Journal Policies

Focus and Scope

Bestuurskunde: Journal of Governmental Studies publishes research on how government is organised, how it makes and carries out public policy, and how it is held accountable. The journal gives particular attention to Indonesia and welcomes comparative perspectives from other countries. It is intended for researchers, policymakers, public servants, and practitioners of government.

The journal welcomes manuscripts on, but not limited to, the following topics:

• decentralisation, regional autonomy, and relations between central and local government;
• regional and village governance, including village funds and village administration;
• the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of public policy;
• regional public finance, budgeting, and the politics of public expenditure;
• elections, political parties, political financing, and the quality of democracy;
• bureaucratic reform, public service delivery, and public sector innovation, including digital government;
• accountability, transparency, and anti-corruption in government;
• civil society, mass organisations, and public participation in governance;
• public order, security governance, and government responses to social conflict.

Governmental studies is an interdisciplinary field. Manuscripts may draw on political science, public administration, law, economics, sociology, or other disciplines, provided that their central question concerns government and governance. Manuscripts whose main subject lies outside this scope are declined at initial screening.

The journal publishes original research articles, review articles, and case studies in English or Indonesian, as described under Types of Manuscript.

Types of Manuscript

Bestuurskunde accepts original research articles, review articles, and case studies in the field of governmental studies. Original research articles make up at least 60% of the articles in every issue. Editorials, when published, are not counted as articles.

Peer Review Process

Bestuurskunde applies double-blind peer review: reviewers do not know the identity of the authors, and authors do not know the identity of the reviewers. Every submission, review, and editorial decision is handled and recorded in the journal's online system (OJS). The process follows the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers.

Stages

1. Initial screening. The editor checks whether the manuscript fits the Focus and Scope, follows the Author Guidelines, and has been anonymised. The similarity of every manuscript is checked with Crossref Similarity Check (iThenticate) before review, as described in the Plagiarism Policy. Manuscripts that do not pass this stage are declined or returned to the authors without review.
2. Assignment. The Editor-in-Chief assigns a handling editor from the Editorial Board, who invites at least two independent reviewers with expertise in the topic. A third reviewer is invited when the recommendations of the first two reviewers conflict.
3. Review. Reviewers are asked to submit their review through OJS within four weeks of accepting the invitation.
4. Decision. On the basis of the reviews, the handling editor decides to accept the manuscript, request revisions, ask for resubmission for another round of review, or decline it. The decision and the reviewers' comments are sent to the corresponding author through OJS.
5. Revision. Authors submit the revised manuscript together with a point-by-point response to the reviewers' comments. The editor may send the revision back to the same reviewers, and a manuscript may go through more than one round of review.
6. Final decision. Acceptance is confirmed by the Editor-in-Chief. A Letter of Acceptance is issued only after a manuscript has been accepted.

Review criteria

Reviewers assess the originality and contribution of the manuscript, including its account of the state of the art and the research gap; the clarity of the research problem and objectives; the suitability of the method; the depth of the analysis and its comparison with previous research; whether the conclusion answers the research objectives; and the relevance and currency of the references.

Reviewers

Reviewers are researchers with a doctoral degree or equivalent expertise and a recent publication record in the field of the manuscript. Reviewers are not from the authors' own institution, must decline an invitation when they have a conflict of interest, and must not use AI tools in the review, as set out in the Generative AI Policy. All manuscripts and communications are treated as confidential.

Appeals

Authors may appeal an editorial decision by writing to the Editor-in-Chief through OJS with a reasoned explanation. Appeals are assessed by an editor who was not involved in the original decision.

Publication Ethics

Bestuurskunde is dedicated to following best practices on ethical matters, errors, and retractions, and does not tolerate plagiarism or any other form of publication malpractice. The duties of editors, authors, and reviewers are based on the COPE Code of Conduct for Journal Editors. They are set out in full in the Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement.

Publication Frequency

Bestuurskunde is published twice a year, in April and October. Each issue contains at least six articles.

Open Access Statement

Bestuurskunde: Journal of Governmental Studies is an Open Access journal, which means that all content is available at no cost to the user or their institution. Users may read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles or use them for any other lawful purpose without obtaining the prior permission of the publisher or the author. This corresponds to the BOAI definition of Open Access.

Copyright and Licensing

Authors retain the copyright of their articles and grant the journal the right of first publication. Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). The full terms are set out in the Copyright Notice on the Submissions page.

Article Processing Charges

Bestuurskunde does not charge authors any fees. All costs of publication are borne by the publisher, the Secretariat General of the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia.

No fee is charged at any stage, including submission, peer review, editing, layout, publication, DOI registration, and archiving. The journal does not offer paid fast-track review or publication, and authors are not required to use any paid third-party service in order to be published.

Generative AI Policy

This policy governs the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in writing, editing, and peer review at Bestuurskunde.

Authors. AI tools cannot be listed as an author. Authors who use AI tools in preparing a manuscript must disclose the tool, its version, and the purpose of its use in the AI declaration of the Author Declaration Form and in the published article. AI tools must not replace the authors' own scientific judgement. Authors remain fully responsible for the originality, accuracy, and integrity of their manuscript, including any part produced with the help of AI.

Reviewers. Reviewers must not use AI tools in the peer review process. This includes using AI to analyse or assess a manuscript, to draft review comments, and entering or uploading a manuscript or any part of it into an AI application.

Editors. Editors must not use AI tools to replace scientific assessment or editorial decision-making, and must not upload unpublished manuscripts into AI applications. Any use of AI by the editorial team in handling a manuscript, such as language editing, is disclosed to the authors. Editors remain fully responsible for confidentiality and for every editorial decision.

Undisclosed or prohibited use of AI is handled under the journal's policy on allegations of misconduct.

Authorship Criteria

Authorship is limited to those who have made a substantial contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the study, have taken part in drafting or critically revising the manuscript, have approved the final version, and agree to be accountable for the work. Contributors who do not meet these criteria are named in the Acknowledgment. Each author's contribution is stated using the CRediT taxonomy in the Author Declaration Form. Changes to the author list after submission require the written agreement of all authors and the approval of the editor.

Conflict of Interest

Authors must declare any financial or non-financial interest that could influence their work, and all sources of funding, in the Author Declaration Form; the declaration is published with the article. Reviewers must decline an invitation when they have a conflict of interest with the authors, their institutions, or the funders of the work. Editors do not handle manuscripts written by themselves, by close colleagues, or by members of their own institution where a conflict exists; such manuscripts are assigned to another editor.

Research Ethics

Articles reporting research that involves human participants or animals must state the number and year of the ethical clearance issued by a relevant ethics committee. For research with low or negligible risk, such as interviews and surveys with consenting adults, the ethical clearance may be replaced by a written statement from the authors on compliance with research ethics and informed consent, which is reviewed and approved by the reviewers or the editorial team.

Plagiarism Policy

The editors will run plagiarism check using Crossref Similarity Check Powered by iThenticate for the submitted manuscripts before sending it to reviewers. We do not process any plagiarised contents. If a manuscript has over 30% of plagiarism, we will send back the manuscript to the author to be revised for the plagiarised contents.

Allegations of Misconduct

Research misconduct includes plagiarism, fabrication or falsification of data, duplicate or redundant publication, improper authorship, undisclosed conflicts of interest, and manipulation of citations or of the peer review process. Anyone may report a suspected case to the editor through the Contact page. The editor handles every allegation following the COPE flowcharts: the authors are asked for an explanation, the matter may be referred to the authors' institution, and the outcome may be a rejection, a correction, an expression of concern, or a retraction. The Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement sets out the duties of editors, authors, and reviewers.

Corrections and Retractions

When an error is found in a published article, the journal publishes a correction that is linked to the original article. An article is retracted when its findings are unreliable because of major error or misconduct, when it has been published elsewhere without justification, or when it reports unethical research. The decision to correct or retract rests with the Editor-in-Chief, following the COPE Retraction Guidelines. A retracted article remains available online, with the retraction notice stated on the article page, in the full text, and in the metadata.

Post-publication Discussion

Readers may send comments, critiques, or questions about a published article to the editor through the Contact page. Substantive comments are forwarded to the authors for a response. Where they add to the scholarly record, the comment and the authors' reply may be published after editorial assessment. Comments that reveal an error or possible misconduct are handled under the policies above.

Data Availability

Authors are encouraged to make the data, instruments, and other materials that support their findings available, either in a public repository or on reasonable request, and to include a data availability statement in the article. Data sharing must respect research ethics, the protection of personal data, confidentiality, and intellectual property rights. Authors must keep their raw data and provide it to the editor when asked during or after review.

Digital Archiving

The content of Bestuurskunde is preserved through the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN). Details are given in the Digital Archiving Policy.

References Management

Every article submitted to Bestuurskunde shall use reference management software, Mendeley or Zotero.

More about Mendeley, please visit: https://www.mendeley.com/

More about Zotero, please visit: https://www.zotero.org/

Ownership and Management

Bestuurskunde: Journal of Governmental Studies is owned and published by the Secretariat General of the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia and is managed by its editorial team. Editorial decisions are based on academic merit and are independent of the publisher.

Accreditation

Bestuurskunde: Journal of Governmental Studies was accredited Rank 4 (SINTA 4) under Decree No. 79/E/KPT/2023 of the Directorate General of Higher Education, Research, and Technology, Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia (Journal Accreditation Ranking, Period I of 2023). The accreditation was valid from Volume 1 Number 1 (2021) to Volume 5 Number 2 (2025).