Reflections on BJPIR’s Most Cited Articles

Citations are not fair. They’re a reflection of longevity, age, race, geography, economic inequality, gender gaps, colonial legacies, linguistic monopolies, and pretty much every other genuine grievance you can think of. That said, they’re also the lifeblood of articles, journals, fields, disciplines, and academia more broadly. Increasingly, they sustain not only impact factors and indicate the rise and fall of topics of interest but also directly influence scholarly metrics through Field Weighted Citation Impact and QS World rankings. The former, in theory enables an even matchup between, say, a political theorist and a climate scientist. The latter is increasingly vital (in the UK and elsewhere) for the recruitment of international students. So, with vital caveats and footnotes in place, we’ve agreed to have a root around in the data to see what’s going on: what do the most-cited articles in BJPIR tell us about the (changing?) discipline(s) as PSA reflects on its 75th anniversary? 

The first thing we’ve done is delete the first ten years of PSA’s dataset because – unless you’re Jake Paul, perhaps – you wouldn’t pitch a 4-year-old against a 46-year-old. That leaves us with a reduced list, which still features the same 9 BJPIR articles in the top 50 (well, top 48, actually). It is pleasing – and concerning - to see how enduringly relevant the topics covered are.  

Three (Crouch 2009; Finlayson 2009; Schmidt 2014) deal with political economy, which, in an age of where I’m forever monitoring energy costs and “unnecessary” spending feels particularly relevant. So much of the UK’s contemporary malaise follows the reduced capacity of UK PLC, with growth – and the seeming inability of politicians to ignite it – at the heart of contemporary fissures. Increased standards of living have long been part of the natural expectation between generations. No more. Fix that and so much else begins to take a very different shape and feel.  

Which brings us to Brexit and the 5% reduction in UK GDP it has inspired. Compounded with the pandemic and similar structural issues to other developed states and it is both incredibly complicated and relatively straightforward to get a feel for the hole the UK finds itself in. Goodwin and Milazzo (2017) look at the (vital) role of migration in the UK’s vote to leave the EU. Their reflection that migration will continue to remain an important driver of public sentiment has proven prophetic. Likewise, Boswell, Geddes, and Scholten (2011) introduce a special issue considering the role of narratives in making meaning out of migration issues. Again, the contemporary relevance is plain to see, both in the form of recent protests and elite-level political and discursive contestations. Government language around ‘an island of strangers’ and renewed crackdowns on asylum seekers appear to be a calculated (and troubling) response to the polling successes of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.  

‘Suspect communities’ have long been a feature of British politics and official policies. While Prevent has much improved since 2015, it remains problematic. Its earliest guises reflected the Islamophobia of the War on Terror era that set the context – along with austerity – for the Brexit referendum. Heath-Kelly’s (2017) excellent article has been an inspiration for me, personally, as an example of what Critical Terrorism Studies can achieve at a policy level. Alongside their other work, this piece has helped to deconstruct the troubling underpinnings and configurations of a key plank of the UK’s counter-terrorism policy, which has, oftentimes, been self-defeating.  

Fear of the Other, then, in conditions of constrained resources, stands out as a principal feature of BJPIR’s most-cited articles. The final three on our list (Grix and Houlihan 2014; March 2017; and Street 2012) bring these concerns into dialogue with some of the most live current issues in politics - on sport, populism, and celebrity politics. As we celebrate (or lament) the footballing successes of England and Scotland, as well as (hopefully?) Wales, Northern Ireland, and Ireland, ahead of next year’s FIFA World Cup in the United States, there are already indications that the spectacle of the event will have a problematic politics. ‘Trump’s world cup’ is set to combine the power of sport, celebrity politics, and populism on the biggest of stages for the largest of audiences. As editors, we are pleased that BJPIR has set up to be able to tackle these such urgent contemporary global challenges, whilst noting just how significant and troubling they remain.

The 48 most-cited articles, 1 January 2009 – 1 August 2025

1. Schmidt, Vivien A. (2013) Democracy and Legitimacy in the European Union Revisited: Input, Output and ‘Throughput’. Political Studies  

2. Moffitt, Benjamin; Tormey, Simon (2014) Rethinking Populism: Politics, Mediatisation and Political Style. Political Studies  

3. Crouch, Colin (2009) Privatised Keynesianism: An Unacknowledged Policy Regime. British Journal of Politics & International Relations  

4. Aslanidis, Paris (2016) Is Populism an Ideology? A Refutation and a New Perspective. Political Studies  

5. Bale, Tim; Green-Pedersen, Christoffer; Krouwel, Andre; Luther, Kurt Richard; Sitter, Nick (2010) If You Can't Beat Them, Join Them? Explaining Social Democratic Responses to the Challenge from the Populist Radical Right in Western Europe. Political Studies  

6. Devine, Daniel; Gaskell, Jennifer; Jennings, Will; Stoker, Gerry (2021) Trust and the Coronavirus Pandemic: What are the Consequences of and for Trust? An Early Review of the Literature. Political Studies Review  

7. Goodwin, Matthew; Milazzo, Caitlin (2017) Taking back control? Investigating the role of immigration in the 2016 vote for Brexit. British Journal of Politics & International Relations  

8. Benson, David; Jordan, Andrew (2011) What Have We Learned from Policy Transfer Research? Dolowitz and Marsh Revisited. Political Studies Review  

9. Marien, Sofie; Hooghe, Marc; Quintelier, Ellen (2010) Inequalities in Non-institutionalised Forms of Political Participation: A Multi-level Analysis of 25 countries. Political Studies  

10. Dunlop, Claire A.; Radaelli, Claudio M. (2013) Systematising Policy Learning: From Monolith to Dimensions. Political Studies  

11. Heath-Kelly, Charlotte (2013) Counter-Terrorism and the Counterfactual: Producing the 'Radicalisation' Discourse and the UK PREVENT Strategy. British Journal of Politics & International Relations  

12. McCann, Eugene; Ward, Kevin (2012) Policy Assemblages, Mobilities and Mutations: Toward a Multidisciplinary Conversation. Political Studies Review  

13. Gilabert, Pablo; Lawford-Smith, Holly (2012) Political Feasibility: A Conceptual Exploration. Political Studies  

14. Grayson, Kyle; Davies, Matt; Philpott, Simon (2009) Pop Goes IR? Researching the Popular Culture-World Politics Continuum. Politics  

15. Wilkinson, T. M. (2013) Nudging and Manipulation. Political Studies  

16. Andersson, Staffan; Heywood, Paul M. (2009) The Politics of Perception: Use and Abuse of Transparency International's Approach to Measuring Corruption. Political Studies  

17. Cairney, Paul (2012) Complexity Theory in Political Science and Public Policy. Political Studies Review  

18. Meer, Nasar; Modood, Tariq (2009) The Multicultural State We're In: Muslims, 'Multiculture' and the 'Civic Re-balancing' of British Multiculturalism. Political Studies  

19. Grix, Jonathan; Houlihan, Barrie (2014) Sports Mega-Events as Part of a Nation's Soft Power Strategy: The Cases of Germany (2006) and the UK (2012). British Journal of Politics & International Relations  

20. Sanderson, Ian (2009) Intelligent Policy Making for a Complex World: Pragmatism, Evidence and Learning. Political Studies  

21. van der Heijden, Jeroen (2011) Institutional Layering: A Review of the Use of the Concept. Politics  

22. van der Meer, Tom; Hakhverdian, Armen (2017) Political Trust as the Evaluation of Process and Performance: A Cross-National Study of 42 European Countries. Political Studies  

23. Finlayson, Alan (2009) Financialisation, Financial Literacy and Asset-Based Welfare. British Journal of Politics & International Relations  

24. Campbell, Rosie; Cowley, Philip (2014) What Voters Want: Reactions to Candidate Characteristics in a Survey Experiment. Political Studies  

25. Norris, Pippa; Inglehart, Ronald F. (2012) Muslim Integration into Western Cultures: Between Origins and Destinations. Political Studies  

26. Mitchell, Paul; Evans, Geoffrey; O'Leary, Brendan (2009) Extremist Outbidding in Ethnic Party Systems is Not Inevitable: Tribune Parties in Northern Ireland. Political Studies  

27. Yablokov, Ilya (2015) Conspiracy Theories as a Russian Public Diplomacy Tool: The Case of Russia Today (RT). Politics  

28. Rooduijn, Matthijs (2014) The Mesmerising Message: The Diffusion of Populism in Public Debates in Western European Media. Political Studies  

29. Miller, David (2012) Territorial Rights: Concept and Justification. Political Studies  

30. March, Luke (2017) Left and right populism compared: The British case. British Journal of Politics & International Relations  

31. Boswell, Christina; Geddes, Andrew; Scholten, Peter (2011) The Role of Narratives in Migration Policy-Making: A Research Framework. British Journal of Politics & International Relations  

32. Nasstrom, Sofia (2011) The Challenge of the All-Affected Principle. Political Studies  

33. Ford, Robert; Goodwin, Matthew J. (2010) Angry White Men: Individual and Contextual Predictors of Support for the British National Party. Political Studies  

34. Geurkink, Bram; Zaslove, Andrej; Sluiter, Roderick; Jacobs, Kristof (2020) Populist Attitudes, Political Trust, and External Political Efficacy: Old Wine in New Bottles? Political Studies  

35. Green-Pedersen, Christoffer (2012) A Giant Fast Asleep? Party Incentives and the Politicisation of European Integration. Political Studies  

36. Kennedy, John James (2009) Maintaining Popular Support for the Chinese Communist Party: The Influence of Education and the State-Controlled Media. Political Studies  

37. Blinder, Scott (2015) Imagined Immigration: The Impact of Different Meanings of 'Immigrants' in Public Opinion and Policy Debates in Britain. Political Studies  

38. Anderson, Ben (2015) What Kind of Thing is Resilience? Politics  

39. Ramiro, Luis; Gomez, Raul (2017) Radical-Left Populism during the Great Recession: Podemos and Its Competition with the Established Radical Left. Political Studies  

40. Marsh, David; 't Hart, Paul; Tindall, Karen (2010) Celebrity Politics: The Politics of the Late Modernity? Political Studies Review  

41. Durose, Catherine (2011) Revisiting Lipsky: Front-Line Work in UK Local Governance. Political Studies  

42. Norris, Pippa (2023) Cancel Culture: Myth or Reality? Political Studies  

43. Schmidt, Vivien A. (2014) Speaking to the Markets or to the People? A Discursive Institutionalist Analysis of the EU's Sovereign Debt Crisis. British Journal of Politics & International Relations  

44. Rushton, Simon (2011) Global Health Security: Security for Whom? Security from What? Political Studies  

45. Dahlberg, Stefan; Linde, Jonas; Holmberg, Soren (2015) Democratic Discontent in Old and New Democracies: Assessing the Importance of Democratic Input and Governmental Output. Political Studies  

46. Street, John (2012) Do Celebrity Politics and Celebrity Politicians Matter? British Journal of Politics & International Relations  

47. White, Jonathan (2015) Emergency Europe. Political Studies  

48. Zimmer, C; Schneider, G; Dobbins, M (2005) The contested Council: Conflict dimensions of an intergovernmental EU institution. Political Studies

Jack Holland on behalf of BJPIR’s Leeds-based editorial team