7 2591-2259 / This is an open access article under the CC-BY-NC-ND license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Editorial: 20 Years – Entry into Adulthood The present issue celebrates the 20th anniversary of CEPAR. The journal was first pub- lished in 2003 as Administration, was later renamed International Public Administration Review, and adopted its current name – Central European Public Administration Review – in 2018. The name changes reflected the evolution of the journal, which initially cov- ered mainly topics and research findings related to public administration in Slovenia. The journal’s name was first changed due to more authors writing for the journal and to accommodate the English-language edition, while the subsequent rebranding in 2018 emphasised its attachment to Central Europe. Since then, the editorial policy has focused on the work being carried out by the public administration, which traces its origins and development to the Central European milieu. The journal nevertheless accepts submissions from researchers from other regions. These contributions in turn enable comparative analyses with countries in Central Europe. Another important change in the editorial policy was to allow only the publication of original scientific papers from the interdisciplinary field of administrative science. This interdisciplinarity is reflected in the diversity of research and methodological ap- proaches used in the contributions. These papers address a variety of topics and areas related to public administration, spurring further development of the discipline in the region. The journal is continuously being added to new index databases. It is now indexed in most of the major databases covering the field (Econlit, HeinOnline, CNKI Scholar, IPSA, IBSS, ERIH+, etc.), the latest being the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI). The journal’s growth and its content in particular have received widespread recogni- tion. The journal has been invited to join the CEE Network of Public Administration and Policy Journals. The Editorial Board likewise accepted the offer of the International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA) to include CEPAR on their list of journals allowed to publish contributions written by participants of IASIA conferences. Last year, the journal also joined COPE and OpenAIRE – to name just a few of its many achievements during the last two years. The Editorial Board has certainly played a large role in the journal’s success. While the Board has retained some of its original members, the membership at large is very dy- namic and made up of thirty renowned public administration experts and researchers from the region and elsewhere. These are active members who continue to promote the journal throughout their tenure, helping increase the journal’s reputation. The quality of the articles is also due to our peer reviewers, who for the past five years have been selected almost exclusively from outside Slovenia. In the two decades since the journal’s inception, the papers have been reviewed by 1442 peer reviewers. I am particularly grateful for their fast work, cooperation, and quality reviews. You helped make the journal what it is today. The main value of the journal comes from the 113 authors from 20 different coun- tries, including countries outside Europe, who have submitted their work over these 20 years. I hope you will remain faithful CEPAR readers and contributors. On its 20th anniversary, the journal can boast 56 issues and 414 articles. The number of citations has been steadily rising, with a particularly notable increase in the last two years when the number of citations increased by 100%. All this shows that the efforts put into the journal have paid off, that each and every stakeholder leaves a lasting trace on its development, and that it is increasingly being recognised for its quality. The credit therefore also goes to the previous two editors-in-chief who present some of their reflections on working for the journal below. 8 Thank you to everyone who contributes to the growth of our journal. All of you – au- thors, reviewers, members of the Editorial Board, both past and present – have helped make this anniversary possible. Special thanks also goes out to the two former edi- tors-in-chief and technical editors and to the present technical editor for their com- mitment and dedication. See you in future issues, Prof. Maja Klun, CEPAR Editor-in-Chief Reflections by Former Editors-In-Chief Prof. Stanka Setnikar Cankar (September 2003–September 2017): As the first Editor-in-Chief of the International Public Administration Review, I mainly have fond memories of the decision to launch the journal. Despite concerns that it would be difficult to gather enough quality submissions from Slovenia and abroad, the narrow editorial board and I were convinced that the only public Faculty of Public Administration in Slovenia simply had to break new ground by publishing an interna- tional journal. We needed a journal that would allow us to publish quality research papers from Slovenia, Europe and other parts of the world. Our aim was to dissemi- nate knowledge about research and scientific findings in public administration among students and employees in the Slovenian public sector. In the early years, contribu- tions mainly came from the numerous Slovenian and foreign experts on public admin- istration and the wider public sector with whom we were on friendly terms. The main sources of compelling papers on state administration, public administration, and the public sector were the international events organised by the Faculty, as well as the scientific conferences that the university teachers attended abroad. The quality of the journal was recognised in Slovenia and especially in Europe, reaffirming our belief that the journal deserved to be included in relevant international databases. We quickly began taking the necessary steps to achieve this goal, which later required changes to the structure and name of the journal. Prof. Polonca Kovač (October 2017–May 2020): I was appointed Editor-in-Chief of what was then MRJU/IPAR in 2017 and held this of- fice until mid-2020. During this period, the journal was revamped with the help of my colleagues from the Faculty, editors, reviewers and close fellow researchers involved in academic journalism (e.g. HKJU, TRAS, and NISPAcee Journal). The new CEPAR jour- nal, focused on the Central European administrative space and public governance, fea- tured a redesigned blueprint and visual identity, management structure, an integrated open-source Open Journal System, and most notably more rigorous standards for the twenty original scientific articles published each year and for the relevant preliminary peer-review and editorial processes. The aim of these updates was to attract distin- guished authors from the region, publish high-quality and topical scientific articles, and be featured in international bibliographic databases ranging from HeinOnline, IBZ, IFPL, DOAJ, to Web of Science’s ESCI and the yet-to-be-achieved Scopus indexing. CEPAR made remarkable progress in this period and established itself as a key Central European player in academic publishing. The journal is an essential pillar of the Fac- ulty’s scientific research, assuring its role as a key institution for the development of public administration and public governance in the region and beyond. We expect to further develop the journal in future by taking a multidisciplinary approach to complex administrative issues, covering areas like law, economy, management and IT. This will allow the journal and our Faculty to continue constructively contributing to the ad- vancement of good governance practices and administrative science. Editorial: 20 Years – Entry into Adulthood