The Evolving Landscape of Political Science: Two Decades of Scholarship in a Growing Discipline

This study examines publication trends in political science over the past two decades (2003–2023), analyzing over 140,000 articles from 174 peer-reviewed journals. Using bibliometric methods and text-as-data innovations, the study investigates key aspects of scholarly output, including research volume, author productivity, topical focus, methodological approaches, and research design choices. We find that political science is a growing discipline primarily driven by an increasing number of contributing authors rather than individual productivity gains. The study documents a shift toward quantitative methods and the rise and decline of various research designs. Additionally, it explores the relationship between research specialization, topical novelty, and scholarly impact, revealing that novelty and focus in research are not associated with placement in top outlets but, conditional on publication, topically-focused and novel research is often better cited. The findings provide a comprehensive overview of the evolving landscape of political science scholarship, offering insights into future research avenues.