Current Topics of Interest

PAR aims to publish work that will be interesting and useful to academics and practitioners alike. This includes topics of broad concern as well as sharply focused work of considerable depth. In both cases we look for significant implications for knowledge development and practice - for the "big picture."

Along these lines, we regularly publish the following types of articles:

• Discussions of "big questions" in public administration
• Well-conducted empirical work with methodology appropriate to the nature of the topic
• Discussions of important normative aspects of public administration
• Occasional special reports on topics of immediate relevance to practice
• Contributions to the Reflective Practitioner feature

With respect to topics, we are particularly interested in publishing more work in the following areas:

• Public administration history
• The implications of gender and/or race for theory and practice
• Cross-disciplinary articles that bring to bear theory and findings from such fields as political science, economics, sociology, law, and others
• Comparative and international administration
• The implications for administration of various policy initiatives, such as homeland security or welfare reform

With respect to the subfields in public administration, such as budgeting, personnel, information technology, and so on, we prefer to publish work in these areas that has broad implications and will be of interest to nonspecialists. Highly technical articles in subfields will be better submitted to journals specializing in these areas.

Similarly, we try to maintain a balance among substantive areas, such as transportation, health, social services, education, housing, and so on. Again, articles that are of primary interest only to specialists in a particular substantive area should be submitted to a journal specializing in that area.

We have received a great many submissions over the past few years focusing on the National Performance Review and other facets of the "reinventing" movement, as well as on performance measurement and performance budgeting. While we have not yet lost interest in these topics, we would like very much to see submissions that have a fresh perspective to offer or that break new ground.

Finally, although PAR has published a special issue (September 2002) on the implications of the events of September 11, 2001 for public administration, we will continue to welcome submissions that explore fresh aspects or that probe further into topics raised in the special issue.

A good way to get a feel for what PAR is interested in publishing is to look at the journal itself, reviewing several issues from each of the last several years. A perceptive reader will be able to sense both what kinds of work are typical of PAR at present, and what gaps original and groundbreaking work may be able to fill.