The politics and policy of science and technology: Past and future

Abstract

The Review of Policy Research (RPR) is a long-existing and traditional journal of policy research and part of the journal family published under the aegis of the Policy Studies Organization (PSO) and in cooperation with Wiley. Originally given the name “Policy Studies Review” and as a sister journal of the Policy Studies Journal, which currently is the policy process journal with the highest impact factor, the RPR developed its own standing and profile. While generally being concerned with the politics and policy of science and technology, the recently published articles address the most pressing topics of our time. The July issue includes important articles on climate change leadership (Glasgow et al., 2021), innovation policy in China (Feng & Jiang, 2021), technology transfer and the use of digital technologies to boost productivity local policy networks (Möck, 2021), and digitalization in health care (Bogumil-Uçan & Klenk, 2021). With this editorial introduction, we are more than happy to announce that effective July 1, 2021, we are the new editorial team of this outstanding journal. Because of the great and effortful work of our predecessors, Nita Farahany, Tim Profeta, Kenneth Rogerson, and Sarah Rispin Sedlak, which we could not be more thankful for, we are able to take over a journal that is at the top of the academic community. Our deepest and most sincere thanks for making this transition so smooth and uncomplicated, and for your stellar past work! The current issue still is the result of the excellent work of this previous editorial team. All articles have been managed by them, and it is awesome to see what great compilation of articles it is that constitutes this issue. We are pleased to stay in contact with the previous editors, especially by having Ken on (editorial) board. In the months to come, we will continue to broaden the editorial board and to extend it to so far underrepresented regions. To those who are already on it: Thank you for supporting the journal in the last years, and we hope that you will hold faith with us. A huge thank you also to Paul Rich, PSO President, and Daniel Gutierrez-Sandoval, for their persistent and tireless support with all questions and requests. The trust and support you have shown us is more than any editor could ever dream of. The new editorial team consists of Nils C. Bandelow, Johanna Hornung, and Colette S. Vogeler, all based at TU Braunschweig, Germany. All of us have an international background, by having studied or having stayed at other academic institutions across Europe. All of us are academically active at various international conferences, in academic organizations and self-governance, and through publications in diverse journals (https://www.tu-braunschweig.de/coppp). Together with European colleagues, Nils and Johanna co-edit the European Policy Analysis (EPA) journal that recently published special issues on COVID-19 (Colfer, 2020) and the state of the art of theoretical frameworks of public policy, such as the Programmatic Action Framework (Bandelow et al., 2021; Hassenteufel & Genieys, 2021) and the Narrative Policy Framework (e.g., Tosun & Schaub, 2021). Therefore, we bring in some useful experience in the cooperation with the PSO and Wiley and in editing a journal. We want to pursue a long-term strategy for the RPR over the next few years. In doing so, we want to build on the existing and important focal points and the outstanding networks in the academic world and develop them further. Based on our experience with the EPA journal, we first want to strengthen the areas of communication and special issues in the short term. This means that the RPR will have a Twitter account from now on (@RPR_Journal) and will use it to promote and inform as well as network with supporters of the journal. We also want to enable guest editors to consider the RPR for high-quality Special Issue publication projects. Such special issue projects should usually consist of six articles. If you are interested in guest-editing an issue: We welcome any first or already completed ideas on special issue, e.g., from panels at international conferences or workshops! In the long run, we might think about enabling possible sister projects of RPR and EPA, which will consist of publishing new theoretical perspectives first in the EPA journal and presenting empirical applications to pressing current issues afterwards in the RPR. For any questions, comments or ideas regarding publications in RPR, feel free to always contact us via email: rpr@ipsonet.org. We'd love to connect with you!