Human-AI Collaboration for Shaping Government Policy and Decision-Making

CALL FOR PAPERS

Human-AI Collaboration for Shaping Government Policy and Decision-Making

Journal: Government Information Quarterly

Publisher: Elsevier

Submission Opens: 1 September 2026

Submission Deadline: 1 November 2026

Introduction

This Special Issue focuses on human-AI collaboration as a foundation for shaping the future of government policies — with a particular focus on upstream policy design and government decision-making. Policy-making is an interactive process in which multiple stakeholders collaborate to develop plans that address societal and public issues.

The Special Issue is especially interested in how human-AI co-production of policy alternatives, scenario generation, and foresight analysis can support anticipatory and future-oriented approaches to AI-supported policy design. Furthermore, the implementation of these policies requires important decisions to be made at many different stages — based on large quantities of data. The use of AI enables higher levels of exploitation of this data, the extraction of valuable knowledge, and the construction of useful models — substantially supporting humans in making better decisions.

Central to this vision is the principle that technology augments rather than replaces human judgement in decision-making — shifting the debate from simply keeping the "human in the loop" toward designing policy ecosystems that deliberately combine human oversight with AI capabilities.

Scope & Significance

The potential benefits of integrating human-AI collaboration into government policy-making are considerable. When properly designed, AI can enable more responsive governance, improved service delivery, greater citizen engagement, and enhanced public value. However, risks and trade-offs persist — excessive reliance on agentic AI in sensitive policy domains can exacerbate inequalities, undermine transparency, or erode public legitimacy if human oversight is marginalized.

The rise of agentic AI systems — increasingly driven by Large Language Models (LLMs) and capable of autonomous action with minimal human oversight — poses new challenges around responsibility, legitimacy, and alignment with public values. In the European context, the EU AI Act provides a risk-based framework mandating stricter obligations for high-risk AI applications.

This Special Issue aims to advance theoretical and practical frontiers of human-AI collaboration for policy-making — with emphasis on anticipatory approaches and practical applications across diverse domains. Both academic and practitioner perspectives are welcome.

Submissions should include a dedicated section on implications for policy design and decision-making.

List of Topic Areas

Manuscripts are invited on themes including, but not limited to:

1. Frameworks and models for human-AI co-production of policy alternatives, scenario generation, and foresight in upstream policy design

2. Frameworks and models for human-AI collaboration in government decision-making

3. Challenges, barriers, and enablers of anticipatory AI-supported governance at local, national, and supranational levels

4. Human-in-the-loop and human-AI collaboration mechanisms for accountability and oversight in AI-supported decision-making

5. Effects of AI use on discretion in government decision-making

6. Human-centric approaches to AI governance — transparency, fairness, and public trust

7. Design, implementation, and governance of agentic AI systems and their implications for responsibility, legitimacy, and democratic control

8. Policy and governance implications of generative AI and LLMs

9. Comparative analyses of AI policy design and decision-making across countries and regions

10. Ethical and legal dilemmas in embedding AI into policy and decision processes — displacement, discrimination, and explainability

11. Citizen engagement, participation, and co-creation in the design and evaluation of AI-related policies

12. Institutional capacity-building and organizational design for AI policy and governance

13. Safeguarding public value, rights, and equity in responsible AI-supported policy-making and service provision

AI Approaches and Applications Covered

The Special Issue also covers AI approaches and applications including:

• Explainable AI and algorithmic auditing for human oversight in policy design

• Cognitive AI approaches for modelling joint human-AI reasoning and shared problem-solving

• Machine learning and deep learning for anticipatory and adaptive policy design

• Natural language processing and generation for human-AI interaction in regulation, legal analysis, and public consultation

• LLMs and SLMs for policy analysis, decision support, and co-production of strategic options

• Simulation, foresight, and scenario modelling for joint human-AI exploration of policy futures

• Hybrid human-machine systems integrating AI capabilities with human judgement

• Multi-agent systems and agent-based modelling for complex sociotechnical governance

• Optimisation and predictive analytics assisting — rather than replacing — human decision-makers

• Responsible AI tools for participatory platforms and civic engagement

Guest Editors

Prof. Vincent Charles Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom

Prof. Tatiana Gherman University of Northampton, Northampton, United Kingdom

Prof. Euripidis Loukis University of the Aegean, Greece

Key Deadlines

Manuscript Submission Opens: 1 September 2026

Manuscript Submission Deadline: 1 November 2026

Submission Guidelines

Authors are invited to submit full papers of 25-30 double-spaced pages — inclusive of text, references, tables, figures, and appendices — by 1 November 2026.

All manuscripts must follow Government Information Quarterly submission guidelines available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/government-information-quarterly/publish/guide-for-authors

Please submit all manuscripts directly through the Government Information Quarterly submission portal, clearly indicating submission for this Special Issue.

For further information or clarification, please contact the Special Issue Editors directly.

All submissions must be original and must not be under review elsewhere at the time of submission. All manuscripts will undergo peer review.

About the Journal

Government Information Quarterly, published by Elsevier, is a premier international peer-reviewed journal with a CiteScore of 18.4 and Impact Factor of 10.0. It supports open access publishing and is dedicated to advancing research at the intersection of government, information technology, and public policy. It provides a leading global platform for interdisciplinary scholarship exploring digital government, AI governance, e-democracy, and the use of information and technology in public administration.

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