Research

Research

In its research and teaching, the Department of Government primarily focuses on comparative and Austrian politics. Its research is concerned with political behaviour, political actors, such as political parties and politicians, political institutions, the processes governed by these institutions, as well as their outcomes. It includes work on political participation, voting behaviour, parties and party competition, coalition politics and Austrian politics in general and is mostly based on rationalist and behavioural approaches.

Our goal is to conduct high-level, internationally competitive research in the area of Comparative Politics with the collaboration of international project partners and research networks. At the Faculty of Social Sciences the department is mainly engaged in the key research area ''Political Competition and Communication: Democratic Representation in Changing Societies'.

The department’s approach places it in the discipline’s empirical-analytical core and is mostly based on quantitative social science methods. To map empirical phenomena accurately, researcher in the department focus on the continuous development of survey design, as well as on the analysis of empirical data by applying the best suited statistical model. The department aims to achieve the best work on Austrian politics and to make important contributions to the international academic literature on Comparative Government and Politics.

An overview of current publications and activities at the department can be found below and on the personal websites of our team.

Publications

A Gendered Pattern? Publishing, Submission and Reviewing in West European Politics

Author(s)
Dorte Sindbjerg Martinsen, Klaus Goetz, Wolfgang C. Müller
Abstract

Publication in peer-reviewed journals is of major importance to careers in academia. It has become clear that a considerable gender gap exists in political science journal publishing and a debate on how to confront this gap has got under way. This article examines the gender distribution in publishing (1978–2021), submissions and reviewing (2015 to end of 2020) for West European Politics. We identify a gender gap in publishing, but find a more pronounced gap when it comes to submissions. Over time, there are notable changes in authorship categories. In terms of the review process, we have not found a gender gap in desk-rejects or in the double blind peer review process. However, there is a considerable gender gap in review invitations sent out. In addition, female scholars are somewhat less likely to accept invitations to review than their male colleagues. These observations are in-line with the findings of other political science journals. They underline the need for the discipline to confront, in particular, imbalances in submissions and to identify the reasons behind them, as key means to reduce gender gaps in academia.

Organisation(s)
Department of Government
External organisation(s)
University of Copenhagen, Centre for European Politics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Journal
European Political Science
Volume
21
Pages
430 - 442
No. of pages
13
ISSN
1680-4333
Publication date
02-2022
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
506014 Comparative politics
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Political Science and International Relations
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 5 - Gender Equality
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/7c05e2e6-adf6-4726-9508-5803e57cc387