Public Administration Review (PAR)

The Frequently Asked Questions listed below reflect the most frequent questions about PAR in the past. If you have a new question, or cannot find your question listed, or have read the answer and have additional questions, please contact your PAR Web Content Coordinator, Jim Heichelbech, at jheichelbech@mindspring.com, and he will help you find an answer.

Q1: I have an idea for a manuscript, but I don't know if it is suitable for PAR. Is there someone I can talk to about it?
Yes, you can call the PAR editorial office and speak with Jos C.N. Raadschelders, Managing Editor, (405) 325-6620 or email him at par@ou.edu. If the question is broader than "is this appropriate for PAR" and deals more with "how can I make this manuscript appropriate for PAR," the managing editor will make some suggestions or pair the author with a member of the board or other volunteer who can help the author develop the idea.

Q2: How do I submit manuscripts to PAR?
Submit two (2) electronic copies of your manuscript (1 anonymous, 1 identifiable) to par@ou.edu and two printed copies of your manuscript to:
Jos C.N. Raadschelders, Managing Editor, PAR
Public Administration Review
Department of Political Science
University of Oklahoma
455 West Lindsey Street, Room 304
Norman, OK 73019-2002

For printed copies, be sure to put your name and affiliation on a cover sheet that can be detached when the manuscript goes out for review and do not include self references in the text that identify the writer. Be especially careful about referring to unpublished manuscripts for example, as these are often those of the author.

For electronic versions, be sure to remove all identifying information (including identification metadata in the document properties) from the blind version which will go out to reviewers. Be sure to “accept changes” and remove all document comments. Email me at par@ou.edu if you have any questions.

Q3: What happens to a manuscript after I submit it?
It is logged first, so we will be able to track it after submission. Then the editors read it and decide, based on the subject matter, who should review the article for us. We pick from a long list of experts those who can tell us whether the manuscript is accurate, well-written, and useful to the profession. We normally send the manuscript to three reviewers. When we get the reviews back, we read them, and make judgments on the manuscript based on the advice of the reviewers. Our decisions are of four sorts, accept, with or without minor revisions; conditional acceptance, which means it is accepted if particular changes are made; revise and resubmit, which means if particular changes are made the manuscript will be rereviewed for possible acceptance; and rejection without invitation to rewrite. A revise and resubmit is not an acceptance, but it does indicate considerable interest in the manuscript and suggests that the manuscript could be made publishable.

Q4: How much discretion do editors have to overrule the reviewers?
Editors do have the discretion to overrule reviewers, but they seldom use it. Only when there is some indication that reviewers have not carefully read the manuscript or if it was sent by error to someone who had strong feelings on the topic that resulted in a biased review would the editors step in. However, editors routinely use discretion when reviewers disagree on a manuscript and also use discretion in telling authors which critical comments are more serious. Editors may also use discretion to go with two reviews if the third one is intolerably late or to solicit an extra review if the first three do not provide sufficiently concrete advice about how to revise or what the shortcomings of a manuscript are.

Q5: Why are manuscripts reviewed?
First, PAR receives hundreds of manuscripts each year. The editors could not possibly read and judge them all fairly. Second, peer review assures the quality and impartiality of the selection process. Third, peer review protects the journal from incorrect information, misleading interpretations, and in many cases from publishing old, recycled manuscripts or manuscripts that have been published elsewhere. Fourth, academics get more "credit" for peer reviewed articles than for non peer reviewed articles as the standards for peer review are normally considered more rigorous.

Q6: Can I submit my manuscript to two or more journals simultaneously?
No. So much time and work goes into the review of each manuscript that we assume that if we accept a manuscript, the author will indeed publish it in PAR. If authors submit the manuscript to several journals, the possibility exists that both of them will accept the manuscript and the author will publish in one and leave the other one hanging. This is more than an annoyance, it will result in an informal rejection of future manuscripts because the author has already announced that he or she may not really be submitting the manuscript. Journal editors inform one another about such occurrences

Q7: How long does the review process take?
Turnaround time on the review process is intended to be relatively quick. So authors can take a chance to get a manuscript into PAR without jeopardizing the timeliness of the piece in case it is not accepted. The goal is a two month turnaround between submission and response. If authors do not hear within two to three months, they can call or email to find out the status of the manuscript and help push along the review process. The problem is normally that a reviewer has not had time to review the article. A decision must be made to go with two reviews, send out the manuscript to a fourth reviewer, or nag the late reviewer.

Q8: I am a junior faculty member or government official. Will it help me get published if I co-author with a senior person or someone better known to the field?
No. The only thing that matters is the quality and timeliness of the material. The peer review process is blind, that is, the reviewers normally do not know whose work they are reviewing. Sometimes they can figure it out from internal clues when they are dealing with a manuscript that is based on a large grant, for example, or with the work of someone who has published a lot from a particular data set, but generally they do not know if they are reviewing a notable person's work or someone brand new to the field. As a result, there is no need to co-author to improve chances of publication.

Q9: Are all manuscripts submitted to PAR peer reviewed?
Most manuscripts are reviewed, but perhaps not all. Guest editorials or invited pieces may not be peer reviewed. Some pieces authored by practitioners should go through a simpler process that is less intimidating. The goal of the simpler process would be to find out if the piece is considered useful by those it is aimed at and to make sure the piece is not off the wall in terms of accuracy of description or analysis. The editors will work with practitioner authors and novice academics to get to a cleanly written manuscript. Any author can tell if a piece has been peer reviewed because the reviews will be returned to the author with the editors' judgment about publication prospects. Authors of invited pieces may request peer review.

Q10: I would like to review articles for PAR in my field.... How can I do that?
Send a note or email to the editor in chief, with your name, address, email address if you use it, and a brief resume including your relevant experience, relevant publications, and the kinds of articles you would like to review. We will try to send you manuscripts in that area and then look over your reviews to see if they are timely and useful to authors. If so, we will send you other manuscripts on this subject as we get them. Be sure to let us know in addition to the subject matter you feel qualified to review, whether you prefer quantitative or qualitative pieces, and if the former, what level of statistics you feel comfortable reviewing. Also let us know about how many manuscripts a year you think you might be able to review. You will always have the option of refusing to review a manuscript if it comes at an especially busy time. Such refusal will not disqualify you from future reviews. Just let us know you can't review it and return the manuscript so we can send it out to another reviewer as promptly as possible.

Q11: I just read a great book. Would PAR like me to review it?
If you have ideas about books you would like to review or to see reviewed in PAR, contact the book review editor. Someone else may be designated to review a book that interests you, so it is unwise to send unsolicited reviews. You can contact the editor at the following address: