About Public Administration and Policy

Public Administration and Policy

Public Administration and Policy: An Asia-Pacific Journal (PAP) is an international peer-reviewed open-access journal based in Hong Kong, first launched in 1992. It is published by Emerald Publishing on behalf of the Hong Kong Public Administration Association, which jointly founded it with the City University of Hong Kong. After a suspension from 2005, the journal was relaunched in spring 2012 with the School of Professional Education and Executive Development (SPEED) of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University as co-publisher, and since 2018 it has been published open access on the Emerald Insight platform. Its print ISSN is 1727-2645 and its online ISSN is 2517-679X, and it now publishes three issues a year.

Overview and identity

PAP is devoted to the integration of the theories and practice of public administration and management, with special emphasis on the Asia-Pacific region. It is edited by Peter K. W. Fong, president of the Hong Kong Public Administration Association, and published by Emerald Publishing on behalf of that association. Emerald lists the journal's publisher as Emerald Publishing on behalf of the Hong Kong Public Administration Association, with online ISSN 2517-679X. The journal welcomes contributions from academics, students, practitioners and managers in non-profit and business organisations, in the forms of research papers, case studies, commentaries and viewpoints relating to public administration and management. In its current Emerald form it is a fully open-access title: there is no charge for authors and readers of the journal, as its 2019 editorial confirms.

Founding in 1992 and early years

The journal was first launched in 1992, jointly published by the Hong Kong Public Administration Association (HKPAA) and the City University of Hong Kong. HKPAA itself had been established in 1990, committed to promoting and enhancing the quality of research and practice of public sector management in Hong Kong and the region, and the journal became one of its principal scholarly activities. The journal initially appeared as Hong Kong Public Administration and took its current name, Public Administration and Policy, in 1997. During its first run it established itself as a Hong Kong-based outlet for research and commentary on public administration and policy in the Asia-Pacific region, published from Hong Kong for a regional readership of scholars and practitioners.

Suspension and the 2012 relaunch

The journal was suspended in 2005 due to the departure of its editor-in-chief. It remained suspended until spring 2012, when it was relaunched with the support of a new co-publisher, the School of Professional Education and Executive Development (SPEED) of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), and a new editor-in-chief. The electronic version of the journal was introduced in 2013 and was made available to readers through the HKPAA and PolyU SPEED websites. The journal has progressed from its original print version to an e-version and then to online publication. In 2021 the journal marked the 30th anniversary of its establishment and the 10th anniversary of its relaunch, counting from its 1992 founding and its 2012 return.

The Emerald partnership from 2018

In 2018 the journal entered a collaboration partnership with Emerald Publishing Limited in the United Kingdom. Since then, PAP has been published online in open access on the Emerald Insight platform, giving it global dissemination through a major international social science publisher while ownership and editorship remained with the Hong Kong association. The inaugural Emerald issue in 2018 opened with an article by Jon S. T. Quah analysing the five secrets of Singapore's success, and the journal's editorials record the move as the start of its open-access era. From 2020 the journal moved to publishing three issues a year, including one special issue per year, and its editorial preface records that it now publishes three issues and over twenty articles per year.

Aims and scope

The journal aims to advance knowledge and practice in public administration and policy, particularly within the Asia-Pacific region. Its scope, as summarised in journal directories, encompasses public policy analysis and evaluation — the formulation, implementation and impact of policies across the region — together with governance issues and the implementation of public policies, addressed through diverse methodologies and research areas. Special issues illustrate the range: the journal has published special issues on health policies and on tertiary education, and a special issue on regulatory governance in a globalizing world, guest edited by Carlos W. H. Lo of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Ning Liu of the City University of Hong Kong. A special issue on corruption scandals in Asian countries was also scheduled in its forward programme. Throughout, the emphasis is on contemporary challenges in governance and administration viewed from the Asia-Pacific region.

Editorial leadership and governance

The editor-in-chief is Professor Peter K. W. Fong, who is also President of the Hong Kong Public Administration Association. His editorials in the journal appear under both roles, and his biography in the journal records a PhD from New York University and roles as Managing Director of Peter Fong & Associates Ltd. and Principal Consultant of Investport Ltd. To maintain a high academic standard, the journal has formed an International Advisory Board consisting of renowned scholars and practitioners from leading universities in the USA, the UK, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Japan, Korea, Singapore, mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. That board structure reflects the journal's positioning between Hong Kong practice and international scholarship.

Article types and special issues

PAP publishes research papers, case studies, commentaries and viewpoints. Its annual programme of three issues includes a special issue each year on a focused theme, alongside general issues on various aspects of public administration. Guest-edited special issues, such as the issue on regulatory governance in a globalizing world, bring in specialist editors from Hong Kong universities. Content in regular issues ranges widely within the field: a 2019 issue, for example, opened with viewpoints on China's Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as a development opportunity for Hong Kong and on the global rise of fake news and its threat to democratic elections, followed by research papers. The journal also serves as a publication outlet linked to its community's conferences, including the HKPAA and PolyU international conference held to mark the association's 30th anniversary in 2020.

Indexing and dissemination

Emerald records that the journal is indexed and abstracted by Crossref, EBSCO Discovery Service, Google Scholar, Summons (ProQuest) and WorldCat. Journal directory listings also record it in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and the clean listing for this profile records indexing in the Emerging Sources Citation Index. Its identifiers are print ISSN 1727-2645 and online ISSN 2517-679X. Publishing on Emerald Insight since 2018 has placed the journal's open-access full text within a platform used by university libraries worldwide, a marked change from its early print distribution from Hong Kong and its post-2012 e-version on association and university websites.

The Hong Kong Public Administration Association community

The journal is inseparable from its owning association. The Hong Kong Public Administration Association, established in 1990, works to promote interest in best practice in public services through dinner talks, seminars and conferences with leaders from public and private organisations, in collaboration with local universities and overseas counterpart organisations. PAP is the association's journal, co-founded with the City University of Hong Kong and later co-published with PolyU SPEED, and its editor-in-chief serves simultaneously as the association's president. A new association website launched in 2020 marked HKPAA's 30th anniversary, the same period in which the journal expanded to three issues a year. For Hong Kong's public administration community of civil servants, academics and public managers, the journal is both a scholarly record and a professional forum.

Access and submissions

Readers can access PAP free of charge as an open-access journal on the Emerald Insight platform at emerald.com, where issues from 2018 onward are published online, with the journal now appearing three times a year. There is no charge for authors or readers. Authors — academics, students, practitioners and managers — are invited to contribute research papers, case studies, commentaries and viewpoints on public administration and management, with special emphasis on the Asia-Pacific region, following the author guidance on the Emerald journal pages. The journal's full title, Public Administration and Policy: An Asia-Pacific Journal, and its ISSNs distinguish it from similarly named public administration titles published elsewhere.