Research Guidelines  WG II  - Working Group on Public Sector Quality

Papers should combine conceptual and empirical analysis. They should start with a clear statement of the conceptual framework which they are using. The empirical analysis might be based on case studies, on primary data collection (e.g. questionnaire surveys, interviews), on secondary data (e.g. national or local statistics or performance indicators) or data from comparative studies.

Where papers are based on case studies, the case studies should be selected on clear criteria, so that results are available for analysis and presentation. All case studies should be co-authored by an academic and a practitioner with expertise in the field.

We will give priority to papers in which the practical perspective is clearly represented. This might be, for example, through joint authorships, where authors represent academia and practical work, or through empirical research which has explored and contrasted the views of stakeholders.

Papers should specify:

· which stakeholders are the focus of the research (e.g. civil servants of the central government/particular ministry, local governments, other stakeholders)

· what stage of the policy making process does the paper concentrate on (general policy making process, policy analysis, public participation in decision making, policy implementation, etc)

· which governance issues have been the focus of the research (e.g. trust-bargaining, transparency, accountability, partnership building, efficiency, effectiveness etc.)

· the conceptual framework(s) used in the paper

· what empirical data collection and analysis has been employed

· what results have emerged so far

· how much confidence can be placed in these results in their own context

· how far the authors believed the results might be generalized to other contexts.