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Topic Modeling the Research‐Practice Gap in Public Administration
Author(s) -
Walker Richard M.,
Chandra Yanto,
Zhang Jiasheng,
Witteloostuijn Arjen
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
public administration review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.721
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1540-6210
pISSN - 0033-3352
DOI - 10.1111/puar.13095
Subject(s) - topic model , administration (probate law) , field (mathematics) , public relations , content analysis , political science , sociology , computer science , social science , law , information retrieval , mathematics , pure mathematics
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 .