First Meeting of NPPR Editorial Board Held

The first meeting of the editorial board of ‘Nepal Public Policy Review’ (NPPR), a policy journal which PRI is planning to bring out as its flagship publication from 2021, was held virtually on 8 November 2020. The meeting discussed a number of procedural and thematic aspects related to the publication and decided on some key action points, including the following.

a.      ‘Quality’ and ‘accessibility’ will be the key words to define the journal. The materials it will carry will not compromise on quality. It will be available and accessible to all target audiences, including the policy community, not just physically but also in terms of the language and the content. Put differently, the contents in the journal will be comprehensible to the policy community.

b.     The journal will be published online as well as in print. The online version will be ‘open-access’ while the print version will levy a nominal cost.

c.      All materials will be peer reviewed before being published in the journal.

d      The journal may publish a ‘special issue’ once in a while dealing with a pertinent policy issue. Guest editors will be invited to edit such special issues where necessary.

e.      The journal will have no geographical bar. It will publish policy-relevant articles and materials from any part of the world if they relate to Nepal’s policy concerns.

f.      The articles will be in English. Important materials from the articles may be translated and published in other PRI publications depending on the need and interest of the readers. However, each article will have an extended abstract in Nepali for the Nepali readers in addition to a standard extract. In case of articles by foreign authors, arrangements will be made in-house to draw the Nepali extract.

g.      The journal will be published annually to start with. At some point down the line, the frequency of publication can be considered depending on the interest and response it triggers.

In addition to Chairperson Dr. Bishnu Raj Upreti, Senior Research Fellow Dr Deepak Khadka and Associate Research Fellow Dr Bikram Acharya, who constitute an In-house Editorial Team of the journal, the meeting was attended by six of the nine members of the Editorial Board: Prof. Dr. Nabraj Devkota, Dr. Teertha Dhakal, Dr. Hemanta Ojha (Australia), Prof. Dr. Sharad Onta, Dr Bimla Rai Poudel and Dr. Shankar Sharma. Dr Suprabha Baniya, (USA), Dr. Rajan Bhattarai and Prof. Dr. Khadga KC could not join the meeting.