Topic Modeling the Research-Practice Gap in Public Administration

Richard M. Walker; Yanto Chandra; Jiasheng Zhang; Arjen van Witteloostuijn

doi:10.1111/puar.13095

Author(s)

Richard M. Walker
Yanto Chandra
Jiasheng Zhang
Arjen van Witteloostuijn

Detail(s)

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	931-937
Journal / Publication	Public Administration Review
Volume	79
Issue number	6
Online published	28 Jul 2019
Publication status	Published - Nov 2019

Link(s)

DOI	DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13095 Final Published version
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Attachment(s)	Documents 35157479.pdf Post-print, 378 KB, PDF Publisher's Copyright Statement COPYRIGHT TERMS OF DEPOSITED POSTPRINT FILE: This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Walker, R. M., Chandra, Y., Zhang, J., & van Witteloostuijn, A. (2019). Topic Modeling the Research-Practice Gap in Public Administration. Public Administration Review, 79(6), 931-937, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13095. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.
Link to Scopus	https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85070252532&origin=recordpage
Permanent Link	https://scholars.cityu.edu.hk/en/publications/publication(5bfe8d01-ed91-4ed8-ace1-4d08a4bfa6b1).html

Abstract

The possible existence of a research-practice gap is the topic of a long-standing debate in the field of public administration. In this Viewpoint essay, the authors examine the agendas of scholars and practitioners using the topic modeling technique of computational social science. Topic modeling a content analysis of 35 topics identified in Public Administration Review and PA Times (3,796 articles) showed that just over 50 percent of topics were common to both groups, indicating shared interests. There were, however, topics that the two groups distinctly focused on. Moreover, scholars and practitioners attached significant differences to the weights allocated to the prominent topics in their writing. Taken together, these findings indicate that topic modeling can shed new light on the research-practice gap in public administration.