In response to requests from many professors and researchers in the Arab world and beyond, the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, in cooperation with the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, decided to add a new journal to their portfolio of specialized academic periodicals: Hikama: Journal of Public Administration and Public Policy. Specialists in public administration and public policy have long faced a shortage of peer-reviewed Arabic scholarly outlets, a situation rooted in the persistent neglect of these fields in order to preserve the gap between the social and political sciences on one hand, and the administrative and policy practices applied in states on the other. Meanwhile, the study of administration has become confined almost exclusively to business management. In reality, however, managing state and public institutions and formulating public policies in areas such as the economy, health, education, and the environment are scientific disciplines in their own right. Decision-makers understand this and rely on specialized experts and trained staff from schools of administration and other fields, yet they avoid encouraging research in public administration and public policy. This disregard for scientific research is not limited to these two fields; it reflects the general condition of the social sciences as a whole.
