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7 Pol'y Stud. J. 3 (1978-1979)

handle is hein.journals/plyssjnl7 and id is 1 raw text is: ORGANIZATION AND JOURNAL DEVELOPMENTS As we frequently report in these Organization and Journal Developments, the policy studies field is a booming growth industry well worth investing one's time and effort for a variety of pleasing payoffs. Our purpose in reporting these growth indicators is to inform our interested readers and to help stimulate the application of political and social science to important policy problems. We would also report indicators of declining interest if there were any to report. One growth indicator is the expanding job market for political and social scientists trained in policy studies or policy analysis. In the winter issue of PS at page 29, a table is presented entitled Placement Success Within Fields of Specialization, 1977. According to the analysis, almost nine of ten job seekers whose major field is public policy found jobs. That was the highest success rate of any of the seven political science fields listed, whereas less than five of ten political theorists were successful. Another growth indicator consists of sociometric ratings among political and social scientists asking them to rank the most significant contemporary contributors in their respective disciplines. In the winter issue of PS at page 9, a table is presented entitled Ranking of Significant Contributors. The column for the current 1970-1976 ranks Ted Lowi, Aaron Wildavsky, and Tom Dye in the top three positions. All three are closely identified with the policy studies field, and all have been officers of the Policy Studies Organization. All are editors of forthcoming books in the PSO series with Sage and Lexington, namely, Lowi and Stone, Public Policies in America (Sage, 1978), Wildavsky and May, The Policy Cycle (Sage, 1978), and Dye and Gray, Determinants of Public Policies (Lexington, 1979). Policy-oriented political scientists have appeared in one of the top three ranks in previous time periods, such as David Easton in 1960-1970, Harold Lasswell in 1945-1960, and Charles Merriam in pre-1945, but not previously in all top three ranks. Easton and Lasswell, incidentally, were members of the steering committee that founded the Policy Studies Organization. All the political science recipients of the APSA Charles Merriam Award have also been PSO officers. Other growth indicators are the relative ease of pub- lishing policy studies materials and of obtaining policy studies grants. On the publishing front, the Policy Studies Organization has succeeded with minimal effort in obtaining the publication of an expanded book-length version of all 27 journal symposia through 1978. A contract was recently signed to pub- lish with Lexington Books the electoral reform symposium edited by Bill Crotty and the transportation policy symposium edited by Alan Altshuler, which were the two remaining pre-1979 sym- posia not yet published as books. New contracts for the PSO- Sage Yearbooks in Politics and Public Policy have recently been signed by Helen Ingram and Dean Mann for a volume on Why Policies Succeed or Fail and a volume by Dale Rogers Marshall on Urban Policies: Causes and Consequences. Both are based partly on the 1978 APSA policy panels which they are coordi- nating. Bob Lineberry will do a volume for the series based partly on the 1929 APSA policy panels. As for grants, the Policy Studies Organization may have to expand its staff and facilities to accept more grants for