At the 2001 APSA meeting in San Francisco, LSS members attending the section business meeting discussed the possibility of adding a working papers section to the LSS web site.   An example of such a working papers site may be found at the Political Methodology web
site at http://web.polmeth.ufl.edu/.  We have discussed the technical and related policy
requirements of creating a working papers section.  We conclude that it would be technically feasible to set it up with parameters similar to those listed below.

• Any member of the section could submit working papers for posting (uploading) to the LSS Working Papers web site.
• The author submitting a paper would do so by emailing to the editor an electronic file, in MS Word or Word Perfect format. This file would subsequently be converted to PDF and posted to the LSS Working Papers Web Site.
• The author would provide his/her email address, and the web site would provide a link to enable readers to send email messages to the author about the paper.
• Papers would be catalogued alphabetically and by year.
• Submitted papers would be posted at or about the first of each month if received by the 25th day of the preceding month.
• The LSS would provide a statement on the web site to indicate that all work is the property of the author and that no work should be cited or quoted without permission of the author.
• The LSS editor would exercise only minimal editorial discretion; papers would be posted unless they were clearly unsubstantial or improperly formatted.
• All submitted papers must be complete and references supplied.

1.  What is the extent of interest in LSS offering this service, i.e. how many members would choose to submit their work?
2.  Should there be any limit on the number of papers a member could post in a given year?
3.  What would be the effect on the review process of journals for papers posted to the working papers site? How, in particular, would it affect double-blind reviewing?
4.  Should the section allow papers that have been previously presented at professional meetings to be posted to the working papers web site?

In order to address these issues, we offer a a brief survey and the opportunity for members to comment. Please click here to fill out and submit the survey.