A decade of the Brazilian Journal of Public Administration (RAP): Reflections on an editorial journeyTen years ago, I was honored to assume the editorship of the Brazilian Journal of Public Administration (RAP) (Peci, 2016a, 2016b). At that time, inspired by RAP’s tradition of significant contributions to the field of public administration since 1967, and by the legacy of the editors who came before me - Diogo Lordello de Mello (Jan. 1967 - Mar. 1972), in memoriam; Paulo Roberto de Mendonça Motta (Apr. 1972 - Sept. 1973); Ana Maria Bernardes Goffi Marquesini (Oct. 1973 - Sept. 1992), in memoriam; Bianor Scelza Cavalcanti (Oct. 1992 - Aug. 1999); Armando Santos Moreira da Cunha (Sep. 1999 - Oct. 2002); Deborah Moraes Zouain (Nov. 2002 - Sept. 2011), in memoriam; and Peter Kevin Spink (Oct. 2011 - July 2015) - and the community of authors, reviewers, and readers, I made two commitments that have guided my editorial journey: transparency and internationalization. My goal has always been to enhance the journal’s visibility and influence in the field of public administration in Brazil and, more broadly, in the Ibero-American region.
Today, as I leave this position, I feel privileged to have contributed to the consolidation of RAP as the leading journal in administration and public policy in Brazil and one of the most influential in Latin America. RAP currently publishes in Portuguese, English, and Spanish, and receives over 600 submissions each year. It is one of the few journals in the region to have maintained six annual issues without interruption over the past decade and now handles a volume of submissions comparable to that of major international journals. In 2025 alone, it received 416 submissions as of September 16.
In the name of editorial transparency, I refrained from using RAP as a venue for disseminating my own research in public administration. During my tenure, we published 57 bimonthly issues with 538 articles. We also transformed RAP into a free, open-access journal, which now garners over 160,000 visits annually - a success supported by the open science environment fostered by the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) and the continuous support of Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV).
Over the past ten years, RAP has achieved significant milestones. Starting in 2017, the journal stopped being published only in Portuguese and became trilingual, publishing articles in Portuguese/Spanish and English, thereby expanding its readership (Peci, 2017). We carefully worked on the twelve dimensions required for inclusion in prestigious international indexing databases such as the Web of Science, in which we were accepted in 2020. We debuted with a high impact factor in Journal Citation Reports (currently JCR: 1), improved our Scopus h5 index from 8 to 37 (h5 median: 51), and reached a position among the top 10 public administration journals on Google Scholar.1 Today, RAP is included in important international evaluation systems, such as the Chartered Association of Business Schools (ABS) list. We celebrate not only the improvement of our impact metrics but also the steady increase in submissions, reflecting both the vitality of the public administration research community and the recognition of RAP as a legitimate space for academic debate. Below are some of the key milestones from this journey:
2016
Organization of the RAP and JPART Workshop: International Research in Public Administration: Building bridges for rigorous and relevant research.
Call for Papers: Actors, mechanisms, and directions of policy diffusion: between translation and resistance.2
Call for Papers: Public Policies and the City.23
2017
Adoption of trilingual publication (Portuguese, Spanish, and English).
Migration to the international online submission and peer review system - ScholarOne.4
Workshop and Special Issue: Overseas influences on the development and recent innovations in public sector accounting and finance in Latin America5.
Celebration of RAP’s 50th anniversary.
Event: Challenges in the field of public administration: teaching, professionalization, and research & RAP’s 50 th anniversary.6
Workshop: Trends in public administration research and the editorial process, with Professor Bradley Wright, editor of JPART.7
Evaluation by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES 2013-2016), consolidating RAP’s maximum A1 grade in the areas of Political Science and International Relations.8
2018
First special thematic issue of RAP: Actors, mechanisms and directions of policy diffusion.9
2019
II Brazilian Seminar on Public Policy Implementation.10
Integration of RAP into the AmeliCA book and journal portal, a service provided by the international indexer Redalyc.11
2020
Inclusion in the Web of Science (Emerging Sources Citation Index).12
Inclusion in the CINECA journal database (Italy).
Thematic issue: The Brazilian public administration’s response to the challenges of the pandemic, with a record number of submissions (213).13
Thematic issue: Foreign influences on the development and recent innovations in public sector accounting and finance in Latin America.14
Thematic issue: Agenda setting: Policy change and policy dynamics.15
2021
Thematic issue: Governmental responses to the COVID-19 pandemic (Call for short papers I).16
Inclusion in the international indexes Cabells Journalytics17 (USA) and EuroPub (UK).
2023
RAP achieved another international benchmark, with a Journal Impact Factor (JIF) of 1.5.18
Participation in the Canje de Publicaciones international exchange network (Mexico).
2024
RAP received the Diamond Journal Recognition from indexer Miguilim.
Call for papers: Expanding the frontiers of research on climate public policies in Latin America: Issues, cases, and approaches (forthcoming).
Inclusion in the Association of Business Schools (ABS) list.19
2025
Call for papers: 40 years of redemocratization in Brazil (forthcoming).
Impact factors: SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) 2024 of 0.288 Q3; H-Index: 26; Overall ranking: 17,041st; Impact factor: 0.79 (2024).
These achievements were only possible thanks to a collective effort. I am deeply grateful to the associate editors who played a central role in this journey, listed here in recognition of their contributions throughout the decade: Fernando G. Tenório and Marco Antonio C. Teixeira, who oversaw the initial transition, as well as Ricardo Corrêa Gomes (University of Brasília - UnB), Leonardo Secchi (Santa Catarina State University - UDESC), Fernando Coelho (University of São Paulo - USP), Sandro Cabral (Insper and Federal University of Bahia - UFBA), Gabriela Lotta (FGV EAESP), and Mauricio Dussauge Laguna (FLACSO Mexico). The associate editors were instrumental in upholding the principles of editorial transparency prioritized during my tenure and in selecting contributions truly relevant to advancing knowledge in administration and public policy. Their efforts greatly contributed to the consolidation of the field as a whole. A renewed editorial board has also brought greater national and international visibility to the journal.20 To all of them, I express my sincere gratitude for their dedication, partnership, and contribution.
Equally decisive was the work of RAP’s staff, including Fabiana Braga Leal (editorial manager); Anderson do Nascimento Ricci and Jackelyne de Oliveira da Silva (editorial assistants); and Eliane Barbosa da Conceição (editorial support), along with our partner professionals overseeing the journal’s layout and text revision. Their expertise, professionalism, and unwavering dedication ensured the quality of our editorial processes and the timely delivery of each issue to our readership.
Finally, if RAP stands today as a consolidated reference, it is because it has always been anchored in a vibrant academic community, comprising authors who entrusted us with their research, reviewers who dedicated their time and expertise to rigorous evaluations, and readers who enriched our dialogue with critiques and new challenges.
I take my leave with the conviction that RAP will remain in excellent hands. I depart having experienced, as an Albanian by birth and Brazilian by choice, the joy of contributing to this journal; Gregory Michener now assumes the editorship. His distinguished academic career has been dedicated to research on transparency and access to public information - especially in Latin America - as well as open data, anti-corruption, and accountability policies in Brazil. I hope that Greg will find, through RAP, the same sense of Brazilianness that the journal has given me, and that he will continue to strengthen it as a forum of excellence for scientific production in administration and public policy, both in Brazil and internationally. I leave grateful for having been part of this history and eager to keep contributing to the journal, now as a potential author, and to follow, with keen interest, the next chapters of RAP’s journey.
References
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Peci, A. (2016a). Editorial. Revista de Administração Pública, 50(1), 1-5. https://periodicos.fgv.br/rap/article/view/58576
» https://periodicos.fgv.br/rap/article/view/58576 -
Peci, A. (2016b). Editorial. Revista de Administração Pública, 50(2), 185-192. https://periodicos.fgv.br/rap/article/view/60837
» https://periodicos.fgv.br/rap/article/view/60837 -
Peci, A. (2017). EditorialRevista de Administração Pública, 51(1), 1-3. https://periodicos.fgv.br/rap/article/view/66068
» https://periodicos.fgv.br/rap/article/view/66068
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1
https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=top_venues&hl=pt-BR&vq=pt
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2
https://periodicos.fgv.br/rap/announcement/view/95
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4
https://ebape.fgv.br/noticias/revista-administracao-publica-tem-novo-sistema-para-submissao-e-avaliacao-artigos
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5
https://ebape.fgv.br/noticias/rap-realiza-call-papers-para-edicao-especial-sobre-contabilidade-e-financas-setor-publico
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https://periodicos.fgv.br/rap/announcement/view/110
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https://ebape.fgv.br/noticias/convidado-internacional-apresenta-tendencias-pesquisa-administracao-publica
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https://ebape.fgv.br/noticias/nova-avaliacao-capes-consolida-rap-como-uma-das-melhores-revistas-pais
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9
https://periodicos.fgv.br/rap/issue/view/4242
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10
https://periodicos.fgv.br/rap/seminario-politicas-publicas
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11
https://ebape.fgv.br/noticias/revistas-ebape-sao-incluidas-portal-livros-e-revistas-amelica
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12
https://periodicos.fgv.br/rap/announcement/view/154
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13
https://periodicos.fgv.br/rap/issue/view/4511
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14
https://periodicos.fgv.br/rap/issue/view/4465
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15
https://periodicos.fgv.br/rap/issue/view/4524
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16
https://periodicos.fgv.br/rap/issue/view/4583
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17
https://periodicos.fgv.br/rap/announcement/view/47
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18
https://periodicos.fgv.br/rap/announcement/view/194
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19
https://ebape.fgv.br/en/news/public-administration-review-rap-joins-prestigious-abs-academic-journal-guide-2024
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20
https://periodicos.fgv.br/rap/corpo_editorial
