Trends in Public Administration Research: A Content Analysis of Iranian Journal Articles (2004-2017)

ABSTRACT

This study aims to examine the trends of public administration research in Iran during 2004–2017. A total of 520 articles from three databases have been reviewed and analyzed using content analysis. Results are reported based on research themes, purposes, orientations, methods, and authorship. Comparisons are made across two time spans and by journal type. Findings indicate that the focus of public administration research has been on issues of public administration, Islam and public administration, administrative performance, and organizational behavior in the public sector. Observations reveal that recent Iranian research studies have more explanatory purposes and often apply qualitative methods. The study also concludes that the Iranian public administration research has advanced considerably over the past 14 years, but more efforts are needed to fill in the gap in such important areas as new public service, civic participation, globalization, policy making, sound governance, and policy implementation.

KEYWORDS:

• Public administration
• research
• Iran
• content analysis
• trend

Notes

1. For example, International Review of Administrative Sciences and Public Administration Review Journal used content analysis methods to keep themselves under observation until now and predict the future of public administration knowledge. Some of these articles include “Trends in Public Administration – a Practitioner’s View” (2000), “Trends in the Comparative Study of Public Administration” (1962), ”Trends in Public Administration: A Private Management View” (1964), “Reforming local public administration in Romania: trends and obstacles” (2007), “PAR’s social equity footprint” (2015), “accountability and performance: a report from PAR’s managing editor” (2013), “trends in the study of public administration: empirical and qualitative observations from public administration review, 2000–2009” (2011), “why PAR matters: reflections after seven decades and beyond” (2011), and “who contributes to public administration review? Examining the characteristics of authors who submit manuscripts to the journal” (2005).

2. The Human Science Modares Journal has been divided into three dedicated journals since 2011. These three journals are Journal of Spatial Planning, Comparative Law Researches, and Management Research in Iran. Therefore, authors searched Management Research Journals after this date (2011).

3. Most of articles on the subject of policy process are about public and national policy. For example, some articles are “framework plan for the proposal of public policy: combined research” and “a framework for identifying national policymaker’s qualifications (members of parliament)” or “understanding the substance of public policies: theoretical exploration of the nature of the national policy makers’ imitativeness” and “public policy implementation: explaining the role of rationality in policy formulation”.