Abstract
We are pleased to report that the upward trajectory of the American Review of Public Administration continued apace in 2011. As detailed below, increasing numbers of scholars are turning to ARPA as a possible outlet for their work, even as ARPA receives more positive ratings from respected third-party observers.
Those third-party ratings come most notably from the widely used Thomson Reuters Journal Citations Report (JCR) on the impact of scholarly journals in the broad field of public administration and public policy, the so-called JCR Impact Factor. Consider these ARPA achievements as excerpted from the most recent JCR data:
ARPA ranked 10th in its 5-year Impact Factor (1.485) among 39 public administration and public policy journals worldwide.
Among U.S.-based journals, ARPA ranked 4th in this 5-year Impact Factor, behind only the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, and Public Administration Review.
ARPA’s 2-year Impact Factor reached an all-time high of 1.0 in the same rankings, increasing for the third time in the past 4 years.
ARPA’s growing interest for scholars can be seen in the number of manuscripts submitted for review for possible publication. Over the past 7 years, manuscript submissions have more than doubled, peaking at 233 manuscripts in each of the past 2 years (2010 and 2011). To accommodate this increasing scholarly interest—and with the support of SAGE Publications—ARPA now appears in six issues each year, up from four per year before 2009. At the same time, our acceptance rate has remained low, dropping to 15% in 2010, among the lowest acceptance rates for any journal in public administration and public affairs. ARPA is also one of the longest running public administration journals, having marked its 40th year of publication in 2009.
To achieve and sustain this quality, ARPA adheres strictly to a number of policies. All manuscript submissions receive a blind peer-review by three or more external reviewers, after which the two editors decide whether the manuscript may move toward publication with ARPA. Even the occasional invited essays from leading scholars receive independent reviews, in those cases by the two editors. ARPA also gives a high priority to timeliness, with decisions on most manuscript submissions completed in 1-to-2 months’ time, and publication usually coming within a year of a manuscript’s acceptance.
ARPA annually gives a Best Article Award for the best article in the journal during the previous year. For 2010, the award was shared by Tina Nabatchi, “Addressing the Citizenship and Democratic Deficits: The Potential of Deliberative Democracy for Public Administration” (July, 2010: pp. 376-399) and Jerrell D. Cogburn, R. Paul Battaglio, Jr., James S. Bowman, Stephen E. Condrey, Doug Goodman, and Jonathan P. West, “State Government Human Resource Professionals’ Commitment to Employment at Will” (March, 2010: pp. 189-208). We thank the committee of editorial board members who selected the award winners: David H. Rosenbloom (Chair), American University; Hon Chan, City University of Hong Kong; and Norma M. Riccucci, Rutgers University–Newark. We also thank the other members of the editorial board, whose voluntary contributions through reviews and other counsel to the editors are essential to ARPA’s success.
ARPA’s identity lies at the core of public administration with a substantive focus on the field broadly defined. We take pride in publishing scholarship on all aspects of public administration, including both traditional and emerging concerns. We also take pride in publishing a growing number of articles by non-U.S. scholars from all parts of the globe. We ask only that such articles speak to public administration in general, not just the concerns of particular countries.
If you have followed ARPA closely over the years, you may have noted references above to two editors, instead of the traditional three. Andy Glassberg stepped down from his coeditor role at the end of 2011, though he remains a consulting editor to ARPA. We appreciate Andy’s many years of service to ARPA, even as we also pledge to maintain our commitment to building ARPA’s quality and stature in the field of public administration and public affairs.