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By Erdal Tekin, JPAM Editor-in-Chief
I am honored to assume the responsibilities of Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management beginning July 1, 2018. It is a much-cherished gift to be the Editor-in-Chief of JPAM and I am proud and excited for the next chapter in my professional life. But, I am also well aware of the responsibilities that this role entails, so frankly, I approach this with both excitement and some anxiety.
For the past four years, Ken Couch has been the driving force behind the growth of the journal. JPAM is in good shape in every respect. The impact factor is solid; the submissions are up; and the journal enjoys a well-deserved reputation of publishing innovative and empirically rigorous research that meets the highest standards of scholarship across disciplines and policy domains. Ken has done a fantastic job shaping the journal to ensure that it has maintained its status as one of the leading venues for the very best scholarly work on issues related to public policy and management. Thanks are due to my predecessor, Ken, and all the members of the editorial team who served with him during his term.
I also want to thank the journal staff, Jill Placzek and Stapley Emberling, for their critical role in running the whole show together! Finally, I would also like to thank APPAM and the selection committee for this opportunity and their trust in me and my institution.
Given the solid foundation of the journal, my key goal will be to continue practices that ensure that priorities of high quality and inclusivity of various disciplines and policy domains are met. I hope to work to build upon the many positive steps taken by recent editors, both to extend the reach of JPAM to broader audiences and to advance its reputation within academia. The vision of JPAM that I embrace is one that emphasizes high standards, wide visibility and impact, inclusivity, and diversity.
While pursuing these goals, we will also need to keep in mind that the core academic audience of JPAM is the community of APPAM. Therefore, we will need to recognize the importance of strengthening the relevance of JPAM for this community by emphasizing the diversity in substantive and methodological breadth and reach that the APPAM community represents.
Objective and careful review service by referees is perhaps the most critical component of the scientific review process. At the same time, it is often a thankless job and so many of us continue to accept review invitations out of a sense of professional duty and nothing else. I believe it is important to recognize the importance of refereeing service and to promote efficient and high quality reviews. I am introducing annual awards for “Excellence in Refereeing.” Under this new award system, three reviewers at all career stages, who demonstrate excellence in terms of quality and efficiency of their refereeing for the journal, will be awarded $500 each and receive a letter of commendation.
These goals can only be accomplished as a team effort, and I feel extremely fortunate to have an editorial team with outstanding credentials. Each member of the team has a proven record of engaging in research on frontier topics that bear on issues that matter most for the readers of JPAM, and bring a diverse range of intellectual interests across many disciplines. Thank you to those who have agreed to serve JPAM along with me. With fresh enthusiasm, I hope that our journal will continue to flourish and advance in scope and depth, attracting more and more authors both from the traditional and emerging research fields of public policy and management.
Best regards,
Erdal