The South-Asian Journal of Policy and Governance (SJPG) aims to focus at advancing science and the art of public policy and governance. It seeks to do so by fostering and sharing knowledge and experiences among academics, practitioners, and researchers and students of administrative sciences. This journal will address the common issues, which its audience at different levels is facing the world over. Its central theme is the continuing need to improve both efficiency and effectiveness in a situation of scarce resources and rising public expectations, especially of service quality. The journal will cover theories, concepts, methods and practical experiences, which have a bearing on how these issues, can best be managed. This journal serves as a forum for exploration and dissemination of ideas and issues on contemporary dimensions of public sector governance and policy, particularly those issues based on empirical studies and experience.
This journal was initially started by the name Public Administration Journal (PAJ) and later on "PAJ" was renamed and upgraded as Nepalese Journal of Public Policy and Governance (NJPG) in 2008. This was further renamed to South Asian Journal of Policy and Governance (SJPG) in 2014 for our endeavour to upgrade the journal.
This is bi-annual journal published around June and December each year.
This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. There is no embargo on the journal’s publications.
Articles published in SJPG are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence. This license enables re-users to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use.
All submissions are initially assessed by an Editor, who decides whether the article is suitable for peer review. Submissions considered suitable for peer review are assigned to two or more subject experts, who assess the article for clarity, validity, and sound methodology. The journal is stripped off of the personally identifiable information and metadata before peer review to maintain double blind review process.
In cases where it is proving very difficult to find peer reviewers, a member of the journal editorial board or editorial team may be a suitable alternative. In such cases the member of the board/team acting as a reviewer is removed from all other editorial decision making regarding the submission in question so that they cannot unduly influence the process. If contributing their own feedback, the handling editor does so transparently and not under the guise of an anonymous reviewer.
The journal operates an anonymous double-blind peer review process, meaning that authors and reviewers do not know each other's identities during the review process. The review period is expected to take around six to eight weeks, although this can vary depending on reviewer availability. Reviewers are expected to provide formative feedback, even if an article is not deemed suitable for publication in the journal.
Based on the reviewer reports the editor will make a recommendation for rejection, revisions, and re-review (major revisions), revisions requested (minor revisions), or acceptance. Overall editorial responsibility rests with the journal’s Editor-in-Chief, who is supported by an expert, international Editorial Board.
Members of the editorial team/board are permitted to submit their own papers to the journal. In cases where an author is associated with the journal, they will be removed from all editorial tasks for that paper and another member of the team will be assigned responsibility for overseeing peer review. A competing interest must also be declared within the submission and any resulting publication.
Reviewers are asked to provide comment on the below topics and guidelines (these items should match what is in the peer review form:
The use of open Artificial Intelligence (AI) models - e.g.ChatGPT - are prohibited when completing the peer review, due to concerns over the sharing of data that is not publicly available. Local self-hosted models which do not upload information back into training datasets, or self-built models, are permitted to help guide the peer reviewer; however, the reviewer takes responsibility for the review feedback provided and will be accountable for the content that they submit. The reviewer must declare any use of local AI models. The reviewer should not rely on AI when formulating their opinion of the article and recommendation to the editor.
The journal follows the publisher’s AI Policy regarding use of AI at any stage of the publishing process.
All listed authors must qualify as such. All authors must have given permission to be listed on the submitted paper.
The journal strongly recommends that all authors submitting a paper register an account with Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier (ORCID). Registration provides a unique and persistent digital identifier for the account that enables accurate attribution and improves the discoverability of published papers, ensuring that the correct author receives the correct credit for their work. As the ORCID remains the same throughout the lifetime of the account, changes of name, affiliation, or research area do not affect the discoverability of an author's past work and aid correspondence with colleagues.
The journal encourages all corresponding authors to include an ORCID within their submitting author data whilst co-authors are recommended to include one. ORCID numbers should be added to the author data upon submission and will be published alongside the submitted paper, should it be accepted.
To ensure transparency, all authors, reviewers, and editors are required to declare any interests that could compromise, conflict or influence the validity of the publication.
In addition, authors are required to specify funding sources and detail requirements for ethical research in the submitted manuscript. All authors must confirm that they fit the definition of an author during submission.
The journal does not tolerate abusive behaviour or correspondence towards its staff, academic editors, authors, or reviewers. Any person engaged with the journal who resorts to abusive behaviour or correspondence will have their contribution immediately withdrawn and future engagement with the journal will be at the discretion of the editor and/or publisher.
SJPG is published by the Public Administration Campus, Tribhuvan University, Nepal.
Established in 2007 and hosted by Ubiquity.
Managed by Tribhuvan University Central Library.
Nepal Journals Online (NepJOL) is a service to provide online publication of Nepalese journals. For more information about NepJOL and how to join the service, see the About page.
