1953
IPSA's second documentation initiative included a comprehensive bibliographical service that covered not only journal articles but also books and national and international documents. This initiative was approved at the 1952 IPSA World Congress of Political Science in the Hague, Netherlands. The first edition of the International Bibliography of Political Science, published in 1953, listed resources that were published in 1952. This chronological pattern was consistently maintained in subsequent editions.
The Bibliography was a selective inventory of titles of books, publications, and articles in the field of political science that were published during the year. It did not include abstracts, but it does cross-reference those published in the International Political Science Abstracts.
The founding editor of the Bibliography was IPSA’s second Executive Secretary Jean Meynaud from the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, Paris. The first three volumes were credited as “prepared by the International Political Science Association in cooperation with the International Committee for Social Science Documentation (ICSSD).” Although Prof. Meynaud continued as the editor from volume 4 (1955) to volume 8 (1959), the acknowledgment during this period shifted, attributing primary responsibility for compilation to the ICSSD. Starting with volume 9 (for 1960), the name was changed to the International Bibliography of Social Sciences: Political Science, reflecting its status as one of the four major bibliographical series (economics, sociology, social and cultural anthropology) sponsored by UNESCO.
Starting with volume 9 (1960), Jean Meyriat served as the editor of the Bibliography until volume 35 (1986) while also serving as the Secretary-General of the ICSSD. The Bibliography continued to be published under the auspices of the International Political Science Association throughout this period. IPSA's role in the Bibliography after 1955 was less significant than in the case of the International Political Science Abstracts. It was reduced to having an IPSA representative on the Bibliography's editorial committee.
In the 1960s, the journal transitioned to commercial publishers such as Stevens and Son, Aldine, and later Routledge. In the late 1980s, the Bibliography underwent a significant development. To achieve greater speed and efficiency, the British Library of Political and Economic Science (the library of the London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE) took over the entire publication project, including all four bibliographical series. The library stopped publishing its own series, the London Bibliography of the Social Sciences, which had been ongoing for a long time. The last volume, number 47, was published in 1989.
