The Journal of World-Systems Research (JWSR) is the official journal of the Political Economy of the World-System Section of the American Sociological Association. JWSR is an open access scholarly journal that reaches a global audience and consists of unidisciplinary scholarship on topics relevant to the world-systems perspective. We seek the work of political scientists, historians, sociologists, ethnographers, archaeologists, economists and geographers.

We especially encourage works that take theory seriously by confronting problems of conceptualization and making definitions of concepts explicit, by formulating hypotheses, constructing axiomatic theories and causal models. Theoretical research programs that combine theory construction with comparative research are badly needed to take the world-systems approach beyond the stage of a perspective.

JWSR will consider studies that utilize a wide range of methods, including both qualitative and quantitative research. We also consider studies based on community based research (see Guidelines for Community Based Research). Empirical studies that are deemed relevant to world-systems analysis may be published even if it uses a very different conceptual framework.

Authors are encouraged to submit completed articles between 8,000 to 10,000 words for review.

We also welcome proposals for special issues on themes that fall within the scope of the journal.