Special issue on Observation Methodology in Police Research
In 2013 the European Journal of Policing Studies (EJPS) was founded. Since then many issues of this journal have been published about highly different aspects of police and policing, from very different theoretical and methodological perspectives. Special issues of the journal were published about for instance plural policing, police cultures and methodology in police research.
We are now compiling a special issue on ‘observation methodology in police research’, focusing on methodological challenges and possibilities in police research. Topics of interest concern, among others, innovative police research methods, how to study new police methods and strategies (e.g. predictive policing), ethics in police research, gaining trust, observer reactivity, pitfalls in observational methods. Overall, the special issue aims to offer insights on how to conduct police observational research, regardless of type of research (quantitative/qualitative/mixed-methods) and specific observation method (e.g. unstructured observations, SSO). Bringing together interesting methodological issues is a main purpose of this issue.
We warmly welcome ideas for this special issue. Abstracts can be submitted to the guest editors by email (elevenejps@gmail.com) and should include all authors’ names and affiliations. The abstract should be no longer than two pages, detailing the precise topic of the paper, a provisional outline of the article and the main ideas the authors wish to reflect on. If the article would be based on empirical data collection, the authors should clearly explain which methods were used and why discussing these findings/this method would be a contribution to the field of police studies in terms of methodology.
A provisional timeline is the following:
| Submission of abstracts | 12 May 2023 |
| Notification of acceptance/decline paper | 2 June 2023 |
| Deadline first version papers | 22 December 2023 |
| Receiving reviews | 8 March 2024 |
| Deadline revision papers | 26 July 2024 |
| Issue published | September 2024 |
Sincerely Yinthe Feys, Nikhaela Wicks and Ludovic De Vocht – the guest editors