INFORMATION FOR CONTRIBUTORS

Read the JIBS Statement of Editorial Policy.

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Submission of Manuscripts

When received, manuscripts are first evaluated in terms of quality and fit with the JIBS Statement of Editorial Policy. JIBS welcomes the submission of both articles and research notes, but articles are preferred to notes.

Manuscripts are also evaluated in terms of contribution-to-length ratio. Articles making strong contributions to the international business literature should be about 10,000 words; those making narrower contributions about 7,000 words. Word count includes everything: abstract, text, endnotes, references, tables, figures and appendices. If a manuscript makes a small contribution, either the contribution should be improved, the manuscript shortened to research note length, or the manuscript submitted to another journal. It is in the author's best interests to be very judicious about manuscript length. Manuscripts considerably longer than these guidelines will be returned immediately without review.

Research notes should be under 4,000 words, including everything in the manuscript. Research notes should have the same rigor, style and tone as full-length articles. Notes should identify relevant prior research, clearly articulate their contribution to international business research, and provide compelling evidence for their arguments. Notes are different from articles in that the contribution either has a narrower audience, is more technical or more limited in its contributions, or comments on previous JIBS articles. Most research notes are originally submitted as full-length manuscripts, which become notes at the recommendation of the reviewers.

While contributions must be in English, we welcome manuscripts from authors whose first language is not English. Manuscripts must be formatted according to the JIBS Style Guide. Authors of poorly worded manuscripts are encouraged to seek professional editing assistance prior to submission.

Authors are requested to submit their manuscripts online at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jibs in MS Word (IBM-PC format) for Windows file. This file will be converted to a .pdf file when sent out for review.

If you have any questions, please contact the Managing Editor, Anne Hoekman, at managing-editor@jibs.net.

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Ethical Guidelines

Please read the JIBS Code of Ethics prior to submitting your manuscript.

When authors submit their manuscripts to JIBS for publication consideration, the authors agree to abide by the Journal's publication requirements. The manuscript:

  • must not have been previously published in whole (including book chapters) or in part (this includes paragraphs of text and exhibits).
  • must not be accepted for publication elsewhere.
  • must not be under review for publication elsewhere and will not be submitted to another publication entity during the JIBS review process.
  • must report new theoretical and/or empirical results that have not been published previously. Authors whose manuscripts utilize data that are reported in another manuscript must inform the Editor of these reports at the time of submission.
  • must not have been previously submitted to JIBS for review. If the manuscript, or an earlier version of it, was previously rejected by JIBS, and the author wishes to submit it for review, this fact and the justification for resubmission must be clearly communicated by the corresponding author to the JIBS Managing Editor at the time of submission.

The only exception to the "previous publication" rule is a paper included in a conference proceedings, where the paper is work in progress toward the manuscript submitted to JIBS. In this case, the Editor-in-Chief will need to know where the paper was presented and the title of the conference proceedings publication. JIBS will have the copyright to all published articles.

JIBS follows a double-blind review process, whereby authors do not know reviewers and vice versa. Authors should respect the confidentiality of the review process and should not reveal themselves to reviewers. For example, the manuscript should not include any self-revealing information. Authors should also not post their submitted manuscript (including working papers and prior drafts) on websites where it could be easily discovered by potential reviewers.

Manuscripts involving human subjects (surveys, simulations, interviews) should comply with the relevant Human Subject Protocol requirements at the corresponding author's university.

Check your manuscript for possible breaches of copyright law (e.g., where permissions are needed for quotations, artwork or tables taken from other publications) and secure the necessary permissions before submission. Avoid anything in the text that might be actionable, such as defamation. Avoid using sexist and biased language that could be interpreted as denigrating to ethnic or other groups; for example, use plural rather than single pronouns ("they" rather than "he").

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Choosing an Editor and Reviewers

You are required to choose an Editor for your manuscript. To make the choice easier the Editors are listed on www.jibs.net and in the front cover of the journal. At http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jibs/about.html#Editorial-team there are hyperlinks with keywords and paragraphs explaining the interests of each Editor. Please choose two possible Editors. The Editor-in-Chief will make the final selection of the Editor for your manuscript, taking into account your preferences and the workload of the Editors. On occasion the research in question may not match the interests of any Editor. The Editor-in-Chief will then invite a special Consulting Editor to process the paper.

You are asked to nominate possible reviewers for your manuscript, to a maximum of four. Please select these reviewers from the JIBS Editorial Review Board (ERB) and the Consulting Editors Board (CEB). The ERB and CEB members are listed in the journal and at www.jibs.net, where there are hyperlinks with para­graphs explaining the interests of each ERB and CEB member.

In making your selections, please follow the JIBS Code of Ethics (for example, reviewers must not have previously provided comments on the manuscript, teach at your institution, or be co-authors on other manuscripts). JIBS follows a double-blind review process, which authors are expected to follow.

The Editor will assign three reviewers for your manuscript. Normally, the reviewers will be selected from the JIBS Editorial Review Board and the Consulting Editors Board.

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Manuscript Files

You will need to load two documents onto the JIBS Manuscript Central website: (1) your Title Page and (2) your Manuscript.

The electronic file of your Manuscript should be in MS Word for Windows (IBM-PC format). Please be sure to:

  • clear the file of all possible viruses;
  • remove all information that could identify the author(s) (including Acknowledgments and contact information - they should appear only on your Title Page, which will be uploaded as a separate document - and information in the "File, Properties, Summary" menu) so that the double-blind review process is not violated;
  • start your paper with the Abstract Page;
  • place all the submission (abstract, body of the paper, tables, figures, references, appendices) in one file; and
  • use the automatic page numbering system to number ALL pages, starting with the Abstract Page.

Authors who use the tracking facility of the reviewing tool in working on successive versions of their manuscript should make sure that tracking changes are removed from the document prior to submission.

Authors should keep an exact copy of their manuscript for future reference.

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After Acceptance of Your Manuscript

To enable the Publisher to protect the copyright of the journal, authors must assign copyright in their manuscripts to the Publisher. All accepted manuscripts must be accompanied by a statement signed by all authors that the article is original, is not under consideration by another journal, has not previously been published elsewhere, and its content has not been anticipated by a previous publication. The corresponding author may sign on behalf of all co-authors.

Each author of an accepted article must submit a biographical sketch of 50-60 words. The sketch should identify where you earned your highest degree, your current affiliation and position, your current research interests, your country of birth and current citizenship(s), and an e-mail address.

Once the manuscript has been copy edited by Palgrave, the corresponding author of an accepted manuscript will receive an email containing a link to an online .pdf proof of the article. Please print a copy of the .pdf proof, correct the proof within 48 hours and return as directed. Please make no revisions to the final, edited text, except where the copy editor has requested clarification since such changes can rapidly increase production costs.

An offprint order form is sent with proofs. Charges for reprints ordered at a later date are necessarily higher.

The Journal of International Business Studies operates an advance, online publication system, whereby final, corrected papers are published on www.jibs.net every week. These papers can be available up to twelve weeks in advance of print publication. Papers can be cited using the article's Digital Object Identifier (DOI). See above for details of how to cite online articles.

More pages:
JIBS Statement of Editorial Policy
JIBS Keyword list
JIBS Style Guide
JIBS Code of Ethics