Author Guidelines

GENERAL

Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration (SJPA) welcomes novel and innovative contributions in the form of original research articles, viewpoint articles, and book reviews. We welcome contributions based in the pluralistic methodological traditions that have specific significance for scholars and practitioners with an interest in public administration at the European, Scandinavian, national, regional or local level.

All submissions should be submitted online through the journal’s online submission system. Please read through the following guidelines to ensure that your manuscript conforms to the style of the journal. Contact patrik.renberg@spa.gu.se with any questions regarding the submissions.  

All manuscripts are considered under the understanding that they are original, previously unpublished works, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere. All manuscripts are subjected to a double-blind peer review undertaken by anonymous reviewers who have special expertise in the subject of interest. Our aim is to give a first decision (i.e. Accept submisson, Revision required, Resubmit for Review or Decline submission) within three months of receipt of the manuscript. Final acceptance or rejection rests with the assigned editor, who reserves the right to refuse any material for publication.

No submission or publication fees are charged for publication in Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration.

Manuscript Requirements

Contributions can be either research articles, viewpoint articles, or book reviews.

Research articles should be substantive papers that contribute theoretically and empirically to the field of public administration and public management with a specific focus on the Scandinavian context. Initial submission should not exceed 8,000 words (excluding references).

Viewpoint articles should address the current issues, challenges, developments within the field of public administration and public management with a specific focus on the Scandinavian context, and contribute to the scholarly debate with thought-provocative opinions and critical reflections. Manuscripts submitted for consideration in this section are subject to double-blind review process. Initial submission should not exceed 5 000 words (including references), and abstracts should not exceed 200 words.

Book reviews should concern publications that have specific interest for the field of public administration or public management from around the world. Reviews could also concern a cluster of different publications on a specific aspect of public administration or public management. Manuscripts submitted for consideration in this section are subject to double-blind review process. Reviews should be around 1,000 to 2,000 words.

PREPARING YOUR ARTICLE

1. All research and viewpoint articles should include abstract, keywords, introduction, theoretical and/or analytical framework, material and method, results, discussion, acknowledgement, disclosure statement, references, appendices, tables, figures. Please include a word count for your paper (excluding references). Please refer to the maximum word count above.
2. Abstracts must not exceed 200 words.
3. All submissions should be written in Word format, Times New Roman 12p. double-spaced.
4. Articles shall be written in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these). Manuscripts by non-native English-speaking authors may require editing to eliminate possible grammatical or spelling errors, and it is recommended that these authors use an English language editing service.
5. Please use double quotation marks, except where “a quotation is ‘within’ a quotation”. Please note that long quotations (more than three lines) should be indented without quotation marks and with a blank line above and below text.
6. Notes should be avoided or limited to an absolute minimum. Note indicators should appear at the end of sentences and follow the respective punctuation marks. Notes should be submitted as end notes.
7. It is essential that the references are formatted according to the specifications below. DOI numbers for articles should be included in the reference list where available. DOI links should as far as possible be clickable.
8. Manuscripts must include a research impact section with three to five bullet points signifying the study's practical/policy relevance. This should be included in the manuscript after the abstract.
9. Figures and tables should either be included within the main text or submitted as separate Word files. The font used in all tables and figures must be Times New Roman, size 12 to ensure consistency in formatting and readability throughout the manuscript. Authors are advised to ensure that all figures and tables are clear, properly labeled, and referenced in the main text.

Reference in text: Sources are cited in the text, by the surname, publication date and page number if necessary. Several references are separated by semicolons. Order can be either alphabetical or in order or importance, but should be consistently used throughout the manuscript. If citing more than one work by the same author, do not repeat the author.

(Day 2016, 2018; Night 2017)

If more than three authors, only present the first author.

(Day, Night and Moon 2018)
(Day et al. 2017)

Authors with the same surname should be separated by including initial from first name.

(A. Day 2016; B Day 2017)

References section: References should be listed first alphabetically and then chronologically. Any Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, or Icelandic characters (e.g., Å, Ä, Ö, Æ, Ø) should be treated as equivalent to their nearest English alphabet counterparts for the purposes of alphabetical ordering. Specifically:

Some examples:

Austin, John L. (1967) How to Do Things with Words, Clarendon Press, Oxford.

Austin, John L. (2000) 'Other Minds' in Sven Bernecker & Fred I. Dretske (eds.), Knowledge: Readings in Contemporary Epistemology. Oxford University Press (2000)

Bennett, Jane (2004) The force of things - steps toward an ecology of matter, Political Theory, 32 (3): 347-372.

Callon, Michel (1999) Actor-Network Theory – The Market Test, The Sociological Review, 47 (1): 181-195

Callon, Michel (2001) 'Actor-Network Theory' in Neil Smelser & Paul Baltes (eds), International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Pergamon Press, Amsterdam.

Clegg, Stewart & David Courpasson (2007) The end of history and the futures of power, Contemporary Social Science, 2 (2): 131-154.

Submitting your contribution

All submissions should be made through the journal’s electronic submission system. Authors are kindly encouraged to check their manuscripts carefully before submission in order to avoid delays.

Please submit three separate documents:

• A cover page including: Author’s/authors’ names(s); institutional affiliation; address; email; word count). Please indicate who the corresponding author is.
• An anonymized version of the manuscript.
• A brief biography of each contributing author, including (but not limited to):
  -Name, academic title, institutional affiliation and rsearch interests.

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following terms, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines and SJPA's ethical policies.

1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor)
2. The submission file is in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx)
3. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Submission Preparation Cheklist.
4. The authors consent to electronic publication of the manuscript with immediate Open Access.

Authors are encouraged to consult Patrik Renberg, Managing Editor, if they require clarification regarding the preparation of manuscript for the submission.