I’m presenting a paper at the UK Political Studies Association conference in London next week. If you’re at the conference, drop in. Full details on the PSA site.

I’ve been a member of the APSA Information Technology and Politics Section for longer than I care to remember. I’ve served on its executive committee and I’ve presented quite a few papers to its APSA panels. But over the last few years the section has become an even more interesting scholarly community than it was when I first joined.

ITP has its own scholarly journal, the Journal of Information Technology and Politics (JITP), published professionally and independently by Taylor and Francis. In the capable editorial hands of Stu Shulman, its senior editorial board, and its huge editorial board, JITP goes from strength to strength.

Joining the section gets you free access to the JITP. The section dues and the subsidised journal subscription combined comes to just $15 (£9) per year for PhD students and just $20 (£12) per year for full-time faculty.

For the price of two or three sandwich lunches you get to read around thirty journal articles per year, as well as book reviews, and policy viewpoints. If you so wish, you can participate in the governance of the ITP section through its online and offline meetings and its prize-awarding committees. You can participate in a long-standing email list, an annual thematic conference, and, subject to peer review, the APSA conference itself—easily the largest and most prestigious political science conference in the world. Oh, and the section even has its own regular newsletter.

But more than this, the individuals who are active in the ITP section are among the warmest, friendliest, and most approachable folks I’ve met in academia. They are internationalist in their outlook, they positively encourage a broad range of perspectives, and they are particularly good at encouraging and supporting young researchers.

What have you got to lose? Sign up by adding the section membership to your profile when you register or renew your membership at APSA.