Publishing Outside of Political Science?

[Thompson]

I have a minor dilemma that I'm curious if anyone can help me solve. I currently work at a think tank. Recently, I co-authored a very in depth, cutting-edge piece of research on a very sexy topic in international development / economics. I can't give more details right now, because the research is not yet public, but we believe it will be public in the near future. The research is novel and detailed enough that I believe I could turn it into 3-4 articles in top quality international economics / development / journals. My current organization doesn't care much about peer-reviewed publications, but is okay with me spending my own time preparing the work for submission.

 

I have been accepted into several PhD programs, in the American subfield. Any possible research that I am interested in has nothing to do with the material I recently worked on. It's not even close. 

 

The only reason I would consider putting the time and effort into submitting this research for peer review would be to support my academic career. This obviously comes with significant opportunity cost. Is it worth it? Or do hiring committees ultimately not really care about publications far outside your field?

[AmericanQuant]

Publications in top economics journals are extremely well-respected in the profession and will do a lot to help your career.  They might also help you transfer to a better program, if you're interested in doing that later on.

 

I should also add that development in polisci has a lot of overlap with development economics, so top people in the field like Chris Blattman and Steve Haber often have joint appointments in econ or econ phd's.

[Thompson]

Oh, I'm aware of that. I just have no real research interest in it. I'm planning on studying U.S. political parties, interest groups, and networks. This subject matter isn't close. I wish I could explicitly say what the research is, but it is basically empirical work to figure out how large a certain illicit economy problem in a developing country is. 

[phd_prospie]

Absolutely do it.

[jazzrap]

Do it! 

 

Even if you end up at World Development, it would still be a pretty good signal.