Global Governance Systems Review (GGSR) is a peer-reviewed, open-access scholarly journal dedicated to advancing theoretical, empirical, and comparative understanding of governance systems, public institutions, and policy processes in an increasingly interconnected and complex world.

The journal provides an interdisciplinary forum for research examining how governance systems are designed, organized, coordinated, contested, reformed, and evaluated across local, national, regional, transnational, and global levels. GGSR is particularly interested in scholarship that connects institutional structures and governance arrangements with public policy processes, administrative capacity, accountability, legitimacy, and societal outcomes.

GGSR welcomes contributions from public administration, public policy, political science, international relations, institutional studies, public law, political economy, development studies, sociology, and related fields, provided that manuscripts make a clear contribution to the study of governance systems and institutions.

Core Areas of Interest

The journal welcomes original and rigorous research in areas including, but not limited to:

• Global Governance and International Institutions — global governance architectures, international organizations, multilateral institutions, transnational governance, regime complexity, institutional coordination, and emerging forms of global cooperation.
• Public Governance and Public Administration — administrative systems, bureaucratic institutions, state capacity, civil service systems, administrative reform, public-sector leadership, organizational governance, and government performance.
• Comparative Governance — comparative analysis of governance institutions, administrative traditions, political-administrative systems, policy regimes, and institutional development across countries and regions.
• Public Policy and Policy Processes — policy formulation, implementation, evaluation, policy learning, policy change, policy coordination, evidence-informed policymaking, and the institutional foundations of policy outcomes.
• Institutional Design and Governance Reform — institutional change, governance modernization, regulatory reform, decentralization, centralization, multilevel governance, intergovernmental relations, and institutional resilience.
• Accountability, Integrity, and Public Oversight — government accountability, transparency, public-sector integrity, anti-corruption institutions, administrative oversight, auditing, legislative oversight, regulatory accountability, and mechanisms of institutional control.
• Regulatory Governance — regulatory institutions, regulatory policy, independent regulatory agencies, risk regulation, administrative law, compliance systems, and interactions between governments, markets, and society.
• Digital Governance and Artificial Intelligence — digital government, algorithmic governance, artificial intelligence in the public sector, automated decision-making, digital public infrastructure, data governance, platform governance, cybersecurity governance, and the institutional implications of emerging technologies.
• Democratic Governance and Citizen–State Relations — public participation, deliberative governance, collaborative governance, co-production, civic engagement, public trust, institutional legitimacy, representation, and responsiveness.
• Governance Networks and Cross-Sector Collaboration — collaborative governance, public–private partnerships, inter-organizational networks, nonprofit–government relations, hybrid governance arrangements, and cross-sector coordination.
• Crisis, Risk, and Resilience Governance — governance of public emergencies, disasters, pandemics, climate risks, economic shocks, security challenges, institutional adaptation, and societal resilience.
• Development and Sustainable Governance — governance capacity, institutional development, sustainable development, implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, inequality, social policy governance, and governance challenges in developing and transitional contexts.
• Environmental and Climate Governance — climate institutions, environmental policy, sustainability governance, international environmental cooperation, energy transition governance, and multilevel responses to environmental challenges.
• Political Economy and Governance — relationships among political institutions, administrative systems, markets, economic governance, public finance, development strategies, and institutional performance.

Levels and Geographical Scope

GGSR encourages research across different levels of governance, including municipal and local governance, national governments, regional institutions, international organizations, transnational networks, and global governance arrangements.

The journal has a global and comparative orientation. Studies focusing on a single country, institution, policy, or jurisdiction are welcome when they demonstrate broader theoretical, institutional, comparative, or policy significance. Comparative and cross-national research, particularly studies that facilitate dialogue among different administrative and governance traditions, is strongly encouraged.

GGSR welcomes scholarship concerning all geographical regions, including Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, North America, and Oceania. Research examining governance in the Global South, emerging economies, and underrepresented institutional contexts is particularly encouraged where it contributes to wider debates in governance and public policy.

Methodological and Theoretical Orientation

The journal is methodologically pluralistic and welcomes high-quality quantitative, qualitative, comparative, historical, computational, experimental, mixed-methods, and interdisciplinary research.

Suitable approaches may include, among others, comparative case studies, institutional analysis, survey research, administrative and policy data analysis, longitudinal research, experiments, quasi-experimental designs, network analysis, text-as-data and computational methods, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and theoretically grounded qualitative inquiry.

GGSR does not privilege a particular theoretical tradition. Contributions may draw on institutional theory, governance theory, public administration theory, policy process theory, organizational theory, political economy, network governance, comparative institutional analysis, or other relevant frameworks. Manuscripts should clearly articulate their theoretical or conceptual contribution and explain how their findings advance understanding beyond the immediate empirical setting.

Types of Contributions

GGSR considers several forms of scholarly contribution, including:

• Original Research Articles;
• Review Articles and Systematic Reviews;
• Comparative and Cross-National Studies;
• Theoretical and Conceptual Articles;
• Policy and Institutional Analyses;
• Methodological Articles relevant to governance research;
• Research Notes, where they make a clearly defined scholarly contribution; and
• Scholarly Commentaries and Perspectives addressing significant developments in governance and public policy.

Editorial Scope and Relevance

To be considered for publication, manuscripts should make a clear scholarly contribution to the understanding of governance systems, institutions, public administration, or public policy. Submissions should move beyond purely descriptive accounts by engaging with relevant theory, evidence, comparative perspectives, or broader institutional and policy implications.

Single-jurisdiction studies are appropriate when the research question, theoretical framework, methodology, or findings offer insights of relevance beyond the immediate case. Manuscripts dealing primarily with electoral politics, diplomatic affairs, business management, economics, law, technology, or other adjacent fields should demonstrate a substantive and explicit connection to governance institutions, public policy, or administrative systems.

Purely descriptive reports, advocacy pieces without sufficient scholarly analysis, manuscripts lacking a clearly defined research contribution, and studies whose connection to governance is only incidental generally fall outside the journal's scope.

Mission

The mission of Global Governance Systems Review is to strengthen international and interdisciplinary dialogue on how governance institutions respond to complex public problems and how institutional design, administrative capacity, accountability, technological transformation, and cross-border interdependence shape the performance and legitimacy of contemporary governance systems.

By bringing together theoretically informed and empirically rigorous scholarship from diverse institutional and geographical contexts, GGSR seeks to contribute to the cumulative development of knowledge in global governance, public administration, comparative governance, and public policy.