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Policy Studies Organization
The Policy Studies Organization (PSO) is a publisher of academic journals and book series, sponsor of conferences, and producer of programs. It seeks to disseminate scholarship and information to serve those making and evaluating policy. It was founded as an outgrowth of the American Political Science Association, for those in a variety of fields who were interested in how public policy and organizational policy were being studied and discussed.
The Policy Studies Organization - a related society of the of the American, Midwest, Southern and International Political Sciences Associations, as well as of the International Studies Association - grew out of a concern on the part of members of the American Political Science Association in the 1970s that there was a need for more emphasis on (as one member put it) the "coalface". In other words, research knowledge had to be effectively disseminated and had to reach those who actually set policies. This was not a call for any sort of strict utilitarianism but simply a feeling that much good could be done by bringing together people who felt that policies (and not just government policies, but policies of companies, of universities, and indeed of all kinds of institutions) should be informed policies.
An early member writes how she was "astonished when I was doing my doctorate that, for example, the Park Service was unaware of watershed research, and that professors were unaware how the Park Service felt about forestry practices." PSO has always had a geographically and occupationally diverse membership, and never had been limited to government issues or to those in higher education. Its founders avoided naming PSO the "American" Policy Research Organization, because they had an ecumenical and eclectic view of the association.
PSO publishes numerous journals that have won wide respect. PSO members serve as editors, reviewers, members of the editorial board, and in the other jobs necessary to produce what are described as "major resources" in the field. All full PSO individual members receive the journals. Membership confers the privilege of submitting papers and panels for the major event of the PSO year, the annual conference held in association with the American Political Science Association in August, when prestigious PSO awards for research and service in the policy area are given.
In cooperation with a number of publishers, PSO sponsors series on policy issues. A publications coordinator oversees this, tending to issues such as copyright and reprint, as well as working to increase the sale and use of PSO books.
PSO includes senior executives, undergraduate and graduate students, state legislators, architects, judges, military officers, interested in policy studies, environmentalists who want to "green" decision making, NGO executives who worry about the future of volunteerism, professors who are working on curriculum revision, government officials in numerous agencies -- in short, PSO is for intellectually active people of all persuasions. Consider this an invitation from all of us in the PSO to Politics & Policy .
Alabama Political Science Association
Georgia Political Science Association
Great Plains Political Science Association
Louisiana Political Science Association
Mississippi Political Science Association
New York State Political Science Association
North Carolina Political Science Association
British Columbia Political Studies Association
Ohio Association of Economists and Political Scientists
Roosevelt Institution
The Roosevelt Institution and PSO
The Roosevelt Institution is an undergraduate organization with chapters on many campuses, debating public policy and encouraging the publishing of policy papers by gifted students. PSO wholeheartedly supports this and carries news of Roosevelt meetings and activities in its journals, inviting Roosevelt members and their faculty associates to participate in PSO activities. See the Roosevelt Institution online. PSO affiliation with ISA approved