Rapid Growth, Greater Selectivity, and Editorial Expansion

AuthorRichard C. Feiock
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12374
Published date01 May 2015
Date01 May 2015
Rapid Growth, Greater Selectivity, and Editorial Expansion 345
Public Administration Review,
Vol. 75, Iss. 3, pp. 345–346. © 2015 by
The American Society for Public Administration.
DOI: 10.1111/puar.12374.
Editorial
Rapid Growth, Greater Selectivity, and Editorial Expansion
D ecember 2014 marked the completion of
my first year editing Public Administration
Review ( PAR ). The year was both challeng-
ing and rewarding for the Florida State University
(FSU)-based editorial team, as we worked unceasingly
to keep up with an expanding workload. PAR expe-
rienced an increase in manuscript submissions over
the previous year that is nothing less than astounding.
On December 31, 2014, we received our 491st new
manuscript submission for the year. This compares
to 385 submissions in 2013, an increase of almost 28
percent in 2014. Submissions continue to increase
rapidly, with 85 new submissions received in just the
first 7 weeks of 2015.
What accounts for this historic growth? The obvious
answer is increased recognition of the high caliber of
the contributions that PAR has published in recent
years under Editor in Chief Jim Perry. Less obvious,
but perhaps no less important, is the reputation for
quality and timely customer service to our authors
that PAR has earned over the same time period. Much
of the credit for this strong emphasis on customer
service goes to my predecessor Michael McGuire, who
set up the Editorial Manager software to manage and
track manuscripts, authors, and reviewers ( http://
www.editorialmanager.com/par ).
We open PAR ’s 75th anniversary year on a trajec-
tory of rapid growth, greater selectivity, and editorial
expansion. Although the increase in new submissions
has produced a challenging workload, we have kept
the time from submission to decision on manuscripts
low and the level of customer service high. We con-
tinually seek to minimize the elapsed time between a
manuscript s submission and an editorial decision, and
we use this metric to assess our own performance. In
2014, the average time to an initial editorial decision
on a new submission was 28 days, including those
manuscripts that were rejected without review. The
average time to a “reject” or “revise” decision was
approximately 60 days, when we include only those
manuscripts sent out for review. Going forward we
plan to continue this short cycle from submission to
editorial decision. The editorial teams at Indiana and
Florida State Universities are committed to assembling
the finest issue every two months, and to provide the
very best service to PAR s authors and reviewers.
Prompt, high-quality external reviews are important
to timely editorial decisions. Reviewers are asked to
complete their reviews within 30 days. Almost two-
thirds of PAR reviewers delivered their review on time
or early in 2014. This is tremendously appreciated.
We rely heavily on our outstanding editorial board in
the manuscript review process, and try to recruit at
least one reviewer for each manuscript from outside
the traditional public administration fields in order
to provide comments that help authors reach broader
audiences.
The variety of research that PAR publishes is reflected
in the special features that we offer. In addition to
48 regular research articles, the six issues published
in 2014 included 2 Theory-to-Practice articles (Hal
Rainey, editor), 19 Perspectives (Daniel Feldman,
editor), 2 PA and the Disciplines articles (Rosemary
O Leary, editor), 36 Commentaries on articles, and
27 Book Reviews (Sonia Ospina and Rogan Kersh,
editors).
Starting with the first issue of volume 75, we added a
new feature—Research Synthesis (Michael McGuire,
editor). This feature publishes rigorous assessments
of a body of theory and empirical research articulat-
ing what is known about a phenomenon and how to
advance research about it.
PAR remains highly selective and the acceptance rate
continues to decrease. PAR s acceptance rate for 2014
was approximately 13 percent, which is in line with
preeminent journals in other social science fields.
An increased share of newly submitted manuscripts
are declined with comments from the editor, but
not sent out for external review. These desk rejects
have increased to over 43 percent of all submissions.
Richard C. Feiock
Florida State University

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT