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Series:   Elements in Public and Nonprofit Administration

Topics in Public Administration

Perspectives from Computational Social Sciences and Corpus Linguistics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2024

Richard M. Walker ,
Jiasheng Zhang  and
Yanto Chandra
Richard M. Walker
Affiliation:
City University of Hong Kong
Jiasheng Zhang
Affiliation:
University of Macau
Yanto Chandra
Affiliation:
City University of Hong Kong

Summary

This inductive examination of the topics in the public administration literature using computational social science and corpus linguistics (17 journals, N=12,760 articles, 1991–2019) reveals a new landscape of public administration topics, changes in topics over time and their distribution: Topic modelling of the stock of the whole corpus identifies 50 topics: the top ten topics included health care, federal government, performance management, environmental regulation, HRM and networks and accounted for just over a third of scholarship between 1991–2019. Focal topics identified in individual journals identified similarities with popular topics in the whole corpus – networks, health care, HRM – and less frequently examined topics including gender and diversity and partnerships. Analysis of topics over time shows a substantial flow in topics moving from a country and practice focus in the early stages of our study period to concepts such as governance, networks and citizens in the late stages (2015–2019).
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Keywords

public administrationtopicscomputational social sciencecorpus linguisticstime
Type
Element
Information
Series: Elements in Public and Nonprofit Administration
Online ISBN: 9781009378697
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 09 January 2025

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References

References

Websites searched 15 December 2023 to collect information on journal aims and scope reported in the text.

Administration & Society: https://journals.sagepub.com/description/AAS

American Society for Public Administration: https://journals.sagepub.com/description/ARP

Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space: https://journals.sagepub.com/description/EPC

Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration and Institutions: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14680491

International Public Management Journal: www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=upmj20

International Review of Administrative Sciences: https://journals.sagepub.com/description/RAS

Journal of Public Administration Theory and Practice: https://academic.oup.com/jpart/pages/About

Local Government Studies: www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=flgs20

Public Administration: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14679299

Public Administration and Development: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/1099162x

Public Administration Review: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/15406210/homepage/productinformation.html

Public Management Review: www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=rpxm20

Public Money & Management: www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=rpmm20

Policy & Politics: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/17471346

Public Performance and Management Review: www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=mpmr20

Social Policy and Administration: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14679515

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