PS: Political Science & Politics
Where Are the Most Influential Articles in Political Science Published?
2026-08-28
Where are the most influential articles in political science published? Drawing on citation data from the Web of Science, this article identifies the most-cited political science journal articles each decade from the 1940s through the 2020s. The results depict a changing discipline: the American Political Science Review still leads the field, but its once-dominant position has attenuated as a wider range of journals have become homes for highly cited work. Methodological papers now account for a substantial share of the discipline’s most influential research, reflecting the growing centrality of technical innovation.