InformationsSubmitting your manuscriptInformations

1. Presentation of the journal and editorial line

Pôle Sud. Revue de science politique is a biannual peer-reviewed journal publishing articles in French and English. As of 2025, Pôle Sud will become a general political science journal. It welcomes contributions from researchers in all branches of political science, with no preference for epistemological, methodological, or theoretical orientations. While defending a resolutely empirical approach, the journal does not privilege any specific field or scale (local, national, international), and considers both monographic and comparative proposals. Pôle Sud publishes the results of French and global research.

Pôle Sud publishes thematic dossiers, special feature articles, research notes, election chronicles, and reviews of books published over the past two years. Articles are submitted for double-blind evaluation.

The magazine is available online via the Cairn portal and in print. Pôle Sud adheres to the journal ethics charter proposed by Cairn.

The journal is the heir to the first Pôle Sud series. Revue de science politique de l’Europe méridionale founded in 1994.

All article submissions must be sent by e-mail to the journal’s secretariat

2. Editorial committee

The following is a list of the people involved

Members of the Editorial Board

Paul Alliès (Université Montpellier-CEPEL, fondateur, codirecteur de publication)
Emmanuel Négrier (CNRS-CEPEL)
Julien Audemard (Université de Montpellier-CEPEL, codirecteur de rédaction)
Sylvain Barone (INRAE-G-EAU)
Alexandre Dézé (Université de Montpellier-CEPEL)
Laura Michel (Université de Montpellier-CEPEL)
David Gouard (Université de Toulouse Jean Jaurès-CERTOP)
Claire Dedieu (Université Montpellier-CEPEL)
Damien Potier (Université Montpellier-CEPEL, secrétaire administratif)

Members of the Scientific Committee

Xavier Coller (Université Pablo de Olavide, Séville, Espagne)
Georges Contorgeorgis (Université Pantéion, Athènes, Grèce)
Maurizio Cotta (Université de Sienne, Italie)
Olivier Dabène (IEP Paris, France)
Jean-Yves Dormagen (Université de Montpellier I, France)
Alain Faure (CNRS-PACTE, IEP de Grenoble, France)
Michel Hastings (IEP de Lille, France)
Ioan Horga (Université d’Oradea, Roumanie)
Xavier Itçaina (CNRS-CED, IEP de Bordeaux, France)
Marc Lazar (IEP de Paris, France)
Ramón Máiz (Université de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle, Espagne)
Gilles Massardier (CIRAD, Montpellier, France)
Javier Moreno Fuentes (CSIC-IPP, Madrid, Espagne)
Leonardo Morlino (LUISS, Rome, Italie)
Gerassimos Moschonas (Université Pantéion, Athènes, Grèce)
Romain Pasquier (CNRS-CRAPE, Rennes, France)
Hubert Peres (Université de Montpellier, France)
Eric Savarese ((Université de Montpellier, France)
Andy Smith (FNSP-CED, IEP de Bordeaux, France)
Marc Smyrl (Université de Montpellier, France)
Joan Subirats (Université Autonome de Barcelone, Espagne)
Pedro Tavares de Almeida (Université Nouvelle de Lisbonne, Portugal)
Maria Manuela Tavares Ribeiro (Université de Coïmbra, Portugal)
Luca Verzichelli (Université de Sienne, Italie)

3. Submitting an article

Pôle Sud adheres to the ethical charter for journals published by Cairn. We encourage authors to refer to the international standards adopted by the Committee on Publication Ethics.

There are no publication fees for submitting and publishing an article in Pôle Sud.

We ask authors to take note of the following recommendations before submitting a manuscript. Any manuscript not complying with Pôle Sud publication standards may be rejected by the editorial board.

3.1. Preparing your manuscript

Your manuscript must fit in with the magazine’s editorial line and be judged of sufficient quality by the editorial board to launch the evaluation process. Please familiarize yourself with the journal’s editorial policy to ensure that your manuscript fits in with it.

Your manuscript must be the product of original work to which you own the rights, and must not have been previously published in another scientific journal. You must be able to provide all the necessary authorizations for the reproduction of any element to which you do not hold the rights, including graphs, figures, tables, images, quotations, or any other element previously published in another medium.

3.1.1. Types of articles published by Pôle Sud

“Arena » articles presenting the results of original, completed research.
Articles as part of a thematic dossier (« Théma »).
“Electoral chronicles », presenting an analysis of a recent electoral sequence, in France or elsewhere in the world.
Book reviews.

3.1.2. Special issues

Pôle Sud publie des numéros organisés autour de dossiers thématiques (rubrique « Pôle Sud publishes issues organized around specific topics (« Thema » section). To be submitted to the editorial committee, a thematic dossier must include:

Between 4 and 6 articles in line with Pôle Sud‘s editorial standards;
An introduction written by the dossier coordinators, presenting the subject and approach in the context of existing scientific literature.

The proposal for a special issue must be accompanied by a presentation of the dossier’s theme, its interest, scientific relevance, and problematic issues, including an indicative bibliography. It must also include a summary of each article and a short biography of each author (100 words maximum).

3.1.3. Formatting your article

Your manuscript must be submitted in Word format. Articles should be typed in Times New Roman font, size 12, line spacing 1.5. The title of the article should be capitalized and bolded, headings bolded, and the different levels of headings distinguished by their font size (14, 12). Pages are numbered. Paragraphs are justified. A single line break separates them and does not include indents or spaces before or after the paragraph.

Articles that are not part of a special issue or are part of a thematic dossier should be between 40,000 and 60,000 characters long (including spaces, bibliographical references, footnotes, and figures).

Electoral chronicles have a maximum length of 35,000 characters, and reviews 12,500 characters (all spaces included). Footnotes are kept to a minimum and reserved for additional information. Footnotes are typed in lower case (Times New Roman, size 10).

3.1.4. Title

The title of your manuscript should be concise, descriptive, and unambiguous, and reflect the content of your manuscript.

3.1.5. Abstract

All articles must be accompanied by an abstract (maximum 1,000 words, in French and English), integrated after the title and before the main body of the text. It should concisely present the article’s objectives, main results, and conclusions.

3.1.6. Keywords

Following the abstract, you should include 5 to 6 keywords (in English and French).

3.1.7. Images, figures, graphs, and tables

These must be numbered and followed by a title (Times New Roman, size 10, bold). Please always indicate the source(s) of the corresponding data.

Colored elements will be reproduced as is in the digital version published on Cairn. On the other hand, the paper version of the magazine only publishes figures, graphs, and images in black and white or grayscale. Please provide black-and-white versions of any elements that are initially in color, ensuring they remain legible to the reader.

Please ensure that you have obtained the necessary permissions from rights holders for the reproduction of any illustration, table, figure, graphic, or quotation previously published in another medium.

3.1.8. Presentation page

To ensure fair and anonymous peer review, your manuscript must be anonymized. You must ensure that no personal information appears either in the file name, in the body of the article, or in the metadata of the Word document containing your manuscript.

On the other hand, all submissions must be accompanied by a presentation page containing all the information necessary to ensure good communication between the author(s) of the manuscript and the editorial board. This cover sheet will not be sent to the reviewers. It must include :

The title of the article.
The number of pages and signs (including tables, figures, footnotes, and references) of the article.
A complete list of authors, including their names and institutional affiliations. The affiliation must be that at the time the research presented in the article was carried out. If an author has since joined another institution, his or her new affiliation may be indicated in a footnote to be included in the final manuscript. All authors must be indicated at the time of submission.
Contact information for each author: surname, first name, postal address, telephone number, and e-mail address.
If applicable, an acknowledgement section, which will then be integrated into the final version of the manuscript.
A declaration of conflict of interest (see 3.1.10 below).
A declaration of financial support (see 3.1.11 below).
A declaration of consent to the Cairn Code of Ethics (see 3.1.12 below).
A declaration of access to data (see 3.1.13 below).
Any other information relating to the authors or their institutions, funders, etc., that could compromise their anonymity.

3.1.9. Acknowledgements

If you wish to include acknowledgements, these will be published at the end of your article. Acknowledgements may be addressed to anyone other than the authors of the article. In accordance with standards of good practice in scientific publication, it is preferable to obtain prior authorization from each person to whom you address your acknowledgments.

3.1.10. Declaration of conflict of interest

Please include a declaration of conflict of interest approved by each author of the manuscript on your presentation page. This may be included in the final version of your article. If you have no conflict of interest to declare, please write the following sentence: « The authors declare no conflict of interest in the publication of this article ».

3.1.11. Declaration of financial support

All articles must include a statement of financial support, which will be included in the final version of the article, even if the author(s) received no funding to carry out the research presented in the article.

Examples

« The research presented in this article received no financial support ».

« The research presented in this article has received support from ANR (project name and number) ».

3.1.12. Ethics

Please include on your title page a sentence agreeing to the Cairn ethics charter. Each author must approve this and must appear on the presentation page, even if the methodological section of your article includes an ethical statement or if your research did not require prior authorization from the participants.

Examples

» The author of this article acknowledges having read and adheres to the Cairn Code of Ethics. The research presented in this article did not require any prior authorization from the participants ».

« The author of this article acknowledges having read and adheres to the Cairn Code of Ethics. The research presented in this article was carried out with the agreement of the ethics committee of University X. »

3.1.13. Data access

Pôle Sud aims to facilitate access to data, transparency, and reproducibility in scientific research. Authors are therefore encouraged to share their research data on a public platform that respects ethical and legal rules, and to indicate the conditions of access to these data. If the data is not accessible, please indicate this as well (in this case, the declaration will not be included in the final version of the article).

Examples

« The data used in this article are available on request from the authors ».

« The data used in this article are freely accessible on platform X (numerical address of the platform) ».

3.1.14. Bibliographical references

Any quotation or work cited in the body of the text must correspond to a reference given in a bibliography located at the end of the manuscript, and vice versa. References and corresponding citations must show the same authors (spelled the same way) and the exact date of publication.

Pôle Sud adopts the APA 7th edition bibliographic reference format. Please visit the APA website and its standards for bibliographic references to ensure that your manuscript conforms.

In-text references should be presented as follows:

(Huckfeldt, 1986)

Huckfeldt (1986)

(Huckfeldt, 1986, p. 125)

(Huckfeldt, 1986, p. 125-130)

(Huckfeldt, 1986, 2001)

(Huckfeldt, 1986; Ikeda, 2013)

(Huckfeldt & Sprague, 1995) – For three or more authors, use Huckfeldt et al.

The list of bibliographical references should be provided at the end of the article, on a new page titled « Références/References » (in both English and French). Make sure that only references mentioned in the text are included. The list should be arranged in alphabetical order according to the surname of the first author. References involving the same authors are listed in chronological order, from most recent to oldest. If two or more references involve the same authors and the same publication date, please distinguish them by using lower-case letters (a, b, c, etc.) after the publication date (Mutz, 2006a; Mutz, 2006b). If the reference has a DOI or, failing that, a URL, please indicate this at the end of the reference. The reference format for the final bibliography is as follows:

Books, monographs, reports:

Last name Author A, Initial(s) of first name(s). (Year of publication). Title (in italics). Publisher. DOI.

Author Name A, Initial(s) of first name(s), & Author Name B, Initial(s) of first name(s). (Year of publication). Title (in italics).Publisher. DOI.

Published works:

Author A, Initial(s) of first name(s). (Dir. or Ed. if reference in English). (Year of publication). Title (in italics). Publisher. DOI.

Author Name A, Initial(s) of first name(s), & Author Name B, Initial(s) of first name(s). (Dir. or Eds. if reference in English). (Year of publication). Title (in italics). Publisher. DOI.

Book chapters:

Name Author A, Initial(s) of first name(s). (Year of publication). Title. In Initial(s) of first name(s), Name Editor A. (Dir. or Ed. if reference in English), Title (in italics) (pp. XX-XX). Publisher. DOI.

Journal articles:

Last name Author A, Initial(s) of first name(s). (Year of publication). Title. Journal name (in italics), Volume(Number), XX-XX. DOI.

3.2. Submitting your manuscript

By submitting your manuscript, you acknowledge that it is an original work not published in any other journal or scientific work in French or any other language, and that you hold the necessary rights or authorizations for its reproduction. Manuscripts may only be submitted with the consent of all contributing authors.

All manuscript submissions must include the following documents:

The main manuscript, anonymized and conforming to the journal’s publication standards.
The presentation page, which will not be forwarded to the reviewers, including all required elements such as:
- Title of article.
- The number of pages and signs (all inclusive) of the article.
- A complete list of authors, including their names and institutional affiliations. The affiliation must be that at the time the research presented in the article was carried out. If an author has since joined another institution, his or her new affiliation may be indicated in a footnote to be included in the final manuscript. All authors must be indicated at the time of submission.
- Contact information for each author: surname, first name, postal address, telephone number, and e-mail address.
- If applicable, an acknowledgement section, which will be included in the final version of the manuscript.
- A declaration of conflict of interest.
- A funding declaration.
- A declaration of consent to the Cairn Code of Ethics.
- A data access declaration.
- Any other information about the authors or their institutions, funders, etc. that might compromise their anonymity.
A letter of intent addressed to the editorial board explaining why the manuscript is suitable for publication in Pôle Sud.

Documents in Word format can be sent directly to the journal’s secretariat by e-mail

The journal systematically acknowledges receipt of the document within 8 days of submission.

3.3. Reviewing process

Experts from the scientific community evaluate articles submitted to Pôle Sud in a double-blind manner according to the following procedure.

The editorial board initially evaluates your manuscript. The editorial board may decide to forward it to external reviewers, to ask the author to make changes before peer review, or to reject the manuscript if it does not fit in with the journal’s editorial line, does not meet publication standards, or is judged to be of insufficient quality for publication in Pôle Sud.

If this initial assessment is positive, the manuscript is forwarded to external evaluators. The review follows a rigorous double-anonymity policy, in which the identities of the author(s) and the reviewers are not known to either party. Each manuscript is evaluated by two independent reviewers appointed by the editorial board. They may accept the manuscript as it stands, propose minor or major revisions, or reject it.

In the event of a request for modifications, the author(s) undertake to produce an amended version of their manuscript, with apparent changes, together with a letter of response addressed to the reviewers.

Each manuscript is evaluated as quickly as possible, while ensuring that the experts have sufficient time to produce a well-founded and rigorous opinion. Authors are informed of the evaluators’ decision as soon as the assessments are received. The evaluators send comments to the authors and recommendations to the editorial board, which makes the final decision to accept or reject the manuscript, even if it is part of a thematic dossier. Authors can keep abreast of the evaluation process by sending an email to the editorial secretariat.

3.4. After acceptance

Each author is invited to sign a publishing contract with the journal.

Issues of Pôle Sud are published in hard copy, a copy of which is sent to each contributor after publication, and in digital format on Cairn.