Discourse SUBMISSIONS OPEN
Articles are invited for the next issue of Discourse Magazine, including but not limited to the following themes:
Why Doesn’t Industry Grow? Structural Barriers & Policy Failures
Theme overview
Despite its centrality to exports and employment, Pakistan’s industrial sector has experienced prolonged stagnation and relative decline. Manufacturing growth has lagged regional peers, large-scale manufacturing has contracted in recent years, and industry’s share in GDP continues to shrink. This stagnation is not cyclical alone; it reflects structural inefficiencies, distorted incentives, weak institutions, and chronic policy instability.
This theme invites contributions that diagnose the precise mechanisms through which policy choices, institutional failures, and political economy constraints have prevented Pakistan’s industry from upgrading, diversifying, and scaling, and that outline credible reform pathways.
Industrial Policy & Incentives
- Protection without performance: evaluating preferential tariff regimes, non-tariff barriers,
- subsidies, and industry-specific exemptions.
- Policy inconsistency and reactive industrial strategies
- Sectoral roadmaps and missed upgrading opportunities
- Incentive structures that support firm growth, formalization, and innovation
Cost of Doing Business & Competitiveness
- Energy pricing, reliability, and volatility as barriers to industrial expansion
- Regulatory Environment and Sludge
- Access to finance and private credit markets
- Capital intensity, technological modernization, and constraints to scale
Trade, Exports & Integration
- Export concentration, value addition, and productivity gaps
- Import duties and non-tariff measures as implicit taxes on exports
- Integration into regional and global value chains
Institutional & Political Economy Dimensions
- competition, bankruptcy, and land market institutions
- Governance, rent allocation, and elite capture
- Public–private coordination and policy credibility
Human Capital & Innovation
- Skill gap labor productivity, and informality
- R&D investment and academia–industry linkages
- Technology adoption and innovation intensity
- Brain drain and its implications for industrial upgrading
Submission Guidelines
- All articles must be submitted to the Editor Discourse Magazine via email at [email protected] in a MS Word file
- Article length must be between 1000 and 2500 words
- Use of Figures and Tables is welcomed. If any, please provide in an editable format.
- Any references to documents, research, articles etc. must be done in footnotes
- Authors are requested to please mention the following details at the end of article:
Name, Designation, Organization/Affiliation, Email Address, Contact Number - The deadline for submission of the articles is 25 th March, 2026.
- Authors of accepted articles are fairly compensated as per the rules and guidelines of Discourse
magazine
Editorial Policy and Guidelines for Discourse Magazine
- Purpose and Scope
Discourse Magazine aims to inform, analyse, and shape public policy dialogue by publishing insightful, evidence-based articles that meet the research and policy needs of stakeholders — including scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and students. The magazine welcomes contributions that are policy-relevant, analytically rigorous, and clearly written for a broad audience.
The magazine focuses each issue around a themed policy topic, offering general insights into Pakistan’s economy, governance, and development challenges.
- Editorial Independence
- Editorial decisions are made solely on the basis of content quality, relevance, originality, and accuracy, free from undue influence by sponsors, advertisers, partners or others. The editorial team maintains full authority over what is published.
- Contributions by the editorial board or institutional staff are evaluated under the same standards as external submissions.
- Accuracy, Verification & Fact-Checking
- Authors must ensure all factual information, data, quotations, and references are accurate and verifiable.
- When errors are identified post-publication, corrections will be issued promptly and transparently.
- Originality and Plagiarism
- Submissions must be original, previously unpublished work. Simultaneous submissions to other publications are prohibited.
- Proper citation of sources and data is mandatory; unattributed use of others’ work (including self-plagiarism) is unacceptable.
- Editors may use plagiarism detection tools to ensure originality.
- Ethical Considerations
- Content should be respectful, non-discriminatory, and sensitive to cultural, social, and political contexts.
- Personal data, confidential information, or proprietary materials should not be published without consent.
- Authors must disclose conflicts of interest, including financial, institutional, or personal biases that may influence their perspective.
- Contributions & Review
- Submissions should align with announced themes when relevant and meet stated formatting and length guidelines
- Each submission undergoes editorial review. Editors reserve the right to make substantive and stylistic edits for clarity, readability, and length, with author consultation where feasible.
- Ongoing Review of Policy
- This editorial policy should be periodically reviewed and updated to reflect evolving best practices in policy publishing and ethical standards.
Connect with the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics
Subscribe
Select topics and stay current with our latest insights
- +92 51 9248051
- [email protected]
- PIDE, QAU Campus, Islamabad