Moving Forward and Preparing for Transition

• Author: Richard C. Feiock,Gregg G. Van Ryzin
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12768
• Published date: 01 May 2017
• Date: 01 May 2017

Moving Forward and Preparing for Transition 319

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 77, Iss. 3, pp. 319–320. © 2017 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12768.

Editorial

T aking stock at the beginning of our final

year of service, we note the tremendous

strides that have been made in terms of

submissions, selectivity, rankings, and status of Public

Administration Review ( PAR ) as the leading global

professional journal of public administration. We are

proud of the achievements that our editorial team

has realized and are committed to assisting the new

editorial team in their efforts to advance and improve

PA R when their term begins in January 2018.

In response to the increasing workloads and our

desire to further improve PAR ’s reputation for quality

reviews and service to authors, Gregg G. Van Ryzin of

Rutgers University was added as co-editor beginning

with the September/October 2016 issue. Gregg ’ s fresh

ideas and editorial contributions have been a welcome

addition. We have also seen change among Associate

Editors as Milena Neshkova of Florida International

University joined our editorial team in 2016. In

January 2017, after one of our first Associate Editors,

Zeger van der Wal, stepped down after three years of

valuable service, Tanya Heikkila joined our editorial

team.

After several years of unprecedented increases in new

manuscript submissions—from 385 in 2013 to 540 in

2015—new submissions increased more moderately

in 2016, with 552 new submissions. We greatly

appreciate the efforts of Elise Boruvka at Indiana

University, Dr. Portia Campos and Kate Wassel at

Florida State University, and Jonathan Wexler at

Rutgers University, who play key roles in managing

this workflow.

PAR continues its strong record of customer service to

authors and reviewers. The average time to an initial

editorial decision on a new submission remained less

than 40 days, including those papers that were rejected

without external peer review. The average time to a

“reject” or “revise” decision was approximately 74 days,

when we include only those papers sent out for full

peer review. The editorial teams at Indiana University,

Florida State University, and Rutgers University are

all committed to assembling the finest issue every two

months, and to provide the very best service to PA R ’s

authors and reviewers.

Timely and high-quality reviews are central to the

success of PA R . We greatly appreciate the time and

efforts of our editorial board and ad hoc reviewers.

Reviewers are asked to complete their reviews within

30 days. Almost 60 percent of PA R reviewers delivered

their review either on time or early in 2016. Our

reviewers do a tremendous job and their efforts

are greatly appreciated. We also rely heavily on our

outstanding editorial board in the manuscript review

process.

The variety of research that PAR publishes is reflected

in the special features that we offer. In addition to 52

regular research articles, the six issues in volume 76

included 5 Theory-to-Practice articles (Hal Rainey,

editor), 22 Perspectives, and 37 article commentaries

(Daniel Feldman, editor), 3 Research Syntheses

(Michael McGuire, editor), 4 Public Administration

and the Disciplines articles (Rosemary O ’ Leary,

editor), 8 Evidence in Public Administration essays

(Kimberley R. Isett, Gary VanLandingham, and

Brian W. Head, editors), and 25 book reviews

(Danny Balfour and Stephanie Newbold, co-editors).

We also acknowledge our international editors,

Geert Bouckaert, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven,

and Soonhee Kim, Korea Development Institute,

as PAR continues to become more international

in its authors, reviewers, and readership. Finally,

we welcome the new and important role played

by Deanna Malatesta, Indiana University-Purdue

University Indianapolis, and Nicolai Petrovsky,

University of Kentucky, who will be helping

PAR ’s editorial team to promote openness and

transparency in the practices and reporting of public

administration research.

PAR has become increasingly selective and the

acceptance rate has continued to decrease. PAR ’s

Richard C. Feiock

Florida State University

Gregg G. Van Ryzin

Rutgers University-Newark

Moving Forward and Preparing for Transition