Submission Preflight (wp-submission)

The last check before pressing submit on ScholarOne (mc.manuscriptcentral.com/wp). World Politics is triple-blind, so the most common avoidable failure is an under-anonymized manuscript. Verify volatile specifics on the official page before relying on them.

When to trigger

• "Submitting tomorrow" — last pass before upload
• Unsure which files/metadata ScholarOne expects
• Confirming the word limit, abstract, and anonymization are met

Process facts (verify volatile items on the official page)

• Sponsor / publisher: PIIRS, Princeton University / Johns Hopkins University Press (publisher from Vol. 75 / 2023; Cambridge through Vol. 74 / 2022).
• Portal: ScholarOne (mc.manuscriptcentral.com/wp).
• Review model: triple-blind — anonymize the manuscript; author anonymity is preserved through the editorial decision.
• Article types: research article and review article (review articles usually commissioned; confirm before submitting an unsolicited one — 待核实).
• Length: ≤ 12,500 words including notes and references; tables, figures, and appendixes need not be counted. Online supplementary material ≤ 15 pages.
• Abstract: ≤ 150 words.
• Manuscript: double spaced; word count indicated; house World Politics Style Sheet (author-date).
• Ethics: affirm APSA Principles and Guidance for Human Subjects Research (2020) if research engages human participants; ScholarOne prompts IRB/ethics questions.

Preflight checklist

Type & length

• Article type chosen (research / review; commissioning confirmed for review articles)
• ≤ 12,500 words including notes and references (tables/figures/appendixes excluded)
• Word count indicated; manuscript double spaced
• Online supplement ≤ 15 pages, used judiciously for material central to the argument
• Abstract ≤ 150 words, stating question + approach + findings

Anonymity (triple-blind)

• No bylines or information that could easily identify the author(s)
• Self-citations removed where possible; no "as we showed in…"
• Identifying file metadata stripped (document properties, comments)

Format & compliance

• World Politics Style Sheet formatting; consistent author-date citations
• Figures/tables self-contained, accessible (see wp-tables-figures)
• APSA human-subjects affirmation ready; ethical issues discussed in text/appendix if relevant
• Prior-publication rules cleared: not published, concurrently submitted, or already slated elsewhere (a print working paper or an author's own-site paper is generally OK)
• Quantitative data: replication package planned for the World Politics Dataverse at acceptance (see wp-transparency-and-data-policy)

Anti-patterns

• Leaving author identifiers in the text or file metadata (breaks triple-blind)
• Forgetting that notes and references count toward the 12,500 words
• An online supplement over 15 pages, or used as an overflow dump
• Submitting an unsolicited review article without checking the commissioning norm
• Dual-submitting or submitting previously published material (firm policy)

Avoidable-rejection map (what trips submissions)

The most common avoidable failures at a triple-blind comparative-and-IR venue are anonymity and length, not the science. Sort the risk before upload.

Worked micro-example (illustrative)

A hypothetical comparative paper on institutional design and post-conflict stability runs the preflight:

Type:     research article (not a review → no commissioning check needed)
Length:   12,480 words incl. notes + references — under 12,500 by a thin margin
Abstract: 148 words — under 150
Anonymity: removed 3 self-citations + stripped Word author metadata
Supplement: 14 pages (balance tables + full specs) — within the 15-page cap
Ethics:   no human subjects → APSA affirmation N/A
Repro:    Dataverse package staged for deposit at acceptance

The thin word-count margin is the live risk; trim notes first. (Length, abstract, and supplement limits are volatile — verify each against the official submission page before relying on them.)

Output format

【Type】research / review (commissioning confirmed? Y/N)
【Length】≤ 12,500 incl. notes + refs? supplement ≤ 15 pp? [Y/N]
【Anonymized】bylines + self-cites + file metadata clean? [Y/N]
【Abstract】word count (≤150)
【Double spaced + word count indicated + house style】[Y/N]
【Ethics + prior-publication】APSA affirmation + originality cleared? [Y/N]
【Repro package】planned for World Politics Dataverse? [Y/N/NA]
【Next】await decision → wp-rebuttal on R&R

Supplementary resources

• ../../resources/external_tools.md — reference managers, anonymization, repro tooling
• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — official World Politics URLs behind every fact in this pack