By Sarah Brown
In celebration of Policy & Politics‘ new 2-year Impact Factor of 3.5 in the 2025 Journal Citation Reports (JCR), and its continued position in the top quartile of journals in both Public Administration and Political Science, we’ve made this collection of highly cited articles free to access until 31 July. Together, these articles celebrate the achievements of our authors while showcasing the breadth of scholarship published in Policy & Politics and its contribution to advancing understanding of policy processes and policymaking.
Our first article in this highly cited collection is Policy learning governance: a new perspective on agency across policy learning theories by Bishoy L. Zaki. Introducing the concept of policy learning governance, the article offers a fresh perspective on how policy actors actively shape learning processes rather than simply participating in them. By extending one of the field’s central research agendas, it provides an important foundation for future research on policy learning and policy change.
Staying with the theme of policy process theory, A systematic review of the Narrative Policy Framework: a future research agenda by Johanna Kuenzler, Bettina Stauffer, Caroline Schlaufer, Geoboo Song, Aaron Smith-Walter and Michael D. Jones reviews almost 190 studies to chart the development of the Narrative Policy Framework and identify priorities for future research. As one of our most popular and most highly cited articles, it has quickly become an essential reference point for scholars working on policy narratives, theory development and the policy process.
Turning from policy theory to policy advice and expertise, Andrea Migone and Michael Howlett’s A theory of policy advisory system quality: what makes for good policy advice? tackles the fundamental question of what makes policy advice effective. By introducing a new theoretical framework for understanding the quality of policy advisory systems, it advances debates on expertise, governance and evidence-informed policymaking.
This focus on expertise continues in Policy expertise in times of crisis by Peter Aagaard, Marleen Easton and Brian W. Head. Published as the introduction to their special issue on this topic, the article explores how policy advisory systems and expert knowledge operate under conditions of crisis and uncertainty, providing an important point of reference for understanding expertise, governance and crisis decision-making.
Finally, Analysing the ‘follow the science’ rhetoric of government responses to COVID-19 by Margaret MacAulay, Patrick Fafard, Adèle Cassola and Michèle Palkovits investigates how political leaders used the phrase ‘follow the science’ during the COVID-19 pandemic. Demonstrating how appeals to scientific advice can also function as strategies of political blame avoidance, the article continues to inform debates on evidence, accountability and the relationship between expertise and democratic decision-making.
We hope you enjoy exploring this collection and congratulations to all of our authors on producing such impactful research!
You can read the original research in Policy & Politics at
Kuenzler, J., Stauffer, B., Schlaufer, C., Song, G., Smith-Walter, A., & Jones, M. D. (2025). A systematic review of the Narrative Policy Framework: a future research agenda. Policy & Politics, 53(1), 129-151 from https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2024D000000046
Migone, A., & Howlett, M. (2025). A theory of policy advisory system quality: Hirschman 2.0 or what makes for good policy advice?. Policy & Politics, 53(1), 44-64 from https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2024D000000035
Zaki, B. L. (2024). Policy learning governance: a new perspective on agency across policy learning theories. Policy & Politics, 52(3), 412-429 from https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2023D000000018
Aagaard, P., Easton, M., & Head, B. W. (2024). Policy expertise in times of crisis. Policy & Politics, 52(1), 2-23 from https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2023D000000016
MacAulay, M., Fafard, P., Cassola, A., & Palkovits, M. (2023). Analysing the ‘follow the science’ rhetoric of government responses to COVID-19. Policy & Politics, 51(3), 466-485 from https://doi.org/10.1332/030557321X16831146677554
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