# Publishing in Regional & Federal Studies Journal — Davide Vampa & Mariely Lopez-Santana

An episode of [The IR thinker](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1716817337), 9 Jun 2026, 1 h 08 min.

Audio: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/655776911a7d7e0012cbc914/e/6a27f664ec7c103dcaa50aa3/media.mp3

Today, it is a real pleasure to speak with the editorial team of Regional & Federal Studies, one of the leading journals in the field of territorial politics, regionalism, and federalism. The journal was established in 1991 as Regional Politics and Policy: An International Journal focusing on regionalism in Western Europe. In 1995, the journal changed its name to Regional and Federal Studies, expanding its focus and scope. Impact Factor: 1.4 / 5-Year Impact Factor: 1.6 Indexed: Scopus / Web of Science First Decision: 40 days Acceptance Rate: 28% Davide Vampa, Lead Editor of the journal and Senior Lecturer in Territorial Politics at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, where he also serves as Co-Director of the Centre on Constitutional Change and Chair of the ECPR Standing Group on Federalism and Regionalism, as well as Mariely Lopez-Santana, Deputy Lead Editor and Associate Professor of Political Science at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, USA. Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:45 The Journal’s Intellectual Identity 06:01 How the Journal Adapted to a Changing Field 08:33 Managing Breadth and Coherence Across Federalism, Regionalism, and Multilevel Governance 10:43 Crossing Disciplinary Boundaries: Bridging Political Science and Beyond 14:02 Theory or Empirics? Balancing Conceptual Innovation and Case-Based Research 18:00 Major Intellectual Trends in Regional and Federal Politics 22:09 Underexplored Topics 25:32 Methodological Diversity: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Approaches 27:48 Methodological Shifts: Dominant Approaches and Emerging Techniques 29:53 The Data Challenge: Obstacles in Gathering Quantitative Evidence 32:44 Why Papers Get Rejected: Common Problems in Manuscript Submissions 37:25 Early Career Scholars: Frequent Mistakes and Professional Advice 44:34 The Journal’s Position on AI 48:59 Peer Review Process: Fairness, Transparency, and Editorial Efficiency 53:47 The Role and Strategic Importance of the Editorial Board 57:03 Supporting Underrepresented Scholars and Regions 01:03:33 Should Authors Recommend Reviewers? 01:03:49 Looking Ahead: Future Priorities Follow & Further Resources Substack: https://theirthinker.substack.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theirthinker/ X: https://x.com/theirthinker Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theirthinker/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/theirthinker.bsky.social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theirthinker/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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