This is a Call for Book Chapters for a planned edited volume with the working title: “Parliaments in Practice: Insights from Contemporary Evidence-Based Research.”
Call for Book Chapters
Parliaments in Practice: Insights from Contemporary Evidence-Based Research.
Volume Editor: Prof. Dr. Fotios Fitsilis
Series: Comparative Parliamentary Studies
Publisher: Brill | Nijhoff
Series Editor: Prof. Dr. Zsolt Szabó
About the Volume
The forthcoming edited volume Parliaments in Practice: Insights from Contemporary Evidence-Based Research seeks to bring together original empirical research examining how parliaments operate in practice and how parliamentary functions and institutions are evolving in contemporary democratic systems. Evidence-based approaches to parliamentary research remain relatively fragmented, often dispersed across individual legislatures, regional case studies and distinct disciplinary traditions. This volume aims to contribute to filling this gap by presenting data-driven, empirically grounded research on contemporary parliamentary practice. Contributions may examine individual or groups of legislatures, specific parliamentary processes or broader institutional and technological developments. Both established and emerging parliamentary systems are welcome, as are studies based on different methodological and disciplinary approaches, provided that they are grounded in original empirical evidence.
Suggested Areas of Contribution
The volume welcomes contributions addressing, but not limited to, the following areas:
- Legislation and law-making;
- Oversight and scrutiny;
- Parliamentary diplomacy;
- Education and capacity-building;
- Administration and institutional management;
- Democratic representation and elections;
- Public engagement and civic participation;
- Parliamentary modernization and digital transformation.
AI and cybersecurity are welcomed as dimensions of broader parliamentary modernization, but the volume is not intended to be defined exclusively as a technology-focused publication.
Contributions
We particularly encourage submissions that provide original empirical evidence concerning parliamentary practice. Suitable contributions may include:
- comparative or single-legislature case studies;
- quantitative analyses of parliamentary data;
- qualitative empirical research, including interviews and document analysis;
- studies examining institutional or procedural change;
- analysis of parliamentary datasets, digital records, legislative corpora, or administrative data; and
- mixed-methods studies combining different forms of empirical evidence.
Contributions should demonstrate clearly how the empirical material advances our understanding of parliamentary practice, institutions, processes or outcomes. Purely theoretical, normative and conceptual submissions without an empirical component will not be considered.
Submission Requirements
Authors are invited to submit a full manuscript of approximately 5,000 words. Manuscripts should be original and should present substantive empirical findings. Authors may use established disciplinary approaches, but submissions should be accessible to an interdisciplinary audience of parliamentary scholars and practitioners. The use of generative AI for drafting purposes should be avoided. Where generative AI tools are used, their use must be clearly acknowledged.
Review and Author Conference
Each submitted manuscript will undergo an initial internal review by two discussants. Authors will subsequently have the opportunity to present and discuss their chapters at an author conference. The editorial process will be complemented by external review from parliamentary scholars and professionals within the editor’s international network.
Key Dates
- Submission of full manuscripts, 20 November 2026
- Decision on chapter inclusion: 30 November 2026
- Author conference: 18 December 2026
- Submission of final revised manuscripts: 15 January 2027
- Target publication: Mid-July 2027
Publication
Subject to completion of the publisher’s editorial and contractual processes, the volume is planned for publication in the Comparative Parliamentary Studies series by Brill | Nijhoff, with publication targeted to coincide with the 6th Global Conference of Parliamentary Studies in mid-July 2027.
Contact and Sunmissions
For questions concerning the scope of the volume and for all chapter submissions and submission-related inquiries, please contact:
Prof. Dr. Fotios Fitsilis (Volume Editor), Universidad Austral, Argentina and Hellenic Parliament, Greece, ffitsilis@mail.austral.edu.ar
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