Aims & Scope
Information Polity is a tangible expression of the increasing awareness that Information and Communication technologies (ICTs) have become of deep significance for all polities as new technology-enabled forms of government, governing and democratic practice are sought or experienced throughout the world. This journal positions itself in these contexts, seeking to be at the forefront of thought leadership and debate about emerging issues, impact, and implications of government and democracy in the information age. Information Polity aims to publish academic work that contributes to understanding and strengthening a democratic information polity.
The journal promotes interdisciplinary work drawing from the wider social sciences (e.g. public policy, public management, public administration, political science, information systems, information science, media studies, philosophy, sociology, law, economics) and welcomes articles with an empirical, theoretical or conceptual contribution from scholars and practitioners throughout the world. The journal is both international and comparative in its perspectives and publishes articles on political, public policy, institutional, social, economic, legal, managerial, organizational, ethical, and wider social scientific themes and issues as they relate to the application of ICTs in government, governing and democratic practice. Examples of such themes and issues are:
- Bureaucratic reform and modernization
- Public and democratic innovation
- Public policy in the information age
- Citizenship in the information age
- The impact of ICTs on political institutions and democratic practice
- ICT regulation and governance
- Social media and citizen engagement
- Political information and the role of new media
- Internet activism, political organization and collective action
- Government ICT strategy, leadership and management
- Service transformation and multi-channel service provision
- Cross-government information-sharing
- Digital identity and privacy
- Surveillance and cybersecurity
- Open government, transparency and accountability
- Public records management in the information age
- Public innovation management, evaluation and benefits realization
Publishing in Information Polity
The journal is keen to receive well-written rigorous journal articles from its targeted authors on topics as stated above. Articles submitted for consideration must be written in English and checked by a native speaker. The journal will welcome expert opinion pieces as well as articles deriving from research and practice.
Academic articles submitted should normally not exceed 8000 words in length [including references]. Articles in the form of authoritative, well-researched case studies or country reports will be welcomed and will not normally exceed 4500 words. The journal will also commission reviews, including book reviews, social media reviews, reviews of research reports and strategy documents, expert opinion pieces, and short research notes, which normally will not exceed 2000 words.
Peer Review Policy
Published articles in Information Polity have all been subject to rigorous peer review, based on an initial editorial screening and anonymous refereeing by a minimum of two referees.
Editorial Board
Editors-in-Chief
Albert Meijer, PhD
Albert Meijer
Bijlhouwerstraat 6
3511 ZC Utrecht, Netherlands
William Webster, PhD
Professor of Public Policy and Management
Centre for Research into Information,
Surveillance and Privacy (CRISP),
University of Stirling
Stirling, FK9 4LA, United Kingdom
Honorary Editor-in-Chief
Professor Emeritus John Taylor
Reviews Editor
Dr. Karl Lofgren
Associate Professor
School of Government
PO Box 600, Wellington 6140, New Zealand
Social Media Editor
Keegan McBride
Lab Manager – GovAiLab, Junior Research Fellow / Doctoral Candidate, School of Information Technologies, Information Systems Research Group, Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia
Website Editor
Dr. Sarah Hendrica Bickerton
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Public Policy Institute, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Europe
Associate Prof. Frank Bannister
Trinity College
Dublin, Ireland
Prof. Tobias Mettler
UNIL IDHEAP
Lausanne, Switzerland
Dr. Giorgia Nesti
University of Padova
Padova, Italy
Associate Editors
Asia
Heungsuk Choi
Department of Public Administration, Korea University
Seoul, Republic of Korea
South America
Maria Alexandra Cunha
General Management and Human Resources Department, School of Business Administration of São Paulo
São Paulo, Brazil
North America
Mila Gasco
Center for Technology in Government, State University of New York at Albany
Albany, NY, USA
Oceania
Paul Henman
School of Social Science, University of Queensland
Brisbane, QL, Australia
Africa
Adegboyega Ojo
Insight Centre for Data Analytics, National University of Ireland
Galway, Ireland
Editorial Board
Victor J.J.M. Bekkers
School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Michael Kyobe
Institute for Management of Information Systems, University of Cape Town
Cape Town, South Africa
Scott Robertson
Information and Computer Sciences Department, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
Honolulu, HI, USA
Tobias Mettler
Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration, University of Lausanne
Lausanne, Switzerland
Toshio Obi
Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University
Tokyo, Japan
Theresa A. Pardo
Department of Public Administration & Policy, University at Albany
Albany, NY, USA
Peter Parycek
Academic Continuing Education and Digital Transformation, Danube University Krems
Donau, Austria
Charles Raab
School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh, UK
Christopher G. Reddick
College for Health, Community and Policy, University of Texas at San Antonio
San Antonio, TX, USA
Alasdair S. Roberts
Harry S. Truman School of Public Affairs, University of Missouri
Columbia, MO, USA
Jesper Schlæger
School of Public Administration, Zhejiang Gongshang University
Hangzhou, China
Ian McLoughlin
Department of Management, Monash University
Melbourne, VI, Australia
Hans Jochen Scholl
Information School, University of Washington
Seattle, WA, USA
Tino Schuppan
The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Centre
Potsdam, Germany
Colin F. Smith
Centre for Computing Education Research, Edinburgh Napier University
Edinburgh, UK
Maddalena Sorrentino
Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods, University of Milan
Milan, Italy
Marcel Thaens
Chief Information Officer, Province Noord-Brabant
's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
Thierry Vedel
Centre for Political Research, Sciences Po
Paris, France
Mirko Vintar
Institute for Informatization and Administration, University of Ljubljana
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Elin Wihlborg
Department of Management and Engineering, Linköping University
Linköping, Sweden
Ines Mergel
Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Konstanz
Konstanz, Germany
Helen Margetts
Internet and Professorial Fellow at Mansfield College, University of Oxford
Oxford, UK
Colin J. Bennett
Department of Political Science, University of Victoria
Victoria, Canada
Elizabeth Eppel
Institute for Governance and Policy Studies, Victoria University of Wellington
Wellington, New Zealand
John C. Bertot
College of Information Studies, University of Maryland
College Park, USA
Eleanor Burt
School of Management, University of St. Andrews
St Andrews, UK
Lemuria Carter
School of Information Systems and Technology Management, The University of New South Wales
Sydney, NSW, Australia
Manuel Castells
School of Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Andrew Chadwick
Communication and Media, Loughborough University
Loughborough, UK
Soon Ae Chun
Information Systems and Informatics, College of Staten Island, City University of New York
New York City, NY, USA
Stephen Coleman
School of Media and Communication, University of Leeds
Leeds, UK
William H. Dutton
Quello Center Media & Information Policy, Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI, USA
Leif Skiftenes Flak
Department of Information Systems, University of Agder
Kristiansand, Norway
Miriam Lips
Department of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Education, Victoria University of Wellington
Wellington, New Zealand
Jane E. Fountain
School of Public Policy, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Amherst, MA, USA
J. Ramon Gil-Garcia
Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, State University of New York at Albany
Albany, NY, USA
Olivier Glassey
Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Lausanne
Lausanne, Switzerland
Tomasz Janowski
Center for E-Governance, Danube University Krems
Donau, Austria
Marijn Janssen
Technology, Policy and Management Faculty, Delft University of Technology
Delft, Netherlands
Bram Klievink
Department of Multi Actor Systems, Delft University of Technology
Delft, Netherlands
Robert Krimmer
Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance, Tallinn University of Technology
Tallinn, Estonia
Klaus Lenk
Institute of Law, University of Oldenburg
Oldenburg, Germany
Rob Wilson
Faculty of Business and Law, Northumbria University
London, UK
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See instructions to authors.
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Quoting from other publications
Authors, when quoting from someone else's work or when considering reproducing figures or tables from a book or journal article, should make sure that they are not infringing a copyright. Although in general authors may quote from other published works, permission should be obtained from the holder of the copyright if there will be substantial extracts or reproduction of tables, plates, or other figures. If the copyright holder is not the author of the quoted or reproduced material, it is recommended that the permission of the author should also be sought. Material in unpublished letters and manuscripts is also protected and must not be published unless permission has been obtained. Submission of a paper will be interpreted as a statement that the author has obtained all the necessary permission. A suitable acknowledgement of any borrowed material must always be made.
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Abstracted/Indexed in
Academic Search
ACM Digital Library
Business Source Complete
Cabell's Guide or Directory
Cambridge Scientific Abstracts
CSA Illumina
DBLP Bibliography Server
EBSCO Databases
EBSCO Engineering Collection
Environment Abstracts
ERIH Plus
Information Reports & Bibliographies
Inspec IET
International Security & Counter-Terrorism Reference Center
Internet & Personal Computing Abstracts (IPCA)
Library & Information Science Abstracts - LISA
MasterFILE
SciVerse Scopus
Ulrich's Periodicals Directory
UMI Serials Acquisitions
Web of Science: Emerging Sources Citation Index
Open Access
By default, articles published in Information Polity are available only to institutions and individuals with access rights. However, the journal offers all authors the option to purchase open access publication for their article as part of the IOS Press Open Library. This means that the final published version will be freely available to anyone worldwide, indefinitely, under a Creative Commons license and without the need to purchase access to the article. This is also referred to as “gold” open access.
Gold open access pricing
Authors who choose gold open access publication will be subject to an article publication charge of €500 / US$500 for publication under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license or €750 / US$750 for publication under the CC BY 4.0 license. Pricing is exclusive of possible taxes. After an article is accepted for publication, the corresponding author will be informed regarding the open access option during the production stages, and will have the opportunity to purchase open access for their article. It could be that the open access fee of an article is waived completely due an institutional agreement IOS Press has with the corresponding authors' institution. Please check the institutional agreements page for details.
Green open access
Authors who do not make use of the gold open access option may still make their article freely available using self-archiving, also referred to as green open access. Authors may make their final accepted manuscript available for free download from their personal or institutional website or institutional archive. This model is free for the author.
Peer Review
Information Polity is a peer-reviewed journal. Articles submitted to the journal undergo a double-blind peer review process. This means that the identity of the authors is not known to the reviewers and the identity of the reviewers is not communicated to the authors. Please visit our reviewer guidelines for further information about how to conduct a review.
After automatic plagiarism screening through iThenticate, all submitted manuscripts are subjected to initial appraisal by the Editor-in-Chief and, if found suitable for further consideration, to rigorous peer review by independent, anonymous expert referees. Reasons to reject a paper in the pre-screening process could for example be that the work does not fall within the aims and scope, the writing is of poor quality, the instructions to authors were not followed or the presented work is not novel. Papers deemed suitable to be reviewed will be assigned to a handling editor. The handling editor will then invite reviewers to comment on the work. Editors and reviewers are asked to excuse themselves from reviewing a submission if a conflict of interest makes them unable to make an impartial scientific judgment or evaluation. Conflicts of interest include but are not limited to: collaboration with the authors in the past three years; any professional or financial affiliations that may be perceived as a conflict of interest; a history of personal differences with the author(s). As a standard policy, decisions are based on at least 2 reviews. The Editor-in-Chief strives to ensure a typical turnaround time of 3-5 months.
Reviewers are asked to judge a paper on at least:
- Logical, concise ordering of ideas
- Use of sound research methods
- Adequacy of documentation
- Material has good applied use in the field
- Readability and interest level
Based on the received reviews the handling editor will propose to the Editor-in-Chief a recommendation:
- Accept article as submitted
- Accept article revision by the author according to suggestions made in review
- Revise and resubmit
- Reject
- Consider for another issue/publication
They mean the following:
1. The manuscript is suitable for publication and only requires minor polishing; thus, no further reviews are requested.
2. The authors are required to make moderate changes to their manuscript. The manuscript becomes acceptable for publication if the changes proposed by the reviewers and editors are successfully addressed. The revised manuscript will be examined by the Editor-in-Chief and possibly sent back to all (or a selection of) reviewers for a second round of reviews. Authors are requested to provide a letter to the reviewers detailing the improvements made for the resubmission.
3. In its current form, the manuscript is not suitable for publication. A resubmission would require substantial revisions and is only encouraged in special cases. The resubmitted manuscript will be considered as a new submission.
4. The manuscript is rejected as it is deemed to be out of scope, not relevant, or not meeting the journal’s quality standards in terms of significance, novelty, and/or presentation.
5. The manuscript is rejected as it is deemed to be better suited for a different journal or publication. Authors are notified by on eof the the Editors-in-Chief, whose decision is final.
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