About the Journal

Quaderni dell'Osservatorio elettorale (QOE) – Italian Journal of Electoral Studies (IJES) - is an international scientific journal dedicated to all different dimensions of elections and voting.

Founded in 1977 by Mario Caciagli (University of Florence), QOE-IJES is a reference for electoral studies in Italy. Almost half a century later, QOE-IJES is now the official journal of the Italian Society for Electoral Studies (SISE). The Journal aims to continue publishing high-quality original papers from both Italian and international scholars, with the aim to further becoming a main outlet for elections and voting, public opinion, political behavior, and party studies in Italy and beyond.

Along with the contributions of established scholars, the journal hosts and encourages the work of younger researchers.

Published two times per year, each issue contains five to six original research articles in English or Italian.

Submitted articles will be evaluated by the Editorial Board and assessed for publication through an anonymous double-blind peer-review process.

Aims and Scope

QOE-IJES embraces all approaches to electoral research, without restriction to any particular theory, method, or topic. Articles should seek to engage with current debates and disciplinary developments, whether theoretical or empirical. Within broad topics concerning democracy and its new challenges - like e-voting, big and open (electoral) data, citizenship, and elections - contributions are welcome from all perspectives, covering aspects such as turnout, voting behavior, public opinion, campaigns, political parties, and electoral systems, amongst many others.

The journal is a political science review, but it is traditionally open to scholars working in any of the major social science disciplines such as political economy, sociology, contemporary history, social policy, social anthropology, and socio-legal studies.

On specific topics of particular interest to the scientific community, QOE-IJES accepts articles for special issues, supervised by guest editors.
QOE-IJES also publishes short research notes.

Rigourous Peer Review

Each submission to QOE-IJES is subject to rigorous quality control and a double-blind peer-review evaluation process before receiving a decision. The initial in-house quality control check deals with issues such as competing interests; ethical requirements for studies involving human participants or animals; financial disclosures; full compliance with QOE-IJES's data availability policy, etc. 
Submissions may be returned to authors for queries, and will not be seen by our Editorial Board or peer reviewers until they pass this quality control check.
Each paper is then subjected to critical evaluation and review by the Editorial Team and/or some members of the international Editorial Board before being sent out for review.

Research Transparency

Throughout the rigorous process of submission, peer review, and publication, QOE-IJES practices the principles of transparency, inclusion, fairness, equity, and sharing that aim for barrier-free access to scientific knowledge. The journal therefore implements practices that materialize the transparency, visibility, and reuse of research. QOE-IJES promotes the sharing and dissemination of data used for publication, replication, and open access to all research material, through protocols and datasets made public, and through more secure attribution and identification of authors through the authorship taxonomy (e.g. via ORCID iD).
The goal is to make scientific knowledge more open to participation, revision or refutation, refinement, and reuse, for the benefit of all.

Publication Frequency

QOE-IJES is published bi-annually

Revenue Sources

QOE-IJES is a diamond open-access journal, which is published in both online and print versions thanks to the financial support of Regione Toscana. 

Publication Fees

Unlike many open-access journals, QOE-IJES does not charge any publication fee. 

Sponsorship

QOE-IJES acknowledges the financial contribution of the Regione Toscana for its publication.

Waiver Information

Fee waivers do not apply at Firenze University Press because our funding does not rely on author charges.

Marketing and Advertising

QOE-IJES does not carry out any direct marketing activity, including telemarketing, promotion, and communication activities to attract more authors to submit to the journal. QOE-IJES does not endorse any product or service marked as an advertisement or promoted by a sponsor in publications. Editorial content is not compromised by commercial or financial interests, or by any specific arrangements with advertising clients or sponsors.