Table 2

Inclusion and exclusion criteria for study selection

Inclusion criteriaExclusion criteria
Peer-reviewed journal articles, academic books, book chapters, and significant working papersEditorials, opinion pieces, non-academic articles, and doctoral dissertations (unless published as books)
Published up to February 2026Publications lacking rigorous academic peer-review or institutional validation
English languageNon-English publications
Substantive intersection of systems theory, cybernetics, or complexity theory with public administrationPurely technical studies (e.g. computer science algorithms without epistemological or governance focus)
Sufficient theoretical development, conceptual critique, or structural modelingStudies merely mentioning keywords without offering deep theoretical contribution

Note(s): Criteria applied sequentially: title/abstract screening followed by full-text review. Theoretical contribution assessed by two independent coders (see Section 3.5)

Source(s): Authors’ own work

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