The Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice (JCPA) invites proposals for special issues that contribute to the development of comparative policy studies. Since its inception in 1998, JCPA has been the leading journal dedicated explicitly to comparative policy analysis, fostering a vibrant international community of scholars.

JCPA is a publication of Routledge, a part of Taylor & Francis. It is a Q1 journal in Public Administration with a 3.7 impact factor on the Web of Science; and a Q1 journal in Sociology and Political Science with a 0.703 SJR on Scimago Institutional Ranking.

The JCPA aims to publish scholarship that captures the role of comparative policy analysis both within and between social units as well as differences or similarities in varied policy issues. JCPA is committed to theoretical and methodological pluralism and welcomes contributions from different conceptual frameworks, various analytic approaches, and diverse research designs that explore the current developments in comparative policy studies.  Among other topics, we aim to contribute to:

• Comparative theory development
• Comparative theory development
• Comparative theory testing
• Comparative methodology development
• The evaluation of comparative research methods
• Comparative empirical policy research
• The practice implications of comparative public policy
• Lesson-drawing and extrapolation

Special issues should aim to provide innovative insights, present new methodologies, or address emerging topics in comparative policy analysis. We encourage submissions that not only highlight theoretical advancements but also empirical applications and implications in policy contexts.

Proposal Submission Guidelines

Interested guest editors should submit a proposal that includes the following:

1. Title of the proposed special issue
2. Information about the guest editors (names, affiliation, and previous experience with publications and editorship in the field of JCPA)
3. Rationale for the theme and relevance to comparative policy analysis (500 words)
4. Tentative list of at least 7 contributors and their proposed contributions and additionally an introduction that will be written by the guest editors. Please indicate whether the contributions have been confirmed by the authors. In case the list of confirmed contributions is below 10, an additional Call for Papers should be run, which will be organized by JCPA together with the Guest Editors after acceptance of a Special issue proposal. Abstracts (150 words) for all confirmed/tentative contributions are required as well.
5. Timeline for submission, peer review, and publication (Tentative, the exact timeline will be coordinated if the special issue is accepted)

Deadlines:

• Proposal Submission Deadline: 15 October 2026
• Notification of Acceptance: until 30 October 2026

For more information about the Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, please visit our website at https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/fcpa20

Proposals should be sent to the Executive Editors for special issues and the general Executive Editor at JCPA. Please don’t hesitate to contact them beforehand if you have any questions:

Professor Sonja Blum (sonja.blum@uni-bielefeld.de)

Professor Anat Gofen (anat.gofen@mail.huji.ac.il)

Professor Guillaume Fontaine (gfontaine@flacso.edu.ec)