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6 Pol'y Stud. J. 2 (1977-1978)

handle is hein.journals/plyssjnl6 and id is 1 raw text is: ORGANIZATION AND JOURNAL DEVELOPMENTS The policy studies perspective within political and social science has now become popular news. This is illustrated by a New York Times article at page 18 of the March 27 edition which says, The most significant trend in political science today is a growing interest in the making and carrying out of public pol icy....,Nany more (political scientists) are bringing their techniques for understanding political life directly to bear on the workings of government in special public policy programs in universities, where they train students for careers as public servants. Likewise, a Newsweek article at page 1/1 of the Nay 16 issue says A pragmatic rnew approatch to the study of publitc affairs.,..has been growin:g for rmore than a :decade. At least 150 programs in public policy are now offered at U.S. colleges and universities.' Although progress is being made in the application of political sciernce to important policy prob- lems, the News Report of the National Academy of Sc~ences arnd National Research council at page 7 of the July issue notes there is still an ambivalent stance of a number of major social science disciplines with regardi to studies of government,... One senses a curious absence, at least until fairly recently, of contributions by political science to social policy analysis. During this past summer, the Policy Studies Organization has helped initiate three new activities designed to facilitate further the application of political and social science to important policy problems. One activity involves the publica- tron by Sage Publitcations of the first volume of the: Policy Studies Rseview Annual. It is designed to bring together the best set of policy studies research for the preceding year or so under 26 categories corresponding to 7 ge-neral approaches to policy studies and 19 specific policy problem areas like those on the PSJ editorial board. The PSRA also seeks balance across relevant journals, disciplines, ideologies, methodologies, government agencies, universities, and non-university research cernters, The first volume provides a short introduct ion to each of the 2u fields indicating the general issues in each field, as well as a short overall introduction t o the policy studies perspective. The other two activities involve new directories designed to round out the five directories of the Policy Studies Organi- :ation, Oen-ended questionnaire letters have- now been nailed to over 200 university and non-university research centers to obtain data for the Policy Research Centers Directory, The let- ters ask questions about each center's substantive emphasis, clients, disciplines, funding, decision-making, hiring, future, suggestions for people associated with policy research centers, and suggestions for funding sources. Open-ended questionnaire letters will also be mailed this autumn to over 1,500 individual memners of the Policy Studies Organization, and possibly sub- scribers of Policy Analysis and Public Policy to obtain data for the Policy Studies Personnel Directory. Those letters ask ques- tions about the respondent's background, interests, publications, and especially current and future policy research activities, The answers will be printed largely verbatim and extensively indexed and cross-referenced to facilitate use by government agencies, funding sources, academic recruiters, research centers, and individual researchers,