About the Journal

About the Journal

Aim and Scope. New Angle: Nepal Journal of Social Science and Public Policy is an internationally peer-reviewed journal (ISSN 2565-5124) published by Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies (SIAS) on behalf of Nepal Policy Research Network (NPRN). The Journal publishes articles which are based upon concrete data as well as analysis of secondary and historical sources. We encourage articles which record the results of completed investigations and raise questions emerging from on-going work.

New Angle is an open-access Journal available at websites of New Angle www.newangle.sias-southasia.org and SIAS www.sias-southasia.org. This journal is published yearly in English.

Topics. The journal welcomes papers in following themes (but not limited to): natural resources management; climate change, water, and urban resilience; livelihoods and economic development; and democratic processes and local governance. We announce call for papers for each issue with a specific theme and accept the papers within the theme of the call. For instance, our first call was on ‘Mapping the dynamics of Nepal’s Transition’ while the latest one is on ‘Urbanization and disaster risks in the Himalaya’.’

Types of articles. We accept two broad types of articles i.e. research papers and opinion/commentary pieces. The research papers can include articles which are based on rich empirical data, preferably collected fresh from the field. However, rigorous analysis of secondary/historical sources will also be accepted. Shorter opinion pieces/commentary will also be accepted. All articles need to be guided by a well formulated purpose and clearly defined research questions.

Publication fee. Publishing in New Angle Journal is free of charge for authors. All content is freely available without charge and users are allowed to download the individual articles or the full issue of journal published online. The printed version of the journal can be collected by requesting to SIAS (refer to the contact details).

Peer review. All manuscripts submitted to New Angle Journal are examined by the editors and reviewed by applying the double-blind peer review method (the identities of the author(s) and reviewers are anonymized). The reviewers selected are the experts in the relevant field. Authors can expect a fast review of their submission because decisions are usually communicated within a month after the manuscript is submitted. Acceptance is based on originality, scientific excellence, and topical balance of the journal. Once the editors have accepted the manuscript, the author can expect it to be published online (officially published) within a month.

We accept submissions in English. Any queries about potential submissions to New Angle Journal can be directed to the Editors or in the contact email.

 

Announcements

Call for papers: Special issue on “Nepal’s Community Forestry at the crossroad” [Deadline Extended]

2023-11-05

New Angle: Nepal Journal of Social Science and Public Policy

Vol 10 (1), 2025

Community forestry has long been acclaimed as a successful community-based forest management model in achieving local democracy, forest restoration, livelihoods and decentralization. However, forest-people relationships conceptualized in the 1970s to develop models of community forestry have changed substantially today as new and different socio-economic conditions are emerging and forest dynamics are shifting according to the changed socio-economic processes. These social and ecological changes have also resulted changed local collective action. Nevertheless, there is limited understanding on what challenges and opportunities these changes bring for the community forestry and in what ways new collective action practices are shaping forestry in Nepal. These comprehensive and complex changes and dynamics demand a rigorous scholarly attention to understand the nature, scale and influence of such changes that will pave the way for future direction of the management of the community-based forest managements in general.

In this context, Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies (SIAS) is pleased to call for the papers covering broad and diverse dimensions of the community forestry in the changing context of Nepal for the special issue of the “New Angle: Nepal Journal of Social Science and Public Policy”. We welcome researchers and practitioners to submit research articles related, but not limited to the following themes:

  • Institutional evolution, innovations and challenges of community forestry (CF) in the changing context triggered by factors such as climate, migration, remittances etc.
  • The changing role of women, gender-based constraints (or opportunities) in the management of community forestry, particularly in the context of increasing male-outmigration.
  • Changes in the forest conditions and community dynamics and the state response to forest management.
  • Impact of socio-economic-ecological changes in participation and community collective action.
  • Institutional incentives to the community that maintain (and promote) community forestry
  • Scientific forestry and technical forest management
  • Community innovations and shifting collective action
  • Community forestry and climate change.
  • Community forestry, biodiversity and ecosystem services
  • Forest-based enterprise and commercialization
  • Changing community-forest relations
  • Democracy, decentralization and community

We hope to publish four broad types of articles, i.e., analytical research papers, opinion/commentary pieces, literary review articles and empirically oriented essays highlighting insights based on practice-based knowledge from the field. The research papers can include articles that are based on rich empirical data, preferably collected fresh from the field. However, rigorous analysis of secondary/historical sources will also be accepted. Shorter opinion pieces/commentary will also be accepted. All articles need to be guided by a well-formulated purpose and clearly defined research questions.

Please send your abstracts of 200-300 words for the research paper, review article, opinion piece or empiric reports together with a short bio of author/s of 150-200 words to newangle@sias-southasia.org by 15th December 2024 [Extended]. English is the preferred language of the publication and we are eager to publish articles in Nepali language as well. The deadline for submission of full contributions will be 1st March 2025.

Chief Editor: Dr. Dil Khatri

Special Issue Editors: Dr Govinda Paudel, Dr Dinesh Paudel, Dr Rajan Parajuli and Dr Prativa Sapkota

Managing Editor: Binod Adhikari

Read more about Call for papers: Special issue on “Nepal’s Community Forestry at the crossroad” [Deadline Extended]

Current Issue

Vol. 9 No. 1 (2024): Special issue on Women’s empowerment in natural resources management in the Himalayas

The agro-forestry entrepreneurial ecosystem that has already been strained by climate change has been further aggravated by COVID-19 and women face the major brunt of burden. Some of the impacts on women’s entrepreneurial environment include increased care responsibilities, loss of jobs, collapse of women-led enterprises and decline in entrepreneurial sales. This has had a disproportionate impact on women that cuts across different ages, castes, ethnicities, income groups and educational levels. As a result of constricting environments at the socio-cultural, political and economic domains, women’s entrepreneurial capabilities, productive work and financial resources have been constrained. In response, women entrepreneurs and researchers alike are increasingly exploring perspectives on what constitutes a gender responsive and shock resilient entrepreneurial ecosystem for women in Nepal and the wider Himalayan context, striving to better understand how such a supportive environment can be created.

These and connected issues are placed within a wider empirical context and academic debate related to gendered socio-ecologies. This special issue looks to highlight different perspectives on women’s empowerment as related to intersectional relations including gender, relations to other species as well as diverse local power relations. Insights from initiatives resulting in transformed gender relations are particularly welcome. Against this backdrop, Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies (SIAS) is pleased to call for papers for a special issue of the New Angle: Nepal Journal of Social Science and Public Policy entitled, “Women’s empowerment in natural resources management in the Himalayas”. We welcome researchers and other academics, professionals, national and international organisations, and graduate students working in Nepal and other Himalayan countries to submit their research articles in this special issue. 

Published: 2024-12-06
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