The editors of Policy & Politics invite proposals for a special issue that will make a significant contribution to our understanding of the nexus of public policy and politics.
Proposals submission deadline: 30 April 2026
Policy & Politics has been publishing innovative works at the intersection of public policy and politics for over 50 years. It is a world-leading, top quartile journal that is committed to advancing scholarly understanding of the dynamics of policy-making and implementation. By exploring the interplay between political actors, governing institutions and policy issues, the journal contributes to building policy process theory; and by reflecting on the evolving context in which these interactions occur, it provides timely and fresh insights into the influence of politics on policy and vice versa.
The journal’s co-editors invite proposals for a special issue to be published online and in print that will make a significant contribution to our understanding of the nexus of public policy and politics. The journal only has space to publish one special issue each year, so this is a competitive process.
Following an internal review process, only the strongest proposal will be selected. To be successful, proposals need to offer a coherent set of excellent original research articles that will reframe or develop knowledge on a topic that is at the leading edge of current debates and is clearly relevant to the journal’s worldwide readership.
Proposals may include a mixture of theoretical, conceptual and empirical cases and a range of research methods, but it should be noted that we are particularly interested in proposals that make a significant theoretical or conceptual contribution to the field, rather than those that focus on a substantive policy area.
Special issues of this scope generally take at least eighteen months to two years from the acceptance of a proposal through to final publication. In return, we offer constructive and clear editorial guidance throughout the development process to optimise its readership and impact. In addition, we undertake significant article-level marketing for special issues, as we publish one of the most widely read journal blogs in the discipline and have significant communities on BlueSky, X and LinkedIn. Our special issues are also eligible for consideration for publication in book form in the Policy & Politics series published by Policy Press.
Please read our summary proposal form on how to develop your proposal to ensure that you include all the information we will need to evaluate it. If you would like to talk through any aspect of your proposal, please do not hesitate to contact us.
The timetable for evaluating proposals is set out below:
| Call for proposals open; submit to sarah.brown@bristol.ac.uk | 2nd February 2026 |
| Deadline for submitting proposals to P&P | 30th April 2026 |
| Decision on selection of one proposal announced by P&P | 29th May 2026 |
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