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Author Guidelines
> Read the JMS author guidelines in Chinese
> Read the JMS Special Issue Guidelines for Guest Editors
The Journal of Management Studies was established in 1963 to publish original, innovative, and high-quality papers that advance conceptual and empirical knowledge, and address practice in the area of management and organization.
By ‘advance conceptual and empirical knowledge’ we mean that papers should aim to develop strong theoretical and/or empirical insights that increase our understanding of behaviour both in organizations and of organizations in their environments. The journal attaches no priority to either the subjects of study, or the methodological approach adopted, so long as these are theoretically grounded. Our ultimate criterion for a paper’s acceptability is that it significantly contributes to the development of coherent bodies of knowledge, so that an informed reader is likely to learn something new from it.
By ‘address practice’ we mean that papers should enable practitioners, or those who teach practitioners, to gain insight into management and organization. We emphasize that the lessons for practice need to be grounded in rigorous theoretical and empirical research.
Consistently highly ranked in the Business and Management categories of the Clarivate Journal Citation Reports, the Journal of Management Studies (JMS) is a globally respected, multidisciplinary journal with a long-established history of excellence in management research. JMS publishes innovative empirical and conceptual articles which advance knowledge of management and organisation broadly defined, in such fields as organization theory, organizational behaviour, human resource management, strategy, international business, entrepreneurship, innovation and critical management studies. JMS has an inclusive ethos and is open to a wide range of methodological approaches and philosophical underpinnings.
Manuscript Processing Overview
When a paper is received the Editors will read it and decide whether to send it out to referees. Typically, this decision takes no more than one week.
The Editors are committed to providing timely and constructive feedback to authors to ensure an effective and efficient review process. When a manuscript is first received, the Editors evaluate the suitability of the manuscript for JMS. Manuscripts that do not meet these criteria or are judged to be too weak (e.g. methodological flaws, lacking relevant literature, limited theoretical contribution) may be rejected and returned to the author(s) at this point. Authors of a manuscript that is not placed into the review process with our reviewers will receive a letter with feedback on the decision and, where appropriate, with suggestions for further development of the manuscript.
Resubmissions of a manuscript rejected by an Editor will not be considered except where the Editor has indicated that a resubmission of a new, completely revised manuscript on the topic is encouraged.
For each manuscript that passes the initial editorial evaluation, the Editor will assign three expert reviewers from the journal’s editorial review board or other qualified reviewers. All submissions sent out for review are subject to a double-blind peer review process. It is therefore important that the author(s) prepare their manuscripts in such a way that the author(s) cannot be identified. Authors should avoid specific references to themselves or to their own work in the manuscript. The review process varies in length, but typically, we aim to provide a decision on the manuscript with constructive and developmental feedback to authors within approximately three months.
When authors are asked to revise and resubmit a manuscript, they are typically asked to complete their revisions within four months to keep manuscripts actively in process. However, there may be circumstances in which the authors need more time for the revisions, in which case they should contact the handling Editor or Editorial Office ([email protected]) regarding any extensions.
When authors resubmit their revised manuscript, they are asked to enclose a separate point-by-point reply to the editorial letter and to the reviewers’ comments. Where there has been no contact from the authors of a manuscript after one year, any subsequent resubmission will be treated as a new submission. Authors will, however, be notified via email if their paper is approaching this deadline. Typically, manuscripts will be revised two to four times before acceptance.
Editors at JMS endeavour to make a final publication decision after the second revision, whenever it is feasible to do so. In some cases, manuscripts may need additional revisions before an acceptance decision can be reached. As methodological rigour, theoretical contribution, and appeal to a general audience of management and organizational researchers are important features of manuscripts published in JMS, the Editor will ask the advice of a second member of the editorial team at or beyond the second revision stage to ensure consistency in the editorial decision-making process. This second Editor may provide further comments and input for the development of the manuscript, but the final decision on the manuscript remains with the handling Editor.
Once a manuscript has been accepted for publication, it will be passed for production to Wiley. When the accepted manuscripts have been received by Wiley the corresponding author will also receive an email from Wiley’s Author Services system which will ask them to log in and will present them with the appropriate license for completion. Manuscripts cannot be published until Wiley has received the signed license agreement.
The manuscript will first appear online in Accepted Articles in an unedited form with a DOI number, after copy-editing it will then be published online in Early View and finally published in print. Typically, manuscripts are published in print within a year of final acceptance.
Any queries at any point in the process can be directed to the Editorial Office ([email protected]), who will be happy to advise, update or receive feedback.
Criteria for Publication in JMS
An important expectation for publication in JMS is that articles must make a strong theoretical contribution. Meaningful new implications or insights for theory must be present in all articles, whether such implications or insights are derived from empirical research, or from the conceptual synthesis of recent advances and novel ideas into new theory. Submissions should clearly signal and communicate the nature of their theoretical contribution in relation to the existing management and organizational literatures.
Submissions may build upon or use different epistemological positions, research traditions and methods. The hallmark of JMS is its openness to approaches ranging from positivism to interpretive and critical research. However, each submission should (a) explicitly signal its theoretical and – if relevant - methodological position and (b) maintain congruity with this position in the conduct and reporting of research. We also welcome research at different levels of analysis, including individuals, groups, organizations and the networks or societies in which organizations are embedded. The openness of the journal to different approaches encourages authors to make their articles accessible to the journal’s wide-ranging readership. Whilst submissions may be focused on a particular specialized literature or set of ideas, they should be written in such a way that our general readers are able to understand the ideas and arguments presented.
Empirical articles published in the journal must be methodologically rigorous and techniques for data collection and analysis should be reported in line with the accepted conventions for a particular method. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods are welcome. However, in line with the journal’s emphasis on management practice, we do not publish empirical investigations based only on student samples or research that solely relies on models that simulate behavior within and between organizations (e.g. agent based modeling, game theory models).
Problematic elements of a study’s research design or methods (e.g. small sample sizes or a lack of controls for common method bias in survey research) are usually difficult to revise in response to reviewer concerns once the study has already been completed. Authors are therefore advised to seek peer review when they design and conduct their study as well as when they write up their results for submission to the journal.
Manuscripts and all associated files should be electronically submitted via the online portal at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jmstudies. Manuscripts must be prepared and formatted according to the journal’s manuscript guidelines. Attention to these guidelines will speed up the review process and will increase the likelihood that a submission will be favourably reviewed by the reviewers, editors, and ultimately the journal’s readers. During the submission process, authors may suggest reviewers or express a preference for a handling Editor; these requests will be considered, but remain at the discretion of the Editorial Office and Editors.
Submission of a manuscript implies a commitment to publish in the journal. A manuscript can only be submitted to JMS if it has not been published elsewhere, nor is it under consideration by another journal. Authors who are in doubt about what constitutes prior publication should consult the Editorial Office.
JMS applies the iThenticate system to all manuscripts that are sent to reviewers. By submitting your manuscript to this journal, you accept that your manuscript may be screened for overlap with previously published works.
Authors who submit manuscripts to JMS are also expected to reciprocate by serving as reviewers for the journal if called upon to do so.
Manuscript Preparation Guidelines
All manuscripts of whatever type submitted to JMS must be prepared according to the following guidelines:
- Manuscripts must be double-spaced throughout (this includes Notes and References).
- Papers should be carefully crafted and succinctly presented. The word count includes tables, figures and references. Supplemental material intended solely for review purposes, or for publication online only alongside a paper, does not count towards the word limit. Please check the stated word length of the article type you wish to submit; the allowable length of a paper is often at the Editor’s discretion, however, new submissions exceeding the stated length without justification may be returned to the author(s) for reduction before they will be considered by the Editors.
- To permit anonymity, the authors’ names should NOT appear in the manuscript. Instead, a title page giving the title of the article and full identifying information (name, address, telephone and email address) must be included separately. The title of the manuscript should be on the first page of the paper along with the abstract and keywords. Language within the text that suggests the authors’ identities should be avoided.
- Where required, the title page should be followed by an informative abstract of no more than 200 words double-spaced. A list of 4–6 keywords, in alphabetical order should be provided below the abstract. Keywords should express the precise content of the manuscript as they are used for indexing purposes.
- Footnotes should NOT be used. Endnotes should be provided on a separate page immediately following the text under the heading NOTES. Endnotes should offer significant comment, not merely cite references. They should be kept to a minimum.
- Authors must provide high quality artwork for all illustrations. Poor definition reproductions are not suitable. Tables and figures should be numbered separately. Tables use Roman numerals and figures use Arabic numerals (Table I, Table II; Figure 1, Figure 2). Each table and figure should be given a title and should be presented on a separate page at the end of the manuscript. Figures and tables reproduced from already published work must be accompanied by permission of the original publisher (or copyright holder, if not the publisher). Please indicate the position of figures and tables in the text as follows:
INSERT TABLE I ABOUT HERE
References should be listed alphabetically by author at the end of the manuscript. In the text, where the author’s name appears, the date should follow in parentheses, e.g., Mintzberg (1985). If the author’s name is not present in the text, insert it with the author’s name and date in parentheses, e.g., (Mintzberg, 1985).
Multiple references should be listed alphabetically in parentheses, separated by semicolons e.g., (Jackson, 1996; Watson, 1986).
Page numbers, to indicate a passage of special relevance or to give the source of a quotation, should appear in parentheses as (Willmott, 1992, p.12).
If there is more than one reference to the same author in the same year, postscript the date with a, b, c, etc. e.g., (Sparrow, 1998a).
Books
Choo, C. W. (1998). The Knowing Organization: How Organizations Use Information to Construct Meaning, Create Knowledge, and Make Decisions. New York: Oxford University Press.
Holliday, I., Gamble, G. and Parry, G. Jr (Eds.) (1999). Fundamentals in British Politics, 2nd edition. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Chapter in a book
Allen, D. (1988). ‘British foreign policy and international co-operation’. In Byrd, P. (Ed.), British Foreign Policy. Deddington: Philip Allen, 210–18.
Brehmer, A. and Brehmer, B. (1988). ‘What have we learned about human judgment from thirty years of policy capturing?’. In Brehmer, B. and Joyce, C. R. B. (Eds), Human Judgment: The SJT View. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Science Publishers, 8, 125–35.
Journal article
Abrahams, P. (1998). ‘Notes on the difficulty of studying the state’. Journal of Historical Sociology, 1, 15–21.
Fontana, B. (2001). ‘Gramsci on politics and state’. Journal of Classical Sociology, 2, Special Issue, 157–78.
Online only journal
Cash, D. W., Adger, W. N., Berkes, F., Garden, P., Lebel, L., Olsson, P., Pritchard, L. and Young, O. (2006). ‘Scale and cross-scale dynamics: Governance and information in a multilevel world’. Ecology and Society, 11. Available at http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol11/iss2/art8/ (accessed 29 June 2012).
In press
Bradley, S. W., Shepherd, D. A. and Wiklund, J. (2011). ‘The importance of slack for new organizations facing “tough” environments’. Journal of Management Studies, doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6486.2010.00906.x.
Axelrod, J. N. (in press). ‘Politics and poker: deception and self-deception in marketing research’. Journal of Advertising Research, in press.
Working Paper
Kang, D. (2000). Family Ownership and Performance in Public Corporations: A Study of the U.S. Fortune 500, 1982–1994. Working Paper 00-0051, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA.
Dissertation
Gnyawali, D. R. (1997). Creation and Utilization of Organizational Knowledge: An Empirical Study of the Effects of Organizational Learning on Strategic Decision Making. Unpublished PhD Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, PA.
Proceedings
Kowalik, T. (1992). ‘Trade unions attitude to privatisation’. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Privatization and Transformation in Eastern Europe, Warsaw, 15–20 November.
Web page
British Steel (2005). Annual Report 2005. Available at: http://www.bsteel.com/getfile.cfm?file=report2005&ref=1664&type=pdf (accessed 18 November 2005).
Newspapers
Klein, J. (2002). ‘How the solidarity dream turned sour’. The Guardian, 12 June, 8–9.
Authors for whom English is a second language may choose to have their manuscript professionally edited before submission to improve the English. Wiley Editing Services offers expert help with English Language Editing, as well as translation, manuscript formatting, figure illustration, figure formatting, and graphical abstract design. All services are paid for and arranged by the author; use of one of these services does not guarantee acceptance or preference for publication.
Online production tracking is available for your article through Wiley’s Author Services. Author Services enables authors to track their article – once it has been accepted – through the production process to publication online and in print. Authors can check the status of their articles online and choose to receive automated emails at key stages of production. The author will receive an email with a unique link that enables them to register and have their article automatically added to the system. Please ensure that a complete e-mail address is provided when submitting the manuscript. You will be asked to sign a publication license at this point as well as pay for any applicable APCs. Visit Author Services for more details on online production tracking and for a wealth of resources including FAQs and tips on article preparation, submission and more.
Copyright
If your paper is accepted, the author identified as the formal corresponding author for the paper will receive an email prompting them to login into Author Services; where via the Wiley Author Licensing Service (WALS) they will be able to complete the license agreement on behalf of all authors on the paper.
WALS + standard CTA or Open Access
Self-Archiving Definitions and Policies: Note that the journal’s standard copyright agreement allows for self-archiving of different versions of the article under specific conditions. You may choose to publish under the terms of the journal’s standard copyright agreement, or Open Access under the terms of a Creative Commons License.
Standard re-use and licensing rights vary by journal. Note that certain funders mandate a particular type of CC license be used. This journal uses the CC-BY/CC-BY-NC/CC-BY-NC-ND Creative Commons License.
Article Promotion Support
Wiley Editing Services offers professional video, design, and writing services to create shareable video abstracts, infographics, conference posters, lay summaries, and research news stories for your research – so you can help your research get the attention it deserves.
In cases where authors wish to change their name following publication, Wiley will update and republish the paper and redeliver the updated metadata to indexing services. Our editorial and production teams will use discretion in recognizing that name changes may be of a sensitive and private nature for various reasons including (but not limited to) alignment with gender identity, or as a result of marriage, divorce, or religious conversion. Accordingly, to protect the author’s privacy, we will not publish a correction notice to the paper, and we will not notify co-authors of the change. Authors should contact the journal’s Editorial Office with their name change request.
Original Articles (Empirical or Conceptual)
Manuscripts that are submitted to the journal for publication consideration must meet the highest standards of academic excellence and must develop a ‘value-added’ theoretical contribution to our knowledge about behaviour within organizations or about organizations and their environments. Hence, the typical JMS article is sufficiently grounded in extant theory and literature, original and innovative in its analysis and theoretical synthesis, and strong on implications for management research and practice.
Format
Paper Length: 9,000-12,000 words typically; anything exceeding 15,000 words may be returned to the author(s) for reduction before they will be considered by the Editors.
Required: Title page, abstract, keywords.
JMS Review Articles provide a comprehensive overview of a particular research field providing a theoretically-driven review and integration of an important area of research, and opening up or redirecting lines of research. The development of a research agenda and/or a conceptual framework as a guide to future research is an essential part of such state-of-the-art Reviews. In addition, the methodological approach for the review, and the theoretical implications for research should be clearly described.
Format
Paper Length: 9,000-12,000 words typically; anything exceeding 15,000 words may be returned to the author(s) for reduction before they will be considered by the Editors.
Required: Title page, abstract, keywords.
JMS Says is a regular section of JMS featuring carefully selected essays intended to catalyse new thinking. In contrast to traditional theorizing, our interest is not in extrapolating extant research to carefully construct new theory, but rather in the subjective and interpretive reflections of individual essayists on the variety and possibility of management scholarship. JMS Says are valued for being interesting and provocative, not for being ‘correct’ or for conforming to the conventional wisdom. They seek to generate new debates and discussions.
A 300 word proposal should be submitted via ScholarOne for review by the JMS Says Editors. If successful, the author(s) will be invited to submit a full draft. JMS Says receive only editorial review. Please note that, in order to ensure that a wide range of voices are heard, if authors have previously had an essay accepted at JMS, then there will be a three year period from the date of acceptance, in which the authors may not submit another essay proposal.
Format
Proposal Length: 300 words.
Paper Length: 3,000 words.
Required: Title page. No abstract or keywords. References should be used sparingly. There should be no footnotes or endnotes.
The ‘Point-Counterpoint’ section captures a current debate about management or organizations. Articles in this section debate theoretically and empirically challenging issues or topics, synthesizing recent advances and ideas into fresh theory and/or new methodological approaches. The initiative for the development of a ‘Point-Counterpoint’ may come from the editors, the journal’s editorial board, or through an informal proposal from prospective authors to the editors.
A proposal describing the relevance, scope and contribution of the debate, including the different positions of the respective authors on the issue or topic and the proposed outcome of the debate should be submitted via email to [email protected]. Proposals should consider not only the Point article, but also the CounterPoint article(s) and who would write them. The proposal will be reviewed by the Editors and, if successful, the author(s) will be invited to submit a full draft. PCPs typically receive only editorial review. It is expected that a Point-CounterPoint will also form the basis of a JMS Dialogues online event.
Format
Proposal Length: no more than 5 pages typically
Paper Length: 9,000-12,000 words typically for a Point; ~7,000 words for a CounterPoint.
Required: Title page, abstract, keywords.
Commentaries – currently closed to submissions
Commentaries bring together a number of world leading academics to share their thoughts on a specific topic or disciplinary focus with the intention that the collected ideas and suggestions will represent an important contribution and source of inspiration for academics working in these areas.
Format
Paper Length: 3,000 words typically.
Required: Title page, no abstract or keywords.
A Special Issue is a refereed collection of articles on a predetermined theme. The theme typically focuses on an area of inquiry that has not been sufficiently explored in management literature, and that is sufficiently broad to be of interest to JMS readers. The editors are particularly keen to support Special Issues that address a previously neglected theme, or develop new or distinctive lines of research, as opposed to ‘generic’ presentations that provide an undifferentiated outlet for an already existing set of themes, or established lines of research. Should your proposal be accepted you will be asked to sign this agreement with JMS regarding the behaviours expected of Guest Editors.
There are specific guidelines for the development of a Special Issue proposal, which you can read below. The team of Guest Editors for the Special Issue handle all manuscripts from their initial submission; they assign reviewers, and they make decisions (reject, revise, conditionally accept) and communicate those decisions to the lead authors. Once the Guest Editors have papers that are nearing acceptance they will forward the papers to the General Editors of JMS for approval before the papers can be accepted.
JMS considers proposals for Special Issues once a year; the closing date is 31 March every year. The JMS Editors will return a decision on your proposal within one month of receipt.
Your proposal should be no more than five pages (excluding points 5 and 6, and references) and contain:
- Executive Summary.
- Justification for why the Special Issue is needed.
- Explanation of why the issue is particularly suitable for JMS.
- A proposed timeline.
- Backgrounds of the proposed Guest Editors, including visibility on the topic in question, and editorial experience.
- A list of scholars who may be interested in submitting or acting as potential reviewers for your special issue.
Should your proposal be accepted you will be asked to sign an agreement with JMS regarding the behaviours expected of Guest Editors.
If your proposal is approved, you will receive a decision letter providing feedback on your proposal and you will be assigned a JMS Editor. After the approval decision, the JMS Editor will join your editorial team to work with you on your Call for Papers and, eventually, on your Introductory piece. The JMS Editor will also provide advice on any issues that arise. JMS has a policy of involving a second editor when papers have gone through one or two rounds of revision to ensure consistent quality. The JMS Editor for the Special Issue will act as the second editor for all papers. Before any papers can be formally accepted, they must be signed off by the JMS Editor.
Once the Call has been released and prior to the submission deadline, a meeting will be arranged between the Guest Editors, the assigned JMS Editor and/or members of the Editorial Office. This is intended to allow the opportunity to discuss any potential ideas related to the Special Issue, answer any queries, and to facilitate future communications between all those working on the Special Issue.
It is important to note that Guest Editors are not permitted to publish papers in the Special Issue apart from the introduction, nor may they commission content. In some cases, one paper may be commissioned, but only with the prior agreement of the JMS Editor; anything commissioned without prior discussion and approval from JMS will not be published.
Guest Editors are expected to ensure that the work done on the Special Issue reflects JMS standards. Regular updates may be requested, regarding the status of papers under review, in order to assist with this.
The submission process will be the same as for regular papers via JMS’ ScholarOne submission portal. All decision letters must provide high quality feedback, although we recognize that some papers may be so wide of the mark that very little is possible.
It is understood that some papers may require longer to develop than the timing of a Special Issue allows, or that, while showing potential, do not fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Please discuss these cases with your JMS Editor, who may invite the author(s) to submit to JMS directly.
A Special Issue should aim to be ready for publication within three years of the submission deadline. In order to be published, Special Issues should contain no fewer than five papers including the Introduction; Special Issues that do not reach that minimum level may become a Themed Section or be incorporated into a regular issue.
JMS will work with Guest Editors to increase the visibility of the Special Issue in the months leading up to the submission deadline and once it has been published.
What JMS will do:
- JMS will circulate your Call for Papers to the JMS Editorial Board, targeted mailing lists, and relevant AoM mailing lists. It will also advertise your Call on the JMS and SAMS websites and other social media platforms. It will re-issue the Call at appropriate intervals.
- Once the Special Issue is published, announcements will be made to the JMS Editorial Board, targeted mailing lists, and relevant AoM mailing lists as well as on the JMS and SAMS social media platforms.
- Gratis PDF copies of/access to the Special Issue will be made available to up to 50 people nominated by the Guest Editors.
What is expected of Guest Editors:
- We expect that Guest Editors will circulate the Call for Papers within their own personal networks, social media groups, and at any relevant conferences or workshops they may attend.
- If it has not already been suggested as part of the proposal, consideration should be given to organizing a conference or workshop either to generate submissions or to aid in the development of submitted papers. A symposium or PDW at a well-known conference may also be considered. Up to £10,000 is available from JMS for this purpose, on provision of a detailed plan for the use of the funds. If it is being held at a Guest Editor’s institution, it would be expected that the host institution would provide funding/facilities in kind.
- We expect Guest Editors to identify up to 50 scholars for whom the Special Issue will be particularly relevant, who may serve as potential reviewers, and to whom JMS can offer complimentary access to the Special Issue once published.
Process Guidelines for Special Issue Editors
- When a paper is received via the JMS ScholarOne portal, the Editorial Office will check the submission to ensure everything required is present. If a Guest Editor receives a submission directly, the author should be directed to submit via ScholarOne. It will then be passed to the JMS Editor overseeing the Special Issue who will then allocate the papers to Guest Editors in accordance with discussion relating to conflicts of interest, etc.
- Once the Guest Editor has received the submission, they should read and evaluate the paper, checking to see whether the author(s) have used the same dataset as in other work and whether the paper is sufficiently differentiated from previous work published elsewhere. The Guest Editor then makes an initial decision: desk reject/out for review. JMS turnaround time is one week from receipt to an initial decision.
- If it is a desk reject, the editor returns a letter to the author(s) making it clear, politely, that the paper is being rejected and why. There are a number of templates available within ScholarOne, which all require additional information to be included. It is recommended that Guest Editors discuss with the Editorial Office team or overseeing JMS Editor if in doubt as to the content or tone of their letter.
- Desk rejections may be redirected to the regular paper submission process only if the rejection is based solely on lack of fit. Where a paper being rejected on the basis of quality, or on quality and fit, then the paper may not be redirected to the regular submission process.
- If the paper is being sent out for review, the Guest Editor should select at least six suggested reviewers. The office will run the paper through iThenticate to check for plagiarism issues and will raise any concerns with the relevant Guest Editor.
- Papers that go out for review are refereed by three people, using a double-blind peer review process. The review process is operated via ScholarOne with oversight by the Editorial Office team and the Guest Editor will typically not need to do anything substantive until all the reviews are in, unless further reviewer suggestions are required, in which case the office will notify the editor accordingly.
- It is expected that Guest Editors will draw reviewers from within their own networks, their knowledge of the field, from the pool of potential scholars listed in their proposal, from the bibliography of the paper under review, and from the suggestions of reviewers who decline.
- Once all the reviews are in, the Guest Editor will make a decision to either reject the paper or invite the author(s) to revise and resubmit, and construct a letter. The JMS turnaround time for this decision is three weeks.
- If it is a rejection, the file will be closed.
- If it is a revise and resubmit decision, then the office will monitor the process and in most cases the editor will need do nothing more until the paper is resubmitted.
- If a paper is to be invited for a 2nd revision, then it will be reviewed by the JMS Editor assigned to your Special Issue as per standard practice for JMS. A JMS Editor review can be requested earlier in the process if the Guest Editor is uncertain about the paper.
- Once a paper is accepted, the editor merely has to notify the office of such and it will take the process from there.
Additional Notes
At JMS, Editors are not vote-counters, while we ask for three reviews, these are advisory in nature; obviously the Editor will take each of the reviewers’ opinions and points into account, however, he or she is not bound by their recommendations.
Decision Types and Times
Desk Reject (Turnaround Within 1 Week)
By far the most common decision and the most common reasons for it are: beyond the scope of the journal; fatally flawed data or methodology; lack of contribution; student sample; or simulations.
Reject and Resubmit / Unsubmit (Turnaround Within 1 Week)
Essentially this is where the paper has potential, but also has a flaw or issue that would lead to it being rejected out of hand by the reviewers, but which the Guest Editor believes can be fixed within the current paper. Examples could be faulty methodology or lack of clarity in the methodology; poor English; general lack of clarity regarding contribution; excessive length (over 15,000 words). If the issue is something that can be quickly addressed then the Unsubmit option should be used, clarifying what needs to be done. If the issues are more substantial and will require more than one month to address, then this would likely involve a transfer to the regular run of JMS submissions. There is no commitment to send the resubmitted version of the paper out for review.
Review (Turnaround Within 1 Week)
The paper has potential and should be sent out for review. The office will monitor this process and notify the Guest Editor should any issues arise. The office will also check the paper using iThenticate to detect any plagiarism or overlap issues.
Revise and Resubmit (Turnaround Within 3 Weeks)
The paper may/will reach publishable standard once revisions are made. A paper may have multiple rewrite decisions; the average is three, but papers can vary widely in their developmental trajectory. The Guest Editor should provide guidance for the revision, particularly if the suggestions of the reviewers are contradictory. Typically the authors are given four months for the revisions, however, depending on the nature of the requested changes, the Guest Editor may specify more or less time.
Rejected After Review (Turnaround Within 3 Weeks)
The paper is unlikely/cannot reach publishable standard even with revisions. This may occur after the first round of reviews if, for example, the reviewers identify unfixable flaws in the paper or the extent of the revisions required would result in a new paper. This may also occur later in the process, after several revisions and rounds of review, if the authors are unresponsive to the Guest Editor’s requirements, or the revisions reveal a previously hidden flaw with the paper.
Conditional Acceptance (Turnaround Within 3 Weeks)
A revise and resubmit decision where the changes to be made are relatively minor and the second editor has at least seen the paper if not necessarily signed off on it. Likewise, the reviewers may or may not have signed off at this stage, although typically most of them will have. A paper may receive more than one conditional acceptance depending on how they have responded in their revisions.
Acceptance (Turnaround Within 3 Weeks)
The paper has passed the reviewers and the Editors and reached the threshold for publication as confirmed by the JMS Editor. No letter is necessary as a standard template exists containing all the necessary processing information, but this can be adapted if the Guest Editor would like to add any particular comments. Once this decision has been made the paper passes out of the Guest Editor’s hands and enters the publication process managed by the Editorial Office and Wiley’s production team.
As a Guest Editor of a Special Issue of the Journal of Management Studies, we expect that you will abide by the terms outlined below, which help to facilitate and safeguard the excellent reputation and the smooth running of the journal.
- All Special Issues must include one JMS Editor on the editorial team.
- The Special Issue Call must be open to everyone and Guest Editors should circulate the Call within their personal networks, social media groups, and at any relevant conferences or workshops they may attend.
- Guest Editors are not permitted to commission content for the Special Issue. In some cases, one paper may be commissioned, but only with the prior agreement of the JMS Editor; anything commissioned without prior discussion and approval from JMS will not be published.
- Guest Editors must conform to the requirements of the editorial process contained in the Process Guidelines for Special Issue Editors document.
- Guest Editors may not publish in their own Special Issue, with the exception of the editors’ introduction.
- They must uphold the journal’s code of ethics and ensure that any conflicts of interest are noted and dealt with appropriately.
- They must be responsive to other editors, the office staff, and journal contributors.
- They must respond to communications within an appropriate timeframe and in a professional and respectful manner.
- They must respect strict confidentiality in the review process, and dealings with contributors.
- They must ensure the high academic standards of the journal are maintained by ensuring that the review process is fair, and as unbiased and timely as possible.
- Guest Editors who consistently fail to meet JMS editorial requirements will have their performance reviewed by the JMS Editor in consultation with the other Guest Editors on the special issue. If an issue persists, the Guest Editor may be subject to sanctions, up to and including removal from the Special Issue team.
- All papers for a Special Issue must be approved by the JMS Editor before they can be accepted by the Guest Editors. The JMS office will issue the formal acceptance letter.
- Special Issues that accept only four papers or fewer (not including the introduction) may become a Themed Symposium, or be incorporated into a regular issue.
- Papers that show potential, but are rejected due to issues of fit may be directed to submit to JMS directly, provided the JMS Editor involved with the Special Issue agrees.
- Papers that are rejected due to lack of quality/contribution may not be redirected or transferred to JMS.
- Guest Editors are, in relation to the Special Issue, ambassadors for the journal so must ensure that they uphold its quality in all communications with different stakeholders, including authors, reviewers and other members of the management research community.
- All decision letters must provide high quality feedback, although we recognize that some papers may be so wide of the mark that very little is possible.
- Guest Editors should consider organizing a conference or workshop either to generate submissions, or, if it is to take place after the submission deadline, to aid in the development of submitted papers. A symposium or PDW at a well-known conference may also be considered.
- Up to £10,000 is available from JMS for this purpose, on provision of a detailed plan for the use of the funds. If it is being held at a Guest Editor’s institution, it would be expected that the host institution would provide funding/facilities in kind.
Guest Editors should identify up to 50 scholars for whom the Special Issue will be particularly relevant, who may serve as potential reviewers, and to whom JMS can offer complimentary access to the Special Issue once published.
