Author: policypressblog

New citation metrics for Policy & Politics

policypressblogLeave a comment

To all our authors, reviewers, readers, friends and supporters,

We’re delighted to announce that Policy & Politics has achieved a 2-year impact factor of 4.7, further improving its position in the top quartile of Political Science journals (16th out of 187 journals) and Public Administration journals (7th out of 49 journals).

In other citation metrics announced in 2023, Scopus’ CiteScore has ranked Policy & Politics in the 94th percentile (76 out of 1,415) of Public Administration journals and the Scimago Journal and country Rank (SJR) rankings place Policy & Politics in the top quartile (20 out of 199 journals) in Public Administration.

We are so grateful to all of you in our scholarly community for helping us achieve these excellent results. Thank you!

To celebrate the achievements of our authors, we have created a free collection of highly cited articles. All of the articles below are free to access until 31 July 2023. Read the Highly Cited Collection here.

With best wishes,

Oscar, Claire, Elizabeth and Chris

Policy & Politics Co-Editors

Policy & Politics at the International Conference on Public Policy #ICPP6, Toronto

policypressblogLeave a comment

By Sarah Brown

Representatives from the Policy & Politics journal team are delighted to be attending the 6th International Conference on Public Policy #ICPP6 at Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada. We are looking forward to meeting up with many members of our community who are attending, as well as reaching out to scholars who don’t yet know the journal.

So, if you are attending #ICPP6 in person, please stop by the Bristol University Press stand in the exhibition area just in front of room KHE127 in Kerr Hall to say hello. Alternatively, track down one of our editors attending:

Continue reading →

Environmental governance: Staying the same but in different ways?

policypressblogLeave a comment

by Christopher Galik

Times are changing. Rapidly. New, increasingly complex environmental problems continue to emerge. Yet, it would seem that the tools we have to manage that environment often lag behind the need.

In our recent article published in Policy & Politics, Institutional stability and change in environmental governance, we set out to better understand if, how, and why existing governing frameworks—or, as we call them, institutions—seem to persist.

Institutions can be defined as ‘integrated systems of rules that structure social interactions‘. We can think of these institutions as both the formal laws that govern management of a particular environmental problem or resource, but also the informal norms and understandings that influence the ways we interpret and implement those laws. There is a rich body of research that can help us how to understand how and why these institutions might change. On the flip side, much less attention has been paid to why these institutions might stay the same.

Continue reading →

What role should charitable funding play in the provision of public services?

policypressblogLeave a comment

by Helen Abnett, James Bowles and John Mohan

Our recent research, published in Policy & Politics, shows that in the English and Welsh National Health Services (NHS), support from NHS-linked charities funds a wide range of goods and services. This includes substantial spending on amenities intended to make hospital visits more comfortable for patients and staff. Charities pay for newspapers, toiletry packs, toys for play areas, cushions and books. Charity support also funds education and wellbeing activity and medical research.

We also find that support from charities funds basic hospital equipment and furniture, such as vital signs monitors, bladder scanners, pulse oximeters, mattresses, and chairs, as well as some larger pieces of medical equipment (x-ray machines and ultrasounds).

Continue reading →

Understanding how policymakers respond to problems by learning from abroad

policypressblogLeave a comment

by Umut Aydin

Policymakers frequently introduce policies originating in other countries, even when they are initially sceptical that they will work in their own country. Researchers have called this phenomenon ‘policy transfer’ and have sought to explain why and how it happens. However, frequently it is hard to distinguish why policymakers in one country adopt a foreign-inspired model: Is it because the policy is imposed by a powerful country or an international organization as part of a trade deal or membership negotiations? Or do policymakers imitate other countries’ policies voluntarily but rather automatically, without reflecting on whether it is appropriate for them? Alternatively, do they learn from other countries, observing how they tackle similar problems and borrowing from successful examples? 

Continue reading →

Design of services or designing for service? The application of design methodology in public service settings

policypressblogLeave a comment

by Kirsty Strokosch and Stephen P. Osborne

The design of public services has traditionally been conducted by managers who aim to improve efficiency. In recent years though, human-centred design has been used increasingly to improve the experience of public service users, citizens and public service staff (Trischler and Scott, 2016). Design also encourages collaboration and creativity to understand problems and develop solutions (Wetter-Edman et al., 2014). This can include user research to understand current experiences and/or testing prototypes through quick repeated cycles of re-design.

Continue reading →

Do women leaders of nonprofit public service organisations help to reduce the gender pay gap?

policypressblogLeave a comment

By Rhys Andrews

It is often assumed that female leaders are motivated to actively represent other women within the organisations that they lead by helping them to achieve promotions, pay rises and improved working conditions. In the public sector, such leaders are thought to act as ‘femocrats’ advancing gender equality through their deeds and decisions. However, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the potential for women leaders to actively represent female employees in the nonprofit organisations that are now responsible for many public services in the UK and elsewhere. In my recent article in Policy & Politics , I examine the role that women leaders might play in reducing the gender pay gap in Welsh housing associations – nonprofit public service organisations that provide most of the social housing in Wales, and which have a strong commitment to gender equality.

Continue reading →

How well do the UK government’s ‘Areas of Research Interest’ work as boundary objects to facilitate research use in policymaking?

policypressblogLeave a comment

by Annette Boaz and Kathryn Oliver

Articulating the research priorities of government is one way to encourage the production of relevant research to inform policy. We have been working with the Areas of Research Interest (ARIs) produced and published by government departments in the UK. ARIs provide an opportunity to gain insight into what research is of interest to each department. It’s this research that forms the basis of our recent article in Policy & Politics: How well do the UK government’s ‘Areas of Research Interest’ work as boundary objects to facilitate research use in policymaking?

Continue reading →