global economic shifts on Asian state policies.

4. Interdisciplinary Political Sociology and Sustainable Governance (Cross-Sectional): Interdisciplinary approaches bridging political science with social issues, including environmental politics, human security, social welfare policies, and the political dimensions of equitable and sustainable development.
...and other related fields that contribute to the theoretical and practical advancement of political science, public administration, and international political economy within the Asian context.

 

Abstracting and Indexing

The Asian Political Science Review (APSR) is highly recognized and rigorously evaluated by prominent academic databases. Currently, the journal is indexed and abstracted in:

• Thai-Journal Citation Index Centre (TCI) – Tier 1

• Social Science Research Network (Elsevier's SSRN)
• Google Scholar

 

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

To ensure permanent discoverability, secure archiving, and precise citation, every article published in APSR is assigned a unique Digital Object Identifier (DOI). This DOI registration and management service is officially facilitated and operated by the Division of Science, Research and Innovation Strategic Data System and Management, National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT).
The journal utilizes the following standard DOI format: DOI: 10.14456/apsr.[Year of Publication].[Article No.] (For example: https://doi.org/10.14456/apsr.2026.1 indicates the first article published in the year 2026.)

 

Article Types

Asian Political Science Review (APSR) welcomes submissions of two distinct article types:

• Original Research Articles: These articles present novel empirical findings, rigorous analyses, and significant contributions to the field of political science and related disciplines. Submissions should clearly articulate research questions, theoretical frameworks, methodology, findings, and implications for theory and practice.

• Comprehensive Review Articles: These articles provide critical syntheses of existing literature, identify research gaps, and offer insightful perspectives on key issues and emerging trends in political science. Reviews should be comprehensive, analytical, and contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the field.

 

Publication Frequency and Volume Policy

Asian Political Science Review (APSR) is published bi-annually, with two issues per year:

• No. 1: January - June

• No. 2: July - December

Editorial Rigor and Volume Management: APSR is deeply committed to upholding the highest global academic standards. To achieve this, the journal employs a comprehensive and rigorous editorial screening and peer-review process. The publication volume for each issue is deliberately and carefully managed by the editorial board to ensure that every published article undergoes meticulous evaluation. Our primary focus remains on scholarly excellence, methodological integrity, and meaningful contributions to the academic community, rather than on publication quantity. As the journal continues to attract growing interest from researchers, the editorial board is dedicated to sustainably expanding our publication capacity to effectively cover the breadth of our interdisciplinary scope without compromising our rigorous quality controls.
Issue Composition and Continuous Publication: To facilitate the rapid dissemination of knowledge, articles accepted within each period are scheduled for immediate online publication upon the completion of the final production and copy-editing stages. The editorial team meticulously determines the final total number of articles and the composition of each issue to maintain a balanced, diverse, and cohesive academic dialogue. To ensure a consistent volume and optimal thematic fit, this management may involve incorporating accepted articles received near the end of the timeframe, or thoughtfully shifting certain accepted manuscripts to the subsequent issue.

 

Peer Review Process

Asian Political Science Review (APSR) is committed to upholding the highest standards of academic rigor through a transparent, open peer-review process. All submitted manuscripts undergo review by at least two suitably qualified experts in the relevant field. The review process is open, fostering constructive dialogue between authors and reviewers.

To ensure efficiency and integrity, authors must submit a "Self-Certification Form" during the revision stage, confirming adherence to formatting and ethical standards, including the non-use of Generative AI. Final publication decisions are made by the editors based on the reviews and the author's certification. Please note that all accepted manuscripts are subject to a strict 30-day post-acceptance verification period, during which the acceptance may be revoked if any non-compliance is detected.

 

Journal Metrics and Turnaround Time

APSR is committed to maintaining a rigorous yet highly efficient editorial and peer-review workflow. To provide prospective authors with transparent expectations, our operational metrics based on the 2025 publication cycle are as follows:

• Acceptance Rate: 73.33%
• Rejection Rate: 26.67%
• Submission to First Decision: 39.20 days
• First Decision to Acceptance: 19.87 days
• Acceptance to Publication: 60.67 days
• Total Turnaround Time: 119.73 days

 

Languages

Asian Political Science Review (APSR) publishes articles exclusively in English, the dominant language of scholarly communication in the social sciences, to maximize the reach and impact of the research.

 

Gold Open Access Policy

APSR operates strictly under a Gold Open Access publishing model. This means that all published articles are immediately, permanently, and freely available online to the global community upon publication. Readers can read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles without any paywalls, subscription fees, or registration requirements, fully supporting the unhindered global exchange of knowledge.

 

Copyrights

Asian Political Science Review (APSR) is committed to open access and adheres to the principles of the Budapest Open Access Initiative. All articles published in APSR are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license. This license grants users the right to freely read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, and link to the full texts of articles, as well as use them for any other lawful non-commercial purpose, provided that appropriate credit is given to the authors and the original source. This ensures broad dissemination and accessibility of research findings.

 

Journal History

 

Ownership and Management

Asian Political Science Review (APSR) is owned by the Association of Legal & Political Studies (Thailand) and White Tiger Legal, Business and Research Consultants Co., Ltd. (Thailand). It is published under the academic cooperation of both institutions with the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Muhammadiyah University of Makassar (Indonesia) and Publication Research Institute and Community Service, Universitas Muhammadiyah Sidenreng Rappang (Indonesia). ALPS is primarily responsible for academic operations, while the WTLBRC is primarily responsible for management and finances. UNISMUH and UMS Rappang have the main duties of supporting academic operations, such as serving as editors/reviewers and providing suggestions to improve the quality of the journal.

To ensure full transparency for authors and readers regarding the contributors of this journal, you can visit the websites of the organizations that own APSR: Association of Legal & Political Studies (formerly known as "Political Science Association of Kasetsart University," which registered the change of association name with the Registrar of Associations for Bangkok on October 17, 2023, and was published in the Royal Thai Government Gazette on March 7, 2024): https://alps-th.com/ and White Tiger Legal, Business and Research Consultants Co., Ltd.: https://wtlbrc.com/

 

Revenue Sources, Advertising, and Direct Marketing Policy

Asian Political Science Review (APSR) is currently supported financially through a combination of sources. Initially, the journal was funded by the Association of Legal & Political Studies and White Tiger Legal, Business and Research Consultants Co., Ltd. Currently, the journal's primary source of revenue is article processing charges (APCs), which are levied on accepted articles to cover the costs of publication, including peer review, editorial services, online hosting, and archiving.

APSR maintains a strict policy of not accepting advertising from any external entities, ensuring the impartiality and objectivity of the journal's content.

In promoting the journal and its publications, APSR adheres to ethical marketing practices, avoiding any actions that could be detrimental to other parties or that could be considered misleading. The journal is committed to providing accurate and transparent information to prospective authors and readers.