The School of Public Policy Publications is aimed at providing a peer-reviewed publication outlet to stimulate timely research and discussion of public policy issues in Canada. SPP publications are intended to improve our understanding and increase our interest in public policy issues. With these publications, SPP aims to stimulate dialogue between academic researchers and policy practitioners and to provide a forum where academic and business communities and the public service can exchange ideas. One objective of these publications is to reduce the apprehension and misunderstanding between these groups. The papers we publish should have practical relevance of clear social value for an audience broader than disciplinary academic peers.
SPP publications should be of a high intellectual standard but not typically technical in nature or laden in disciplinary jargon. At SPP we interpret high intellectual standard to mean that the content of a paper is drawn from the author’s thorough understanding of a policy issue. For academic authors this may be a paper based on original evidence from quantitative data or it may be based on her/his “reading of the literature” relevant to the policy issue. For authors from the private sector or public service, papers may be more based on their “distilled experience” and position of authority on the subject of the paper.
We prefer that, where appropriate, our papers take a clear policy position. SPP papers must be evidence-based and factually accurate. That said, it is both necessary and desirable that papers will sometimes contain political views and value judgements, because policy choices invariably demand trade-offs that bring benefits to some and costs to others. Given this, we do not publish content which is political propaganda or polemic or potentially libelous. In cases where political views or value judgements are important and justifiable features of the paper it is important that authors disclose any biases they may have with respect to the issue, or interest in the argument or position being put forward in the paper.
