Information for Contributors

Information for Contributors

Overview

The Academy of Management Review (AMR) is a theory development journal for management and organization scholars around the world. AMR publishes novel, insightful and carefully crafted conceptual articles that challenge conventional wisdom concerning all aspects of organizations and their role in society.

Each manuscript published in AMR must advance theory or the theory development process in the area of management and organizations. Authors can achieve this objective by developing new theory, significantly challenging current theory, synthesizing recent advances and ideas into fresh theory, initiating a search for new theory by pointing out and carefully delineating a novel type of problem, or crafting ways to improve the process of theory development. AMR is particularly interested in interesting and important theoretical advances that incorporate thought from multiple disciplines and/or areas within management.

Contributors will find AMR open to many different formats and styles of presentation. Formal research propositions are not required. For all articles, a contribution-to-length ratio will be assessed, so contributors should carefully consider the length of their submission in such light. Authors should also explicitly and persuasively present the research implications of their work.

AMR does not publish reports of empirical investigations, including empirical tests of theory, case analyses, or articles primarily about data. These are published in the Academy of Management Journal. Manuscripts that are evidence based rather than theory driven and papers with a primary focus of bringing new perspectives to an academic debate should be submitted to the Academy of Management Perspectives. Finally, AMR does not publish articles about the scholarship of teaching. These are published in the Academy of Management Learning and Education.

Dialogue

Dialogue is a forum for readers who wish to comment briefly on material recently published in AMR. Readers who wish to submit material for publication in the Dialogue section should address only AMR articles or dialogues. Dialogue comments must be timely, typically submitted within three months of the publication date of the material on which the dialogue author is commenting. When the dialogue comments pertain to an article, note, or book review, the author(s) will be asked to comment as well. Dialogue submissions should not exceed five double-spaced manuscript pages including references. Also, an Abstract should not be included in a Dialogue. The Editor will make publishing decisions regarding them, typically without outside review.

Submission Requirements

When authors submit their manuscript to AMR for publication consideration, they agree to abide by AMR's publication requirements. Specifically, an author must:

Agree that the manuscript is not under review for publication elsewhere and will not be submitted to another publication entity during the review period at AMR.
Confirm that the manuscript has not previously been submitted to AMR for review. Submission of manuscripts previously published in Academy Proceedings is acceptable; similarly, prior presentation at a conference or concurrent consideration for presentation at a conference does not disqualify a manuscript from submission to AMR.
Agree that working papers, prior drafts, and/or final versions of submitted manuscripts that are posted o a Web site (e.g., personal, departmental, university, or working series site) will be taken down during the review process.

Submission of a manuscript to the Academy of Management Review also carries an implicit quid pro quo: willingness to review for AMR. The cornerstone of the editorial process at AMR is the willingness of colleagues to provide each other feedback through peer review. Authors who submit manuscripts to AMR for review are expected to reciprocate by reviewing for AMR if called upon to do so.

Any article or dialogue submission to AMR should be prepared according to the AMR Style Guide for Authors, but should omit the title page for the purpose of uploading onto the Web-based submission system. This file must contain a detailed abstract (except for dialogue submissions) and all end materials such as appendixes, references, tables, and figures. The submission must be typed using a twelve-pitch or larger Times New Roman font, with margins of at least one-inch.

To submit a manuscript, first make sure you have a Word file from which the title page and all author-identifying references have been removed. Then, go to the Web site at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/AMR/ and follow the directions. Acknowledgments of others' help in preparing the paper for submission should be included in the letter to the Editor that is featured as part of the Web-based submission process.

Publication Decisions

Publication decisions by the Editor or an Associate Editor are facilitated by reviews from members of the Editorial Board and other qualified reviewers using a double "blind" review process. Reviewers' comments are made available to authors. Manuscripts that are inappropriate or insufficiently developed will be returned to the authors without formal review for submission to a more suitable journal. Authors are strongly encouraged to seek peer review prior to submission since all decisions are final and rejected manuscripts cannot be resubmitted.

Manuscripts submitted will be judged primarily on their substantive content, but writing style, structure, and length are also considered. Poor presentation is sufficient reason for the rejection of a manuscript. Manuscripts should be written as simply and concisely as possible without sacrificing meaningfulness or clarity of exposition. As discussed above, manuscripts will be evaluated in terms of their contribution-to-length ratio - that is, manuscripts that make strong contributions will be permitted more pages than those making narrower contributions. A rough guideline is AMR papers should range between 20-30 double-spaced pages, (using one-inch margins and the Times New Roman twelve-pitch font), excluding appendixes, references, tables, and figures. However, papers intended to make very extensive contributions will, at the discretion of the editor, be allotted additional space.