Punching below its weight: Canadian public administration scholarship on the world stage

Abstract

This article examines the scholarly influence of Canadian public administration research compared to other national strands. First and foremost, we look at the number of Canadian studies in recent systematic literature reviews in public administration journals. Second, we compare Australian and Canadian journals as to their connection to the top 70 articles in public administration. Third, we compare the relative impact factors between the Canadian and Australian journals in public administration and other social sciences. Our results show that contemporary Canadian studies have limited influence in the international scholarly community.

Beyond COVID‐19: Five commentaries on reimagining governance for future crises and resilience

“…. on the world stage” (Charbonneau et al 2018). Canadian research, it was argued, is not cited as much in the mainstream literature as it should be.…”

Scholars’ influence on their institutions: Reputation, prestige, and rankings

“…First, this study utilized older data from 2006–2010, and as scholars continue to publish and institutions continue to entice top scholars from other institutions, some of the rankings will undoubtedly have changed. While, an obvious delimitation of this study is the use of dated data there are several advantages to using this data range: (a) the comparisons of individual authors’ scholarship is made against an already peer-reviewed and cited institutional ranking for the same time period (Williams, et al 2014) (see also: Ash and Urquiola, 2018; Charbonneau, et al 2018; Frederickson, and Stazyk, 2016; Knepper, et al 2019; Lashman, 2017; Morçöl and Han, 2018; and Scutelnicu and Knepper, 2019) which arguably adds to the justifiability of the comparative institutional schema; (b) research-based rankings based upon Impact-Factor scores have a natural time delay in measurement; (c) the dated nature of the study may provide for less contentious findings; and (d) the phenomenon tested, the impact of scholars on their institutions in research-based rankings, is not immune to time lapses, but it is not as time-sensitive as a typical ranking. In fact, some scholars on this list moved institutions, there has been an addition of new “ranked” journals from JCR, and the ascension of new top-scholars (and the attrition or retirement of previous top-scholars) since the dates for data collection and reflections on those movements could prove useful to expanding the significance of this study.…”

Is This A Club We Want To Join? Reflections of “Punching below its weight” and “The global relevance of Canadian public administration”

“…And so on. The overall conclusion is that Canada is not "punching in its rightful weight class" (Charbonneau et al : 359).…”

“…CBB believe that Canadians should have "a significant part of the conversation" within the MPA Club (Charbonneau et al : 372). This is where we confront the difficulty.…”

“…There are 193 states in the world, and the vast majority are not represented in the MPA Club. Consider, for example, the list of "top 20" universities prepared by Van de Walle and van Delft, which is referenced by CBB (Charbonneau et al : 364). Eight are American, six are British, three are in former parts of the British Empire, and three are in the Netherlands and Denmark (Van de Walle and van Delft : 99).…”