Journal development: Why and how?

The purpose of this study was to examine communication clarity in calls for papers issued by peer reviewed journals for special issues. I wanted to explore what could hinder and help guest editors to communicate their intent to potential contributors. I searched peer reviewed journals in the field of human resource management published by five leading publishers, including Emerald, Sage, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, and Elsevier. Forty-seven journals were identified, and the sample included 33 calls for papers that I examined using content analysis. The results showed that many guest editors include a problem statement; purpose statement including explicative statements and specifications; and research questions, topics, or themes.Based on this result, I created a composite profile that describes how guest editors typically craft their calls, including the average number of sources, topics, and paragraphs. I also identified eight additional tools guest editors use to increase clarity of their calls. Additionally, my analysis indicated that guest editors vary greatly in their approaches to crafting calls for papers. I identified a number of inconsistencies, inaccuracies, omissions, and redundancies that could confuse or discourage potential contributors. Journal editors could use the results of this study to examine their editorial strategies and practices and revise and improve their guidelines and templates related to special issues and their calls. Special issue guest editors might use the study results to increase the chances of receiving quality submissions.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Communication clarity in calls for papers issued by journal special issues: First impressions matter

Plakhotnik

2020

“…Also, the sample included journals that conform to accepted western standards. With the rise of journals that follow different traditions (Smart, 2019), it would be interesting to examine how editors of successful non-western journals lead their journals and how they approach editorials.…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This highly competitive environment presents a challenge for top‐ranking academic journals to maintain their leading positions and for developing journals to establish their identity, audience, and reputation (Koch & Vanderstraeten, 2021; Miao & Huang, 2021; Wang et al, 2021). If ‘journal development … needs to be a perfect mix of both small‐ and large‐scale changes’ (Smart, 2019, p. 103), then attending to editorials could bring incremental improvements to advance the journal. And if journal editors serve to lead the journal, then editorials represent a practice or manifestation of this leadership.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How do editors use editorials to lead their journals? Insights from the field of human resource management

Plakhotnik

2023

Editorials have earned a special place among many practices, tools, and policies available to editors for journal advancement. Despite the vital and diverse roles of editorials in academic journals, they have rarely been systematically analysed for common characteristics or patterns. In this study, I approached editorials as a leadership practice of journal editors. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to understand how editors use editorials to lead their journals. To render a manageable set of editorials and, at the same time, to capture the latest trends, I focused on editorials published in 2022 in top journals in the field of organizational behaviour/human resource management indexed by Scopus. The sample consisted of 120 editorials found in 103 journals managed by 21 publishers. I analysed the editorials using qualitative content analysis that was guided by two research questions: (1) How commonly do editors use editorials? (2) What objectives do editors pursue in their editorials? The analyses showed that editorials appear to be neither a regular nor a common practice. An overwhelming majority of editorials were written to validate existing knowledge. The findings raise several important issues, including an unclear contribution of editorials, perceived or factual, to academic journals and the editor's role in the journal development process. Journal editors, editorial board members, publishers, universities, and organizations associated with journals should consider revisiting their policies and practices to ensure a purposeful, meaningful, and systematic use of editorials.

Has IMRD become IMRDi in management journals? Implications as an independent structural component of research articles

Plakhotnik

2021

The purpose of this study was to understand the practice of separating implications into separate sections or sub‐sections in scholarly articles that report empirical research in social sciences. Using a stratified random sampling strategy, I selected 120 articles from 40 journals in the field of management available via the Social Sciences Citation Index. I analysed the articles using qualitative content analysis that was guided by two research questions: (1) do journal articles include implications as an independent component? and (2) What guidance do journal editors provide about the presentation of implications in article submissions? The results show that 72% of articles separated implications into a section or sub‐section whilst the remaining 28% integrated them into other main sections. Of the first group, three quarters of authors separated implications into sub‐sections of the Discussion section and one quarter presented them as independent main sections that followed the Discussion. Several patterns related to the range, length, order, and type of implications sections and sub‐sections emerged. The results also showed that only 4% of journals mention implications in their guidelines for authors. Journal editors could use the results of this study to discuss the importance of implications to the journal strategic development, articulate their position on the article structure, and audit their guidelines. Researchers might use the study results to improve their article structure and, hence, increase chances of receiving positive editorial decision.