Best Article Award 2021: Results
The IAPSS Politikon Best Article Award, now in its third year, is one of the initiatives aimed at fostering academic excellence in the content submitted to and published in the journal, as well as at recognising the talent and qualities in the contributions of the journal.
In 2021, the Award was given in the honor of Professor Maria Herminia Tavares de Almeida (University of São Paulo and Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning (CEBRAP)) for her academic contribution to the fields of public opinion, political culture and political institutions, but also to the significant support provided to students and junior scholars through the institutional positions she has held at various academic institutions. Professor Tavares de Almeida kindly accepted to chair the Award Committee as well.
The Committee was furthermore composed of Senior Members Professor Christopher Isike (University of Pretoria; Vice President, International Political Science Association and Editor-in-Chief of Politikon: South African Journal of Political Studies) and Dr Theresa Reidy (University College Cork; Editor of International Political Science Review), and of Junior Member Mr Andrew Devine (Tulane University, Editor of IAPSS Politikon). The Committee presents the results of their assessment as follows.
"While last year's articles demonstrated high quality, there is one article in particular that stood out to the committee: 'Rising Ottoman Nostalgia in Turkish Popular Culture: An Analysis of Turkey’s Europeanization Process and Ottoman-Themed Soap Operas' by Ceren Çetinkaya (Vol. 46). The committee agreed that Çetinkaya's article deserved this year's Politikon Best Article Award for its innovative and novel approach to understanding national identity and discourse in Turkey. Drawing on Gramsci's theory of cultural hegemony, Çetinkaya's article adds a new perspective to understand shifting political discourse through the unique lens of soap operas. An honorable mention goes to 'Spatial Realignment of German Voters and Germany’s Regional Cleavage: The Case of the Green Party in the 2019 Elections' by Ilia Viatkin (Vol. 45). This quantitative piece used data from the German General Social Survey to provide explanations for shifts in voter support for the Green Party based on an East-West cleavage. The article demonstrated methodological rigor to unpack the recently emerging puzzle of voter shifts."
The Editorial Board congratulates both authors and expresses their appreciation to the members of the Award Committee for their commitment to the evaluation of the twelve eligible articles published in the 2020 issues of IAPSS Politikon.
Here’s what the authors said in receiving the honors:
Ceren Çetinkaya (Central European University): Publishing with Politikon has been one of the most important experiences of my academic career as a junior scholar due to it was my very first publishing experience in an academic journal. After finishing my MA thesis, I had the intention to convert a part of my thesis into an article and consulted with my colleagues from my MA on publishing opportunities. I realized that Politikon has a great influence on many scholars who are in their early careers. Following the suggestions of my colleagues lead me to a very instructive publishing experience. I have received a lot of constructive comments from the valuable editors of Politikon, which helped me developed my academic writing skills and look at my work from a more professional angle.
After a thoughtful process of publishing, receiving the 2021 Best Article Award has been nothing but a great pride for me and a very significant achievement for the beginning of my academic career. I am grateful for the generous support I received from the Politikon team in an extremely challenging environment of publishing. I believe that in addition to being a professional academic journal, the supportive team behind Politikon makes it a platform that provides great opportunities for scholars, especially for those who are at the beginning of their academic careers.
Ilia Viatkin (Higher School of Economics): I first read about the IAPSS Politikon journal in a 2018 article by Cox and Kent, in which they analyze publications of political science students. IAPSS Politikon was among the three journal authors selected for their research, which in itself is clear evidence of the high quality of the journal's contributions. Back then I was completing my term paper project on the patterns of Green voting in Eastern and Western Germany and needed an external review. Indeed, at each of the three stages of the review, my work has been significantly improved with the help of anonymous referees, especially in the empirical part, where I use quantitative analysis. It was further corroborated by a decent grade I received for the paper at my home university. Lastly, I am glad to note that for this article I became a laureate of the undergraduate research papers competition of the Russian Political Science Association.
