How to Get Published in International

Journals on Public Administration

XiaoHu WANG, Professor, City University of Hong Kong

SAGE Voices of Scholars Webinar series June 10, 2020

Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne | Toronto

Two topics in the presentation

• (1) Trends and issues in public administration

• (2) How to get published
Trends and issues in PA
• Emergency management, especially public health emergencies such as
governing issues in infectious disease prevention, response, and
recovery. For example, how to improve the accountability system (or
performance management system) to incentivize early responses at the
local level
• Collaborative governance, at local, regional, and international levels.
• Regional collaboration is critical to deal with issues in environmental governance,
economic development, infrastructure development, and information management.
• International collaboration is particularly important and urgent for solving issues of
global impact like infectious disease prevention, climate changes, technological
disruptions (disinformation campaigns, fake news, spread of conspiracies, abuse of
biotech and InfoTech etc),and not to mention the nuclear wars. Covid-19 shows that
competence of local bureaucracies could have direct global impact. The world is
connected economically, politically, and bureaucratically
Trends and issues (continued)
• Environmental and sustainability issues. Managerial issues in
environmental (sustainability management): leadership, finance,
network management, institutional capacity etc.
• Technology management. Smart cities. Big data. The uses of ICT in
various work settings. Productivity issues. Leadership issues.
Capacity issues
• The importance of methods: experimentation, meta analysis, and
advanced statistical and analytical tools
• Behavioral public management
A few more words on the trends and issues
• The nationalism agenda has not provided a solution to the issues.
The importance to understand how things are done in other regions,
countries, and cultures. Call for an understanding of other ways of
doing things not because of their efficacy but because of their direct
influence over people.
• The urgency to interpret a China model (the way that things are
done in China at the managerial level not just political level, in
bureaucratic decision making and behaviors for example) in a
comparative context that makes the international scholar
comprehend. The importance to identify the differences, improve
mutual understanding, and maybe defuse conflicts.
• The China model vs. the China case
Some of specific topics as examples
• Adopting and developing ICA (institutional collective action) framework.
(e.g., the role of central imposition in transaction costs and collaborative
risks. Central imposition is hardly used in western countries but very
popular in China. Feiock mentions it but didn’t study it. It was implied in
mandated authorities. If you study it, that could make an important
contribution to the ICA framework)
• Western countries and China have very different ways to hold bureaucrats
accountable. How did these different systems do in Covid-19, in terms of
their processes and effectiveness in responding public health crises? With
a more centralized system, does China have more control over local
behaviors so it can be better prepared in early response?
Some of specific topics (continued)
• IGR (intergovernmental relationship) vs. collaborative governance.
How is a collaborative network managed by a network
administration organization (NAO) of a higher-level government in
China different from traditional IGR relationship and shared-network
relationships? How is collaborative capacity (resources, leadership
etc.) influenced by such a format of governance?
• The role of local administrative leadership (e.g., in areas such as
environmental governance, information communication technology
ICT adoption and utilization, regional collaborations etc.)
Some of specific topics (continued)
• How does the top-down campaign-style effort in environmental
policy manifest at the local implementation level (on institutional
capacity and local leadership behaviors for example)? Holistic
approach vs. fragmented approach in environmental policy and
circumstances under which they work
• Or, in general, how institutional capacity building works for policy
implementation under such a centralized effort? What are some of
changing dynamics in capacity development under such a context?
Getting published
• Finding the topic
• How to frame your research
• Selecting the method
• Choosing publication outlets
• Dealing with rejections and working collaboratively
How to find a topic
• Does it sound interesting?
• Do you see strong policy applications or implications?
• Can you see a major contribution to theory building?
How to frame the paper?
• Do an experiment. Find a small group of people (could be friends or
relatives), can you use five minutes to tell a puzzle and arouse an
interest among the audience on the answer? If yes, write it down, and
work on it. That is your abstract and introduction
• First 1-2 pages of your paper are critically important. The Abstract and
Introduction are the key to get through the editor and reviewers.
Competing for spaces in a journal is brutal these days. Why the editor
have to publish this work?
• Find some top journal articles which you believe that have best
framing (interesting, concise, significance). Write a framing that is
better.
The method
• Methods and topics. Important topics with proper methods. Good
methods alone don’t fly, but neither without them
• Appropriate methods vs. advanced methods
• Stories vs. numbers (scientists like numbers but humans understand
their worlds through stories; can you use numbers to tell stories?)
• Any innovation in the method? The “Wow” effect. Read some of
Malcolm Gladwell’s stories (“Tipping points” “Talking to Strangers” etc,
the Sylvia Plath case on studying suicides for example). (Wow, how
can I not publish that! How can you make the editor say that?)
Finding proper outlets for your research
papers
• Is this a reputable journal?
• Has the journal published similar research topics before?
• How frequently are the similar topics published? How current are
these publications?
• Who are the authors?
• SAGE journals in public administration
SAGE PA journals

2018 Impact Factor: 2018 Impact Factor: 2018 Impact Factor: 2018 Impact Factor:
2.825 2.602 2.382 2.174

2018 Impact Factor: 2018 Impact Factor: 2018 Impact Factor:

1.183 1.698 0.789
Dealing with rejects
• Rejects are the default. It is the given position. You are going to get more rejects than
accepts. It is common that the acceptance rate of top journals is around or less than 10
percent
• Adversity is more expected than pleasantness in a critical field like academics (just like in
life…smile).
• Your attitude toward failure will determine your chance of success. In boxing, you succeed
by keeping being beaten by bigger and better people. Same here. You get better by
keeping being beaten by critical reviews. The key is to keep trying and improving.
• When you receive the news of rejects
• Don’t take it personal. It is a reject on the paper not you as a person
• Read it quickly, and breath, and then read it carefully later (a few days later if you want)
• The key is to learn to improve
• When it is a R&R
• Distinguish quality improvement and simply meeting the need of a reviewer (they are the same often, but
not always)
Working with others
• Working with a good team is one of most effective ways for success
• Finding your niche in the team (the leader, the theorist, the
methodologist etc.)
• Learning to work with others is a lifetime skill that will benefit you
greatly
• Knowing that working with others is difficult and you may have to
sacrifice sometimes for compromise on your view, time, and even
reputation (e.g., order of authorship)
• In my career, successful collaborations (those leading to academic
success and personal satisfaction) have been hard to come by. That
may be your case too. So I try to hold on them if they do come.
Some of my recent published research on
China and Hong Kong
• Xu, J., Wang, X., Xiao, H. (forthcoming). How Environmental
Bureaucrats Influence Funding Legislation: An Information
Processing Perspective. Environmental Politics
• Xiao, H, Wang, X. Liu, C. (forthcoming). Budget Punctuations: A
fiscal management perspective. Policy Studies Journal
• Wang, X. Berman, E., Chen, D., Niu, X. (2019). Strategies to
Improve Environmental Networks for Pollution Control: Evidence
from Eco-compensation Programs in China. Journal of
Environmental Management 234 (2019): 387-395.
Some recent publications with SAGE
• Wang, X., Liu, C., and Hawkins, C. (2017). “Local Government Strategies for
Financing Energy Efficiency Initiatives.” American Review of Public
Administration” 47 (6): 677-686.
• Van Wart, M., Roman, A., Wang, X. Liu, C. (2019). “Operationalizing the
Definition of E-leadership: Identifying the Elements of E-leadership.”
International Review of Administrative Sciences. 85 (1): 80-97.
• Liou, T. and Wang, X. (2019): Managerial Value, Financial Condition and
Downsizing Reform: A Study of U.S. City Governments. Public Personnel
Management 48(4): 471-492.
• Berman, E., Chen, D., Wang, X., Liu, I. (2019). Executive Entrepreneurship,
Appointee-Executive Relations, Senior Public Leadership. Administration &
Society. 51(6): 855-884
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