Global Public Policy and Governance - Call for Papers: ‘Into the mystic’ the Impact of Digital and AI Transformation on the Delivery of Public Services
Call for papers: (this opens in a new tab)‘Into the mystic’: the impact of digital and AI transformation on the delivery of public services (this opens in a new tab)
Guest editors
Stephen Osborne (University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK) stephen.osborne@ed.ac.uk (this opens in a new tab)
Maria Cucciniello (University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK) maria.cucciniello@ed.ac.uk (this opens in a new tab)
Greta Nasi (Bocconi University, Italy) greta.nasi@unibocconi.it (this opens in a new tab)
Edwina Zhu (University of Bristol, UK) yida.zhu@gmail.com (this opens in a new tab)
Submission Instructions
Before submitting your manuscript, please ensure you have carefully read the submission guidelines (this opens in a new tab). The complete manuscript should be submitted through the submission system (this opens in a new tab). To ensure that you submit to the correct thematic series please select the appropriate thematic series in the drop-down menu upon submission. In addition, indicate within your cover letter that you wish your manuscript to be considered as part of "‘Into the mystic’ the Impact of Digital and AI Transformation on the Delivery of Public Services". All submissions will undergo rigorous peer review and accepted articles will be published within the journal as a collection.
Reviewers should follow Springer Nature’s and the journals more detailed Peer-Review Policy (this opens in a new tab).
Introduction
The past decade has seen profound transformations in the nature of public service delivery. The digital and smart revolutions have changed the structure, processes and content of public service delivery. These are being challenged further now by the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on public services. The societal and economic convulsions produced by the COVID-19 pandemic have also increased the impact of these transformations. This special issue of Global Public Policy and Governance (this opens in a new tab) (GPPG) is dedicated to exploring these transformations and their impact for theory and practice. It sits alongside GPPG’s recent call for a special issue on the global governance of emerging technologies (this opens in a new tab).
Given the interdisciplinary nature of this field, this special issue welcomes contributions from different academic fields and especially, but not exclusively, inter-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary work. We also welcome both empirical and theoretical/conceptual papers that add value to our discipline. Systematic literature reviews are welcome if they add substantively to theory and do not just summarise past work. Submissions can be from both established researchers and new researchers, including doctoral students.
Paper submission is welcome on any theme, but papers on the following themes would be particularly opportune:
- The implications of digital and AI transformation for the co-design of public services and the co-creation of value through public service delivery.
- Evaluation of artificial Intelligence applications and innovations in service design and service delivery, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The ethical challenges of digital and AI transformation for public services.
- The challenges to public administration and management theory from digital and AI transformation.
- Innovative approaches to citizen engagement and participation through digital and AI transformation.
- The role and impact of gender on digital and AI transformation for public services.
- The impact of digital and AI transformation upon public service management and evaluation (including performance and quality evaluation).
- Inter-organisational and/or inter-personal working in the era of digital and smart services.
- Comparative studies of digital and AI transformation in public services (on either a cross-national or a cross-sectoral basis).
- Systematic literature reviews that develop theory
Submission process
Initial submissions should take the form of a 500 – 1000 word paper proposal. This should specify the topic and its significance, the approach taken, and the paper’s potential contribution to theory and practice. This should be submitted to stephen.osborne@ed.ac.uk (this opens in a new tab) by 30 November 2021.
These proposals will be evaluated by the editorial group and a maximum of 10 - 12 papers will be selected for development. Authors will be advised if their proposal is going forward by mid-January 2022. The decision of the Editorial Team will be final. An online workshop to review the papers will be held in April/May 2022.
Authors will revise their full papers following this panel/workshop and submit them to the Editorial Manager of GPPG (this opens in a new tab) by 1st July 2022 at the latest. There will then be a formal double-blind peer evaluation process before the final selection of 7 – 8 papers for the special issue is made. The review process is organized by the guest editors via the Editorial Manager of GPPG. Final decisions are expected to be made before the end of 2022.
If other papers are reviewed that are deemed to be of a publishable standard but for which there is no space in the Special Issue, these will be passed onto the Editor-in-Chief of GPPG with a recommendation for publication in the regular issues of the journal (though the final decision here will be by the Editor-in-Chief).
The format of research papers should comply with the styles of GPPG, with APA reference style and a word limit of 10,000 words. More details are available at: https://www.springer.com/journal/43508 (this opens in a new tab)
Initial enquiries about the suitability of a paper proposal can be made to any of the editors of the Special Issue.
Important Dates
30 November 2021
Proposal submission (stephen.osborne@ed.ac.uk (this opens in a new tab))
mid-January 2022
Admission decisions announced
April/May 2022
Online workshop
1 July 2022
Full paper submission (Editorial Manager of GPPG (this opens in a new tab))